Mercedes Arocena & Lucia Benitez

Lucia Benitez is a Uruguayan textile and fashion designer, who graduated from the university of Centro de Diseño Industrial (known today as EUCD) in Montevideo.

Since 2007, Lucia began her career as a designer, working for local companies in the apparel sector. One of distinct companies she is currently working for is Manos del Uruguay.

Manos del Uruguay is a collective of nonprofit artisan women in rural Uruguay, who came together to utilize the country´s wool resources, creating high quality hand knit garments and accessories.
Manos del Uruguay is not only a renowned brand but also promotes social and economic development and has been a proud member of the World Fair Trade Organization since 2009.

She also has developed some independent projects/collections as a designer, which obtained different recognitions:

Resolana: A collection which obtained the special prize at Lumina 4th edition (2010).
Lumina is the biggest and most respected local fashion competition for students and young designers which is organized by Punta Carreras Shopping.

Nintai: a mini collection co-created together with Mercedes Arocena as a graduation thesis project. Nintai was presented to the international design competition ITS10 (International Talent Support) where it was included within the trend report.
Nintai was also chosen as the image of the first edition of MoWeek and selected to be part of the catalog About Change 2011– part of World Bank´s program to support artists and designers from Latin America and The Caribbean -

Dominga: a mini collection co-created together with Mercedes Arocena. Dominga was the result of research on the wool fiber. In November 2013 Dominga was awarded with the Dinamica Chic & Green award at Mittelmoda, Milán, Italy. This prize was given to the best collection made with natural fibers or sustainable materials at Mittelmoda which is a major international design competition. In addition, Dominga was chosen as the image of the Moweek AW14 which is a main fashion event in Montevideo.

In addition to her career as a designer, Lucia has also taught classes at the EUCD and has joined her colleague and friend Lucrecia de León in 2010 to create Laurel – a brand of leather accessories – Project that won the support of the Uruguayan National Agency of Research and Innovation (ANII).