Como Si Fueran Dioses: The Brand Rewriting Latin American Fashion with Humor, Heart, and Heritage

Some brands are born in boardrooms, others are born out of necessity, frustration, and love. The brand co-founded by Valentina Elarba,Como Si Fueran Dioses (CSFD), is the latter – a raw, emotional, and fiercely intelligent response to the way Latin America is often flattened, stereotyped, or simply ignored in the global fashion conversation.

Co-founded by three best friends, Alexandra, Isabella, and the voice behind this story, Valentina Elarba, CSFD emerged not just as a clothing line, but as a thesis, a manifesto, and a deeply personal reclamation of identity. “It started as our thesis at Parsons,” Valentina recalls. “We’d been working on the concept for over two years. It was born from a need to create a brand that truly represented the spirit of Latin America, which we felt was totally missing in the traditional fashion space.”

Breaking and Rebuilding the Latin American Narrative

At the core of CSFD is a bold, unapologetic mission: “We wanted to either subvert or exaggerate the clichés and stereotypes tied to Latin American fashion.” This isn’t fashion for fashion’s sake, this is cultural dissection with fabric and thread. The brand deliberately toys with tropes, weaving them into thoughtful contradictions. “Como Si Fueran Dioses is a contradiction in motion. It’s the disarmed, exorcized idea of Latin America.”

Every collection is a question in disguise: What does “modern” mean when it’s usually code for Western pop culture? Is “Latin America” even a real category, or just a convenient label that erases complexity? With every drop, CSFD peels back a layer of myth, exposing what lies beneath, sometimes humor, sometimes memory, often both.

From Caracas With Love

Though the trio is now based internationally, their creative heart beats in Caracas, Venezuela. It’s not just a hometown; it’s the brand’s muse. “This brand is a way to research and celebrate our origins and the spirit they give to everything we make,” Elarba says. That spirit is palpable in every detail, from the imagery to the packaging. When you get something from CSFD, “it’s not just about clothes; it’s about the feeling. Every order is a love letter.”

Their design process reflects that reverence. It begins with what she describes as “a collage of ideas that seem like a joke, but the kind that hits a nerve.” Think El Galán, Miss Venezuela, Catholic iconography, ‘80s telenovela characters, all transformed into nuanced, emotional garments through obsessive research, meticulous patternmaking, and a sharp eye for detail. “When your concepts are dense, your tailoring has to be razor sharp or the whole thing just looks messy. (We’ve learned that the hard way.)”

A Brand Built on Emotion

It’s this mix of rigor and irreverence, intellect and intuition, that makes CSFD feel so singular. While many brands try to appeal to everyone, CSFD speaks directly to “really emotional people. People who love to laugh. Curious people—about their own culture and others too.” The brand’s clients aren’t just consumers; they’re co-conspirators in the act of reimagining what it means to be Latin American.

Humor is a central tool. “We don’t take ourselves too seriously, even when we’re talking about serious things,” she explains. That delicate balance, emotion, critique, and play, is what gives the brand its soul. It’s a place where poetry and pop culture collide, where satire meets sentiment.

Growth Without Losing the Magic

Scaling a brand with such a personal ethos isn’t easy. But for CSFD, slow growth isn’t a flaw, it’s a feature. “We don’t compromise on quality. Ever,” Valentina emphasizes. “Our brand expands in the same direction we do – organically, intentionally.” Collaborations are chosen with care, and market expansion is guided not by spreadsheets but by emotional resonance: “We go where we’re already going, the stores we love, the places we visit, the people we’re inspired by.”

Even as they grow, the team holds fast to the idea that commerce and creativity can, and should, coexist. “There’s power in making something financially viable without compromising the message or the quality. It’s not easy, but it’s possible.”

A House, A Homecoming

One of the most poignant milestones for CSFD came last December, when they took over an abandoned house in Caracas and transformed it into a retrospective exhibit. “We decorated it with old furniture, it felt like an altar to the everyday,” Valentina says. The space served as both an archive and a shop, but more importantly, it was a love letter to their roots. “It sold out. But more importantly, it felt like we had brought the brand home.”

Looking Ahead: Summer, Selfhood, and Subversion

Their upcoming summer drop, El Verano Eres Tú, is perhaps their most personal yet. Inspired by childhood summers in Caracas, marked by trips to Florida and the performance of aspiration, it dives deep into the tension between imported status symbols and authentic self-worth. “It was a chase for identity through objects,” she says, referencing the often-overlooked cultural displacement of globalization.

The collection is anchored by two powerful ideas: “pop mata poesía” and “el verano eres tú.” One critiques how Western culture has overwhelmed local expression; the other reclaims agency, asserting that transformation and beauty were never in the objects—they were always within.

A Brand Like No Other

What sets Como Si Fueran Dioses apart isn’t just the clothes – though those are stunning. It’s the emotional architecture behind the brand. The way it turns fashion into research, nostalgia into elegance, and jokes into revelations. It’s a brand that dares to ask hard questions but answers with silk, laughter, and love.

And maybe that’s what makes this team, and Valentina, extraordinary. They don’t just make clothes. They make culture tactile. They make memories wearable. And they do it all without losing themselves.

“We care so much,” Valentina Elarba says simply. “Every little thing matters to us and I think that shows.”