Living the American dream
> The Honduran ‘dreamer’ triumphing on New York catwalk
his collection was inspired by the late Mexican singer Juan Gabriel.
Campos is not a “dreamer” in the current political sense – he was not part of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which the Trump administration scrapped last year, leaving 690,000 so-called “Dreamer” immigrants under its protection at risk deportation as early as March if Congress fails to act.
He has legalised his status in the United States.
“I sympathise with them because I lived this situation for many years,” he tells AFP of the Dreamers. “It’s very sad to see them in that situation – we all deserve an opportunity.”
As a child, he dreamed of heading to Rio de Janeiro, because he loved Brazilian football.
But in the end, he chose the United States, where he arrived after a difficult journey through Guatemala and Mexico – a time when his parents thought he was dead.
‘SPECIAL’
When he arrived, he was arrested but escaped to Miami and then New York, where he was dazzled.
The son of a tailor and low- income dressmaker, he found work in a Brooklyn tailor shop at age 15, finished high school at night – and then set out to succeed.
Along the way, there were ups and downs, such as the September 11, 2001 attacks – the very day of his planned fashion week debut.
“It was horrible – we had to cancel everything. It was my first collection and all my savings were wrapped up in it,” he said.
Fashion week was scrapped as the emergency response took center stage.
As a child, Campos’s parents could not afford to give him money to buy food at school. But his mother always sent him off in a well-ironed shirt, telling him, “Look how handsome you are.”
“That gave me a certain selfesteem,” he says.
“I felt special and now I’m not obese,” he joked about the missed snacks at school.
Inspired by his mother, Campos set up the “1 White Shirt For Honduras” programme, which this year donated 3,300 white shirts to school children in his birth country.
Just over a year ago, he inaugurated the country’s first fashion university, named after him. It already has 97 students and the designer is convinced that Honduras – despite poverty, violence and corruption – “can have a fashion industry.” – AFP Relaxnews