In Venezuela, a fashion workshop has been repurposed to produce shrouds

At Efraín Mogollón’s fashion workshop in Venezuela, black has replaced the brightly coloured threads once destined for dresses: the workshop is now sewing body bags for the victims of Venezuela’s twin earthquakes.

“We were literally in shock; it’s a tragedy, but we wanted to help by doing what we know best: sewing,” the fashion designer told AFP as he walked among the ruins of La Guaira, which was struck on June 24 by two earthquakes of magnitude 7.2 and 7.5.

Efraín Mogollón, 44, put his team to work, he explains. “We started making body bags.” Seeing the epicentre of the disaster “completely changed my perspective- not only mine as creative director, but that of the whole team,” continues the man who launched ByEfraínMogollón 15 years ago in the city of Maracay, in the state of Aragua, in central Venezuela.

His signature pieces, featuring large ruffled sleeves and draped skirts, have earned international recognition and appeared on prestigious catwalks. But the workshop’s 22 seamstresses have put away the silk, linen, taffeta and cotton, and have turned to 500‑micron high‑density polyethylene, as well as a coated, fluid‑resistant fabric, to make body bags measuring 3 metres long by 90 centimetres wide.

“A way of coping”

Black bags, to which they have affixed an image of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, now stand alongside the display mannequins. “It was hard when we were told what we would be doing. But at the same time, we feel we’re doing something good,” says Grismary Villegas, 21, her hands on her machine as she stitches a bag with dark blue thread. “It’s a way of coping with this pain.”

She has been working in the workshop since she was 17, following in the footsteps of her grandmother and aunt. She has been sewing since she was eight.

“Lots of people are offering their support, and that’s what matters- staying united as a country in the most difficult times,” she adds, hoping that soon “we won’t need these bags any more.”

By Monday, the Mogollón workshop had made a thousand. Half were donated to doctors and mortuaries, the other half directly to rescue workers and families.

Faced with overcrowded hospitals and the mortuary, the government has set up a makeshift chapel of rest in the silos at the port of La Guaira. It has also expanded a cemetery to bury hundreds of as yet unidentified victims of the two earthquakes, which struck within a minute of each other and claimed more than 4,700 lives.

The UN, which has announced the delivery of 10,000 body bags, estimates that there could be as many as 50,000 missing persons. For Andrea Vizcaíno, a 38‑year‑old doctor, the designer’s work is “a necessary evil.”

“I can tell you it’s helpful for families,” adds Carlos Solórzano, a 44‑year‑old volunteer who has been searching through the rubble of the social housing blocks in La Guaira since the third day after the earthquake.

While visiting the shelters where thousands of people are crammed together, Efraín Mogollón identified another need: tarpaulins to cover the floor and roof of the tents. His workshop has already started producing them.