Colombia Ex-Combatants Turn War Skills Into Fashion Brand

Women who once fought in Colombia's civil war are now stitching together something unexpected: high fashion and reconciliation.

Katerine Avella, a former FARC combatant, launched the fashion brand Ixora from a small sewing workshop in Catatumbo, one of the programs created after Colombia's 2016 peace agreement. She and other former fighters started by making sweatshirts and uniforms, learning a trade while supporting each other in a region still marked by violence.

Everything changed in 2021 when the UN Verification Mission connected Avella with Lina Garcés, a fashion boutique owner from Cúcuta. Garcés had personal reasons to hesitate because her family had been kidnapped during the conflict, leaving painful memories.

But when Garcés traveled to the jungle workshop, she found something she didn't expect. The women who had learned to sew by mending uniforms and boots during wartime now had the precision and skill of professionals.

For fifteen days, they worked together on designs inspired by the Ixora flower, which blooms year round in Catatumbo and symbolizes resistance. They created wraparound skirts with vibrant prints that told a new story, one of hope instead of war.

By late 2021, Ixora held its first fashion show at a library in Cúcuta. Conflict victims and former combatants walked the same catwalk together, modeling the collection.

At a later event, Garcés publicly shared her family's kidnapping story for the first time, with Avella listening. "For me, today they are sensitive women who want to move forward," Garcés told the audience. "There was forgiveness. Now I want to support them so we can live in peace."

The skirts sold through Garcés's store and caught the attention of other designers. Ixora appeared at fashion shows across Colombia and made three consecutive appearances at Colombiamoda, the country's most important textile fair.

The Ripple Effect

The partnership between Avella and Garcés shows how reconciliation works in practice. Former enemies became collaborators, and skills learned during conflict became tools for peace.

The brand created economic opportunities for women who might otherwise struggle to reintegrate into society. It also gave victims like Garcés a path toward forgiveness and healing.

Then violence returned to Catatumbo in January 2025. Social leaders and ex-combatants were murdered, thousands of families fled their homes, and the women stopped coming to the workshop out of fear.

The sewing machines sit idle in Caño Indio while the women wait for a safer location in rural Cúcuta. But just as the workshop closed, news arrived that Ixora had been officially registered as a trademark in Colombia.

The women chose not to celebrate during the crisis, but they didn't give up either. Ixora just won a contract with Colombia's Agency for Reincorporation and Normalization to provide self-care and psychological support to other women.

The brand is evolving from making clothes to making space for healing, proving that peace really must be sewn stitch by stitch.