Looking for unique gifts from Ecuador that your friends back home will absolutely love? If you love bold, one-of-a-kind designs then Vulgomaestre Ethno-Urban have the perfect souvenirs for you.
Vulgomaestre: Modern Design Highlighting Ecuadorian Traditions
Since its founding in 2010, Vulgomaestre has been wowing Quiteños with innovative and evocative designs highlighting cultural icons like Aya Huma and national treasures, like the Andean Condor and George, the famous Galapagos Tortoise. When we lived in Quito, their shop was always our first stop for buying gifts. Even after we moved back to the US, we searched out their small shop on our trips back.
Co-founders Yadira Bonilla and Luis David Guachamín, partners in life and business, are proud of their ethno-urban style:
We are the first independent design brand with an ethno-urban style of Ecuador. Our work is a blending of the ancient and popular cultures of our land with irreverent new urban trends. We are ethno-urban designers, Proudly Ecuadorian!
Are they irreverent, you ask? One of our favorite designs is of the Virgin of the Panecillo but instead of standing atop her loaf-of-bread-shaped hill, she is the Queen of Rock, guitar in hand, standing on top of a towering mound of skulls.
Love Blue-Footed Boobies? How about one getting ready to catch a wave on his surfboard?
Are you a fan of Kentucky Fried Chicken? Then you will love Rosita Frie Cuyes (Rosita Fries Cuys), the Ecuadorian-Ethno-Urban version of Colonel Sanders.
These artists take the most ubiquitous of Ecuadorian culture and turn it into urban art that can be taken home at an affordable price. Their limited edition items are constantly being replaced with new… that means if you see something and like it, buy it. It may not come around again. Perhaps my favorite piece is a t-shirt I bought last year with an image of a Spectacled Bear wearing spectacles… probably because his glasses look a lot like my own!
If you would like your own irreverant t-shirt or other memento, you’ll want to visit their store!
Thanks, Ang. Certainly up our alley graphically these days.
Tanner would love these guys… and I’m beginning to meet more artists that are working in similar but unique ways. Just bought a devil pillow (big round and red) with the story of Cantuña (https://notyouraverageamerican.com/2013/09/17/cantuna-the-man-who-tricked-the-devil/). The artist who made it also makes other pieces (pillows, purses, bags) and all while using Ecuadorian culture and history in different ways.