Profile
Carolina Obregón holds an M.A. in Fashion and Creative Sustainability from Aalto University School of the Arts, Design, and Architecture in Helsinki, Finland, an A.A.S in Fashion Studies from Parsons School of Design, and a BA in Fashion Design from Taller Cinco in Bogotá, Colombia. Before starting her academic career, she worked in the international fashion industry for over 15 years. In 2014, she designed, developed and implemented the first undergraduate program in Sustainable Fashion & Management in Latin America at Jorge Tadeo Lozano University (Bogotá) and became its first program coordinator and professor. She was assistant professor at Universidad de los Andes (Bogotá), her teaching and research focused on biodesign, BioFashion, sustainable fashion, and textiles, with a circular economy and disruptive thinking approach. Under her direction Carolina's students won the Biodesign Challenge competition in New York on three occasions: in 2018 Stella McCartney & PETA Special Challenge with Woocoa, the vegan wool; in 2019 overall prize with NanoFreeze, a protein-based refrigeration system and in 2020 MANA The Future of Beauty Special Challenge with Linneo, a bio-nutricosmetic obtained from fungi biopigments. She is part of the startups NanoFreeze and E.biodye (bacteria-based textile dye).
Degrees Held
2012 M.A. (Art and Design), Aalto University, School of Arts, Design and Architecture, Helsinki
2009 Bilingual Education Certification, Colombo-American Institute, Bogotá
1995 A.A.S. (Fashion), Fashion Studies, Parsons School of Design, New York
1992 B.A. equivalent, Fashion Design, Taller Cinco Centro de Diseño, Bogotá
Recent Publications
"Preparation, Extraction, and Processing of Water-Retted Cannabis Sativa L. Fibers," Journal of Natural Fibers, Taylor & Francis, Jan. 2023: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/15440478.2023.2166647
“De la sostenibilidad al biodiseño: cambiando paradigmas en el ecosistema moda” in Estudios de la moda en Colombia, 2022, Ed. UTADEO, Bogotá
Patent, PCT/IB2021/053817, BIO-NANOCOMPOUND AS AN AGENT FOR NUCLEATING AQUEOUS-BASED COMPOUNDS AND PRODUCTION METHOD THEREOF, presented 11/11/2021, Inventors: Pulido Espinosa, Isabel; Camacho Sarmiento, Diana Paola; Calderón Arias, Laura Camila; Angulo López, Juan Carlos; Osma Cruz, Johann Faccelo; Danies Turano, Giovanna; Obregón Tarazona, Carolina
“El legado de Anni Albers desde sus mentores Latinoamericanos” in Bauhaus Reverberada, 2021, Ediciones Uniandes, Bogotá
“Disrupting Biodesign Through Different Mindsets” in Biodesigned, 2021, (Cowritten with Giovanna Danies, Biodesign Challenge.org publishers, New York
Performances and Appearances
2022 Invited speaker, “Biodiseño: Cambiando Paradigmas en la era del Antropoceno,” Insitituto Humboldt & Ecopetrol, Bogotá, Colombia, June 29
2022 Invited speaker, “Cambiando Paradigmas por medio del biodiseño,” Universidad del Desarrollo (virtual), Santiago, Chile, Colombia, June 15
2021 Invited speaker, “Fashion response-ability: re-fashion/bio-based futures,” U. luav di Venezia (virtual), Dec. 2
2021 Invited speaker, “Verdes Futuros” for La Malpensante Moda (virtual), Nov. 18
2021 Invited speaker, “Biodiseño y Biomateriales” for Local Chile (virtual), Oct .11
2021 Invited speaker, “Bioinnovación y Startups” for Comité de Sostenibilidad, Colombia Government, (virtual), Sept. 15
2021 Invited speaker, “Bioinnovación” for al HILO La Silla Verde, (virtual), Aug. 26
2021 Invited speaker, “Trabajando para organismos vivos y humanos” for EXMA ResEarth (virtual), June 16
2021 Co-director & speaker, Symposium for Biodesign Challenge, (virtual), Apr. 15
2020 Invited speaker, “No se puede estar medio embarazado” for Economía circular en la moda y fibras textiles sostenibles, in Ibagué: Negocios y Moda (digital conference) Nov. 12
2020 Invited speaker, “Economía Circular” for Ixel Moda, (digital conference), Oct. 20-23
2020 Invited speaker, “El legado de Anni Albers hasta la sostenibilidad en la moda Latinoamericana”, for La influencia de Bauhaus en el diseño de producción de las artes audiovisuales , Alcaldía Bogotá, (digital conference), Oct. 20
2019 Chair, “Biodesign Disrupter for Dystopia” for The Day After Cumulus Conference, Uniandes, Nov. 1, Bogotá
2019 Chair, “Systems Thinking & Sustainable Design” The Day After Cumulus Conference, in Uniandes, Nov. 1, Bogotá
Research Interests
Biodesign, sustainable fashion, biomaterials, synthetic biology, systems thinking
Portfolio
Carolina Obregon
E.biodye
NanoFreeze