PARIS — Having recently designed costumes for the Miami City Ballet, Esteban Cortázar pivoted to a really different project: a summer capsule collection for French soccer team Paris Saint-Germain.

Launching Thursday on PSG.fr, on Goat.com and in all PSG stores within the U.S., France, Asia and Qatar, plus the 574 Lab boutique in Medellín, Colombia, the trouble is known as “Paris Latino,” reflecting Cortázar’s adopted fashion city and his roots in Colombia.

“I’ve all the time been so inspired by my culture, so I’m very excited each time I get a probability to design around it,” he said over Google Team from Miami. “We kept it easy, but interesting — and with soul.”

Cortázar decided to collaborate with a spread of artists, artisans and specialty ateliers across Latin America, leaning on Chilean designer Mario Faundez of Studio El Guerrero for patchworks and embroideries; Colombian collective Popular de Lujo for prints and graphics, and El Salvador’s Sequence, which recruits youth from gangs and uses craft as a rehabilitation tool, to create funky bracelets.

“There’s little mini stories throughout the project which have plenty of meaning,” Cortázar explained.

He enlisted Cheboards in Costa Rica to create a surfboard, Matamba in Colombia to weave beach bags, and France’s Rebond to use Popular de Lujo prints to an official soccer ball.

The apparel skews sporty, festive and simple to wear — including sweatshirts, hoodies, linen shorts, camp shirts and blousons. The PSG logo, with its stylized Eiffel Tower, mingles with tropical birds and plants. Colourful drawstrings are among the many small, eye-catching details.

Fabien Allegre, chief brand officer of PSG, said the club sought a method to “express our closeness to the South American community from a creative viewpoint.”

He lauded Cortázar’s work for spreading “positive energy” and a “joyful and colourful message, with a touch of bohemian chic.”

A fashion wunderkind, Cortázar showed during Latest York Fashion Week in 2022 when he was only 17, moving to Paris five years later to helm Emanuel Ungaro for a short while. He’s operated an eponymous brand on and off for a few years, putting it on ice in the course of the pandemic to explore recent design challenges like ballet costumes, and soccer merch.

Individually this week, PSG said one in every of PSG’s star players, Argentine World Cup winner Lionel Messi, would depart the club over the summer at the top of his contract. Other PSG players hailing from Latin America include Neymar, Angel Di Maria, Leandro Paredes and Keylor Navas.