Queen of the brides in Colombia

"We all want to be here. Colombia is a country that is looking up," wedding gown designer Rosa Clará said in Bogota during the recent opening of her first store in Colombia, a country where she is planning to expand with three more outlets. She decided to open her first sales point in the Colombian capital rather than the historic city of Cartagena on the Caribbean coast, which is the fashionable place for famous Colombian women to get hitched. "They get married in Cartagena, but they buy the dresses in Bogota," she explains.

The is the first time that Rosa Clará, known as the queen of the brides, has visited Bogota, expressing surprise at the number of Spaniards in the country. "Colombia is commercially attractive. There's no doubt about it. Latin America is a natural market for Spain," she says as she inspects the new store, which is situated in the upmarket district known as the Zona Rosa (Pink Zone). She has been told that there are entire neighborhoods of Spaniards living here who see Colombia as a good country to do business.

It's been a busy year for the designer. In March, she opened her first store in the United States. In the Americas, she already has outlets in Mexico, Panama, Costa Rica, Guatemala and Brazil, and a total of 147 in 60 countries. Clará explains that when she first started up the business 18 years ago she already had a global outlook. "We started out in Spain with our own stores, then the franchises came along in the rest of the country and international expansion followed through multi-brand stores."

But the business is also feeling the effects of the crisis. "Miami helped offset things; we've sold a lot of party dresses there," she says, referring to her line of luxury wear. During the preview of her 2014 wedding collections at the 15th Miami Fashion Week earlier this year she received the Bridal Designer of the Year award.

Although of course it is hard to predict with certainty, she is confident the Bogota store will take off. The opening was attended by members of the local jet set and on the very first day of business she sold six wedding gowns and six party outfits. She highlights the fact that Colombians, like Spaniards, and indeed Latin Americans as a whole, appreciate quality and are prepared to pay for it. "In Latin America, brides used to go to dressmakers, with the risk of not knowing how the gown was going to turn out. We offer more variety and more options," she says.

After the Bogota opening, she is now casting her eyes over other markets in the area such as Venezuela, Peru, Chile, Ecuador, Honduras and Mérida in Mexico.

Clará attributes part of her success to the fact that an increasing number of stars want to wear her designs and Colombians and Latin Americans are no exception. On the list of Latin American celebrities who have worn her outfits are Paulina Fox, the daughter-in-law of the former Mexican President Vicente Fox, and the singer Paulina Rubio, who has used three of her dresses. Colombian celebrities who have also been drawn to her designs include Sabina Nicholls, the daughter-in-law of the former president Andrés Pastrana, who hired her to design her wedding gown. The ceremony held in February in Cartagena was considered the wedding of the year and Clará's design caught a lot of eyes. But the designer has her eyes on one particular Colombian star: "Shakira would be our dream."