Colombian-born designer Esteban Cortazar held his first show at New York Fashion Week as a 17-year-old, then went on to become the youngest person to helm a Parisian couture house at the age of 23.

Born in Colombia and raised in Miami, Cortazar’s introduction to fashion came through the glamorous world of 1990s South Beach which counted Gianni Versace as one of its residents. Cortazar learned the ropes hanging around the workshops of Miami’s seamstresses and patternmakers as a fashion-obsessed teenager before making history in 2002—at age 18—as the youngest designer ever to present at New York Fashion Week.

“When I was 17 it was about showing that I wanted to be a designer and that I could achieve it. My designs at the time were very Miami – it was colourful, with prints and sexy as hell. I always knew I wanted to celebrate woman and make her beautiful, but I didn’t know exactly what I wanted to say,” he recalls.

Cortazar was then offered the role of creative director at French couture house Emanuel Ungaro where he worked for two years before Net-a-Porter founder Natalie Massenet approached him to create an exclusive capsule collection for the online retailer in 2012.

“With Net-a-Porter it was all about immediacy and that was the strategy we wanted to put into place.”

Now in his third season, his spring summer 2015 equestrian-inspired collection will be available at 4 very soon.

Read the full post on Elle.com.