Here’s Your Exclusive Preview of the Latin American Design Stores Opening in La Cosecha

Nova Bossa and Zona E Home will carry fashion, furniture, home goods, jewelry, and more.

WRITTEN BY MIMI MONTGOMERY  | PUBLISHED ON 

By now, you’ve probably heard all the buzz about La Cosecha, Union Market’s Latin American sister market that’s slated to soft-open with a party September 7.

Most of what you’ve probably heard is about all the food and drink destinations that will be there, like Colombian chef Juan Manuel “Juanma” Barrientos’ high-end restaurant El Cielo and the juice bar-meets-cocktail spot Serenata+Zumo from Daniella Senior of Colada Shop.

But there will also be two Latin American retail stores opening in the new space: Nova Bossa, a fashion and design brand by Brazilian-born Carolina Furukrona, and Zona E Home, a furniture and home goods store founded in Colombia by Paula Sierra.

Washingtonian got the early details on both stores, which you can check out during the soft-opening celebration.

Un artículo que me da mucha felicidad y orgullo.
An article that makes me proud and happy.
Paula Sierra

Zona E Home

Paula Sierra started her home design store out of her own home in Medellín, Colombia. She’d have guests over for coffee or snacks, and she’d show them her curated collection of coffee tables, candles, vases, and other home items. Eventually, she opened a brick-and-mortar store that also houses her events business.

But, despite her own impressive sense of style (seriously—check out some of these weddings she’s planned), Sierra credits the La Cosecha store to her daughter Lusiana Arango.

The current George Washington University sophomore was an intern at Edens, the development company behind Union Market and La Cosecha, when she heard they were looking for Latin American designers. She showed them her mom’s Instagram, and the rest is history.

But it doesn’t hurt that Sierra feels DC is just the right environment for the first US location of her brand.

“[A lot of the home stores in DC] are either too big or too small,” she says. “Too big that you don’t feel charisma or help from the people, or too small that you don’t have big things.”

She thinks Zona E is the perfect in-between. “We have a mix.”

Although she carries items from all over the world (think India, Thailand, Brazil), she says the curatorship is “100-percent Colombian.”

She’ll also offer interior design services on-site for all types of clients, she says. Zona E’s services are set into tiers: “Be” focuses on someone moving into a home by themselves, “Two” is for a newly-living together couple, “Together” is for a family home, “Light” is geared toward a quick refresh, and “Do” targets workspaces.

And, if things go well, she plans to open more stores in the US—like, a lot more. “I plan to have 10 stores. It’s just beginning,” she says. “I love to work.”