Just like in 2016, this year’s Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week San José was declared by the Costa Rican President Luis Guillermo Solis and the Minister of Culture a “cultural interest” event.

The event announced this week the list of 43 models selected to take part of the 2017 Fashion Week that will take place August 2-5 at the Real Intercontinental Hotel.

According to Leonora Jimenez, director of Traffic magazine and organizer of the event, the casting had the participation of 220 candidates some of which came from other Central American countries and they even had a virtual casting to consider participants from Dominican Republic and Colombia.

Among the 43 selected models 10 will be participating for the first time in the MBFW and there are several participants under 20 years-of-age, the youngest being 17-year-old Costa Rican model Fatima Pinto. The “oldest” model selected is Omar Boninsegna from Hight Select Models Management who is 43 years-old.

Jennifer Lang, Fabrizzio Berrocal, Daniel Moreira, Cinthia Monge, Rob Chamaeleo, Consuelo Melo and Maria José Castro are the national designers whose work will be showcased in this fifth edition of the Mecedes-Benz Fashion Week.

Some of the models selected include: Ximena Loranca, Fátima Pinto, Valeska Casasola, Mariella Conejo, Ivonne Cerdas, Francesca Tretti, Amalia Chávez, Ana Lemus, Zoe Polson, Nadine Maxwell, Hellen Morales, María José Bonilla, Alejandro Morera, Sebastián Pieper.