Fashion designer describes childhood on ranch

>>> back at 8:46. this morning on "celebrating la vida latina ," an up-and-coming fashion designer who is experience includes more horses than fabric. this fashion designer grew up more than 5,000 miles from new york city . born and raised on her family's ranch in uruguay .

>> been there since the early 1800s before uruguay was really uruguay so it's quite a special place to grow up.

>> what was it like growing up, the goucho life on this ranch in uruguay ?

>> all i knew was ranching, horses, cattle, sheep, i rode horses all my life.

>> even as a little girl surrounded by horses and sheep gabriela gravitated towards fashion.

>> i've drawn shoes and dresses since i'm a little kid, and i remember watching cinderella for the first time and, you know, that scene where they make the little mouse with the dress, i went to my grandmother lace sleeping gowns and cut them up.

>> so you have been living the cinderella story in a way.

>> yes, yes, yes, i think so.

>> her cinderella story began in 2004 when a t-shirt company in brooklyn and just $700.

>> my mom on a horse, and she's very like natural. used to ride rodeo, so with did an illustration based on that image and then we created it on t-shirts.

>> from t-shirts to her present day collection for her brand she called candela.

>> a hispanic name that means light. has different means all across america. in the caribbean it's like there's enough life and where i come it's a light, joyful name.

>> and that joyful spirit is captured in her clothes. these shoes are based on an embride which which my grandmother did in the tunic collection.

>> she's shown her collection at new york fashion week three times.

>> describe it me that your feeling of showing you're mainstream. you're there with donna karan and marc jacobs .

>> the excitement, the day of the show i'm very relaxed. i've done all the work, and now i have to enjoy the moment.

>> what does being a latina designer mean to you?

>> it means following other great latina di designers.

>> "harper's bazaar" featured gabriela in their magazine this month.

>> this is a very tough business to crack, and i think what's so wonderful about gabriela is now candela is beginning to make a mark in the fashion world, and it's now one that top fashion editors are noticing.

>> and this city girl still goes back to the countryside.

>> i go very often. i have a working ranch there with my brothers, so, yeah, it's my second job. that's my dad with his whole goucho regalia, his big mustache obviously.

>> he's a real goucho?

>> he was.

>> he tattooed her father's ranch symbol on her wrist so she wouldn't forget where she came from, an her designs prove she never strays too far.

>> we are an american brand with a uruguayan designer.

>> and-for-more an gabriela and other designers as well head to nbclatina.com. up next, country star tricia yearwood cooks up some southern favorites, but first, this is "today" on nbc. >up