Olga Fisch Folklore: a treasury of Ecuadorian crafts and traditional design

On Avenida Colón, in the Mariscal neighbourhood, there stands a dark grey cubic building. Inside it, you’ll find a local crafts store, a museum of ancient artefacts, and a space for young Ecuadorian designers.

This is Olga Fisch Folklore — a unique project founded in 1942.

Behind its creation lies the remarkable story of one woman — an artist who opened Ecuador’s eyes to its own heritage.

A collector from childhood

Olga Fisch was born in Budapest in 1901. Her father dealt in fine Chinese porcelain, while Olga, almost as a counterpoint, began collecting simple objects from Hungarian villages at the age of twelve — folk art that few people at the time considered worthy of attention.

In Düsseldorf, where Olga studied painting, she met her first husband, a sculptor. Together they moved to Vienna, where Olga began working as a ceramic designer.

Then came a divorce, a return to Germany, and a new marriage to Bela Fisch. Together they travelled through Morocco and Algeria, where Olga assembled another collection — this time of North African folk art.

Sadly, she lost both collections. The Hungarian one was destroyed when her brother’s house in Budapest was bombed. The North African one went down with the ship that was carrying her belongings to Ecuador.

After that, she swore she would never collect anything again.

In the mid-1930s, Olga and her husband left Germany, fleeing Nazism. For several years they drifted: Africa, Brazil, the United States… Settling in the US proved impossible — the immigration quota for Hungarians was full.

And so, on the advice of a diplomat friend, the Fisches set off for Ecuador. In 1939, the couple settled in Quito, and Olga began teaching at the local school of fine arts.

Never say never

One day, on a street in Quito, a man approached Olga trying to sell her a silver tupo — a traditional sun-shaped pin used to fasten ponchos. Olga could not resist and bought it.

And from there, there was no stopping her. Olga travelled across the entire country: the Galápagos, the jungle, the mountains, the coast — and everywhere she found unique crafts, textiles, and ornaments.

At the same time, she continued drawing herself, turning the patterns she discovered on her travels into sketches for rugs.

Ecuadorian society in the 1940s did not share her enthusiasm: an educated European woman, an artist — interested in things made by Indigenous communities. She was even criticised for it, but she paid no attention.

In 1940, an advisor from the Smithsonian Institution — the world’s largest museum, education and research complex — happened to be in Quito and saw her rug sketches.

He commissioned a rug from Olga for 300 dollars — a serious sum at the time. With that money, Olga opened a store in Quito, where she sold her own rugs alongside carefully selected pieces of local craftsmanship.

Over time, Olga’s rugs with Ecuadorian ornamental motifs entered the collections of MoMA, the United Nations and the British Museum. And through exhibitions in Europe and the United States, the rest of the world discovered Ecuadorian craft.

The store and the method

In 1950, Olga built a dedicated Bauhaus-style building for her store on Avenida Colón.

Here, under one roof, she brought together what previously could only be found in remote villages: textiles, jewellery, rugs, naïve painting.

But Olga was not simply a reseller. She worked closely with artisans, gave ideas, suggested improvements, but never interfered with the creative process itself.

Her goal was to help craftspeople improve the quality of their work without disrupting their own traditions and methods.

After Olga’s death in 1990, the store passed to her nieces, and today it is a family business run by the fourth generation of women.

But after more than 80 years, the principle has not changed: direct collaboration with local artisans and designers, joint production with craft workshops, no imports and no fakes.

What’s in store?

Step inside Olga Fisch Folklore and you won’t know where to look first. Rugs, clothing, bags, jewellery of every kind, tableware, ceramics, homeware, cushions, throws, handmade Panama hats.

Everything is made in Ecuador, most of it in creative collaboration with artisans from different communities.

There are bright linen kaftans embroidered with traditional ornaments; cotton macana shawls woven on a genuine treadle loom; ponchos woven in the in-house atelier; and shigra bags hand-plaited from sisal fibre and toquilla straw — the very same straw used to make Panama hats.

The unique rugs, designed by Olga herself and invited artists, are hand-knotted from Ecuadorian sheep’s wool using the Turkish knot technique — 65,500 double knots per square metre.

Part of the store’s space is given over to young Ecuadorian designers. Here you can find denim clothing printed with Olga Fisch’s original illustrations, knitwear with symbolic Andean landscapes, alpaca sweaters, and woven pieces: bags, hats, accessories.

More than just a store

Olga Fisch never stopped collecting, and by the end of her life she had assembled a large personal collection: archaeological artefacts, colonial art, and ethnographic objects.

After her death, a floor was added above the store to house a unique public museum with hundreds of remarkable exhibits — from ancient clay figurines to traditional folk costumes.

It is absolutely worth going upstairs to discover Ecuador’s extraordinarily rich culture, with roots that go back thousands of years.