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 News Around the Republic of Mexico | January 2007 
Mexican Designers Work Local Tradition Into Their Pieces
 Kimberly N. Chase - Associated Press
| | In Acapulco Naomi Campbell donned Mexican designer Eduardo Ramos' slinky smudge-print string-strap slip-frock with strategic sliver removed. (Reuters) |
From a distance, the black woolen jacket created by fashion designer Carla Fernandez looks like a simple, ordinary blazer. The difference is in the details: bright, multicolored dots embroidered to a piece that combines age-old Indian sewing techniques with an innovative, modern cut.
Fernandez, one of six designers at the Local clothing boutique in Mexico City's trendy Condesa neighborhood, works with women in the southern Mexican states of Chiapas and Oaxaca to create a product that is local in its use of indigenous design, but also made for a modern woman who wants something stylish.
"What I wanted to do was to use their methods to do something that was very sexy and very appealing to this market," she said.
Fernandez is just one example of several young talents in Mexico City looking to make it onto the international fashion stage by offering modern designs with a clear Mexican flavor.
"The next step has to be Mexico, in a way," Ferandez said, noting that Colombia, Brazil and Argentina have already attracted a fair amount of attention.
The designs are found primarily in small boutiques for now, with department stores continuing to stock European or American clothing.
Fernandez started to form her style while working at a Mexico City Indian culture museum that has since closed. There she noticed the prominence of squares and rectangles in the clothing of Mesoamerican cultures.
"I thought it could be a great thing to try to explore this concept of making clothing and making fashion," she said.
To help make her clothing, Fernandez works with nongovernmental organizations in Chiapas and Oaxaca to organize groups of women in sewing groups that double as public health education seminars. The women work with the designer to develop ideas for each piece, she said. They are paid per item, and can also benefit by preserving traditional techniques while making clothes for their own children.
"They are very happy because it's like making a new story every day," Fernandez said.
Her typical customers are artists, actresses, and others who "dare to dress differently," she said. But they're also people who can afford it - that little black jacket is priced at the equivalent of about $240 and the pleated skirt goes for about $120. |
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