Few words about my country

I almost never talk about what is going on, fashion-wise in my country, Mexico. A few years ago there was an important youth movement, with awesome parties, as well as interesting new music performers and subsequently designers. Creatively, those years were really important and I think they elevated the status of Mexico City, to a place where you could feel something big going on. I don't feel that there was any other underground scene in Latin America like we had those years 2005-2008 in Mexico.

Designers Marvin and Quetzal had their moment as well as the later created brand TEAMO, so did Mancandy and finally, Temores. Quetzal unfortunately died on 2008, and I am not trying to say this was the only reason, but somehow the party was over. Designers now have to face the serious bussiness aspects of creating a well-sustained brand, that was popular among their pals in a small group, but now needs to be succesfull not only inside the country but most importantly, out, since we as customers have no knowledge of other fashion that is not Abercrombie, Hugo Boss and Armani. We don't even recognize what's a designer's brand and what's regular retail. This vast talent explossion we have couldn't achieve to became mainstream, so now each one needs to take thier own path in order to achieve success.

It's also essential to mention that fashion publications in Mexico have featured mexican designers on the few editorials that they produce, but I think that what the industry would need from the press it's also the possibility to feature designers profiles, so as a reader you can get to recognize who they are, and what they have to offer. Perhaps magazines should be the most interested in having a platform where they can showcase their work, like Vogue used to support Mercedes Benz Fashion, because being a national edition of an international magazine could also help a designer gain some recognition in and outside Mexico.

We've had fashion events that succesfully manage to emulate a Fashion Week (we had our own fashion week edition, which no longer exists), and that's the way we can see on a runway Mexican designers work; DFashion, Mercedes Benz Fashion Week and going on as I type International Designers Mexico (IDM). I'm writting this because my next post will be a short run through the Fall 2010 collections presented on IDM, and I want you to know where I'm coming from.

The photos are from Blink June 2008.
Styling: Marvin y Quetzal
Photo: Abe Atri