Heritage by Hand is proud to have a long-term relationship with Carla Fernandez. The eponymous Mexican brand is now exhibiting at the Denver Art Museum through September 5th
Carla Fernández Casa de Moda: A Mexican Fashion Manifesto is the first exhibition to fully explore the career of Mexican artist and fashion designer Carla Fernández, founder of the eponymous fashion brand in May 2022. The acclaimed Mexico City-based fashion brand, established in 2000, is a couture house that aims to bring new meaning to the luxury world as an agent of social and ethical change and innovation.
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Taller Flora mobile laboratory—Carla Fernández’s traveling studio—meets with Indigenous communities throughout Mexico at the invitation of artisan cooperatives that create handmade textiles and crafts. Over time, Fernández has learned and witnessed how these master artisans draw upon oral history and transmission of techniques. She collaborates with the artisans in the creative and production processes, creating contemporary designs for the global market. Carla Fernández Casa de Moda explores how the design house links ancient and contemporary techniques.
The fashion house collaborates with these master artisans, who specialize in handmade textiles and indigenous techniques, which have been transmitted from generation to generation through oral history. The techniques learned from artisan communities, such as manual weaving or embroidery, are then integrated into Fernández’s new pieces and collections.
“Every culture has its own way to work with clothing and I think that’s very interesting,” Fernández said. “I love to translate that through our collections.”
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Fernández’s love for both fashion and history developed early in her life. Her father used to be a director of anthropological museums throughout Mexico. As a girl, Fernández witnessed the style of indigenous Mexican communities and found her inspiration.
“I was looking at the people that live in the indigenous communities and I said, this is fashion. These women and these men know how to dress and how to express themselves,” Fernández said.
To unify sacred tradition with creative innovation through fashion design, Fernández prioritizes having a good working relationship with her collaborators.
“In order to teach, we have to learn,” she said about the collaborative process. “It’s very important to go and meet your collaborators and understand them.”
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Heritage by Hand carries Carla´s iconic charro jackets as well as the bedding collection.
