Carla Fernández is one of the most recognized fashion houses in Mexico. He works at the forefront of ethical fashion worldwide, documenting and preserving the rich textile heritage of indigenous communities and other popular and urban communities in their country.
Her designs are created in creative and productive collaboration with more than 175 artisan weavers, embroiderers, woodcarvers, furriers, fretworkers, and dyers from 15 states of the Mexican Republic that use traditional techniques and processes that derive in contemporary fashion.
The work he has done in collaboration with Mexican artisans has been exhibited individually in museums such as the Denver Art Museum, the Victoria & Albert Museum in London, Isabella Stewart Gardner in Boston, Museo Anahuacalli, Museo Jumex and Museo Franz Mayer in CDMX, Fábrica San Pedro in Uruapan Michoacán, Heath Ceramics in San Francisco, RISD Museum in Rhode Island, SCAD Museum in Savannah, among others. Also adding more than 30 collective exhibitions of which Woman in Fashion at the Peabody Essex Museum, Landscapes of Design, Women at the Heart of Domaine de Boisbuchet in Fracc Centre-Val de Loire, Design in Feminine, among others.
She was also part of the 2022 edition of Nomadic Nights of the Cartier Foundation for Contemporary Art in Paris.
Her ethical fashion project has won awards such as Design Visionary 2018 awarded by Design Miami, Prince Claus Award 2014, Fashion Entrepreneur of the Year by the British Council and was nominated for the Beazley Designs of the Year 2019; is a member of the Ashoka network of social entrepreneurs. Likewise, the brand is certified for being socially responsible by Empresas B/B Corp.
She has published three individual books and more than 15 non-brand publications.
The pillars of the brand were developed in the format of a manifesto known as “Manifesto of Fashion in Resistance” as a response against Fast Fashion and in promotion of fair and ethical work within the fashion industry from the 10 points that make up:
- Being original is going back to the origin: Learning from traditional techniques instead of separating ourselves from them.
- Fashion is not ephemeral: Production of garments that last. The best design is not the one that disintegrates, but the one that survives.
- Tradition is not static: Tradition is not suspended in time, in towns and communities, fashions changes and evolves, creativity is alive, not canceled and gives rise to new and unexpected designs.
- The Square Root: Return to the manufacturing techniques of our roots through the use of the manufacturing system of indigenous Mexican garments. We are interested in this pattern system not only for its vernacular content but also for its construction and architectural quality.
- The land is the origin of the textile: Manual work converts the fibers in tissues. The designs are conceived with the body and mind in an organic process. The earth manifests its generosity in our garments. Its color and textures tell stories.
- In true luxury there is no oppression: Our notion of luxury is based on admiring the fine and delicate artistic wealth that comes from the hands of artisans. No to anonymous manufacturing, no to the captivity of the imagination for the exclusive benefit of commerce.
- Every body is beautiful and exudes vitality: These two principles should be exalted in a dress that celebrates the diversity of all silhouettes. In this variety of forms we visualize moving sculptures that transmit and occupy the street.
- The client as collector: By collecting fragments of the Mexican textile tradition, our clients become custodians.
- Be one, and be many: Being a company means learning every day from others and from oneself, knowing our limits and being surprised by our ability to expand them. Dreaming of growing and working to achieve it.
- The processes are a legacy: Our garments tell the hidden stories of Mexico. To understand their complexity and beauty, it is necessary to make visible the artisan techniques by which they come to life and exalt the work of the artisan.
