Carla Fernández's Spring/Summer 2017 collection

(Image: Paula Lobo)

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Dance, Fashion, and Traditional Textiles Intersect in Carla Fernández's Fashion Show at Americas Society

Inspired by Mexican healing and shamanism traditions, the “Dances and Ceremonies” collection was presented at the Society’s landmark building.

The “Dances and Ceremonies” collection shines through in a live performance
by contemporary dancers and choreographers Silas Riener and Rashaun Mitchell.

New York, October 26, 2016—On Tuesday October 25, Americas Society and the Mexican Cultural Institute of New York hosted a groundbreaking performance in which Mexican fashion designer Carla Fernández presented her Spring/Summer 2017 collection at the Society’s landmark building on Park Avenue. The event featured a synthesis of fashion and dance featuring Silas Riener and Rashaun Mitchell, who wore the costumes and choreographed a performance inspired by Fernández’s signature clothing, rooted in Mexico's textile traditions and pre-Hispanic techniques.

The “Dances and Ceremonies” collection by Carla Fernández is inspired by Mexican healing and shamanism traditions involving care, silence, chanting, and dancing, which are also found in medicinal ethnographic practices. As opposed to a conventional fashion show, the “Dances and Ceremonies” collection was presented at an intimate event conceived in collaboration with New York City dancers and choreographers Riener and Mitchell, formerly with the Merce Cunningham Company.

“There is such a thing as a Mexican Revolution in fashion and textiles, a system in which the clothes are made by a community and have a different rhythm. Rather than being inspired by artisans, we work directly with them designing and producing clothing that is sumptuous—in both the creative and the technical sense—with methods that have been in use for thousands of years,” said Fernández. “We have also developed a visual pedagogy to work with artisans who don’t speak Spanish in which we communicate through images along the entire creative and production process.”

A contemporary fashion designer with a background in art history, Fernández has become a pioneer in the study of the indigenous dress form and its reformulation from a design as well as a production standpoint. Her creations update the Mexican tradition of clothes making, challenging the reduction of vernacular traditions as folk art and introducing a methodology that departs from the logic of industrial production characteristic of the Western fashion industry.

“The collaborative effort of the designer Carla Fernández and dancers Silas Riener and Rashaun Mitchell belongs to an avant-garde tradition that dates from the Bauhaus, when creative exchanges between dancers, musicians, artists, and artisans—often triggered by a sense of community—produced outstanding experiences beyond the disciplines of the fine arts,” said Americas Society Visual Arts Director and Chief Curator Gabriela Rangel. “Being aware of this lineage, Carla’s work is never limited to the making and presentation of beautiful or originally designed garments, which she does anyway. However, it is through her interdisciplinary approach to fashion that Carla Fernández blurs the lines between the temporalities that define the concept of progress between the West and the rest of the world.”

“Carla Fernández's work represents Mexico in all its diversity and aesthetic force. Her collections masterfully combine traditional techniques and materials with the sobriety and innovation of modern fashion, generating content that is also typical of contemporary art,” said Mexican Cultural Institute of New York Executive Director Caterina Toscano. “Carla’s garments epitomize Mexican creativity as a timeless experience, which is expressed as a responsible, respectful, and cosmopolitan lifestyle anchored in the richness of handicrafts.”

Press inquiries:
mediarelations@as-coa.org| +1-212-277-8384 | +1-212-277-8333.

Americas Society is the premier organization dedicated to education, debate, and dialogue in the Americas. Established by David Rockefeller in 1965, our mission is to foster an understanding of the contemporary political, social, and economic issues confronting Latin America, the Caribbean, and Canada, and to increase public awareness and appreciation of the diverse cultural heritage of the Americas and the importance of the inter-American relationship. Americas Society Visual Arts program boasts the longest-standing private space in the United States dedicated to exhibiting and promoting art from Latin America, the Caribbean, and Canada; it has achieved a unique and renowned leadership position in the field, producing both historical and contemporary exhibitions.

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