Carla Fernández (MX)

Fashion as Resistance

August 8th – August 14th 2021

The Workshop

The designs we are going to make in this workshop will be a combination of garments and protest signs, incorporating text and graphics that uses the language of pickets, banners, and other agit prop.

The visual resolution will be at the service of a content that we'll choose collectively as one part of our workshop will discus the social, environmental, political, economical, gender or other issue to attend. We are going to create powerful and eloquent statements focusing on true activism and thus requiring an earnest concern for the cause at stake.

A second layer of our work will be to learn and apply the Mexican indigenous pattern making system, which results from the joining together of square and rectangular panels. This is a unique textile origami that uses the two figures as the base from which to construct any other form using folds, pleats and stitching. If time allows we can even work using textiles that come from the region or are being disposed.

The focus of this experience will lead us to demonstrate that another fashion system is possible; that fashion can be political and tradition is not static.

Workshop Categories

Carla Fernández is a Mexico City-based fashion label inspired by the geometrics and textile richness of Mexico. The brand has gained international acclaim for their approach to preserving the rich cultural heritage of Mexico’s indigenous communities and transforming it into beautiful clothing, textiles and housewares. Their contemporary take on handcrafted methods is proving ethical fashion can be striking, avant-garde and forward-looking.

A change agent and innovator, bringing new meaning to luxury fashion, the Carla Fernández team travels throughout Mexico visiting communities of artisans that specialize in handmade textiles, utilizing centuries-old indigenous techniques. This labor-intensive approach is helping to sustain long-standing traditions and the people who collaborate with the brand.

Carla Fernández works closely with the artisans at the onset of each project, where techniques such as weaving or hand looming, are an integral part of the production of new pieces and collections, rather than adding decorative embellishments at the end of the creative process. The artisans become partners and are compensated fairly for their contributions.

In 2013, Carla was one of 11 worldwide recipients of the Prince Claus Award based in Amsterdam, which recognizes artists whose cultural actions have a positive impact on the development of their societies. She has had solo exhibitions at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, MA / Museo Jumex in Mexico City / Heath Ceramics in San Francisco, CA / SIFA The O.P.E.N. Festival IN Singapore; and collective exhibitions at MAD Museum, New York; Palacio de Iturbide and Museo Amparo in Mexico City, among others.

The Brand has been featured in publications such as Elle, Vogue, i-D, *wallpaper, T, The New York Times magazine, the LA Times, amongst others

www.carlafernandez.com

Housing

  • Accommodation & food are included

  • We can accommodate for special catering

  • All participants sleep in dormitories

  • To book a private room or bring additional guests, get in touch: workshops@boisbuchet.org

Education

  • Our staff are available to help you conceptualize & produce your designs

  • Tools & materials are provided by Boisbuchet

  • All workshops are taught in English

  • The number of participants is limited to 22

Activities