Runway S/S19

CARLA FERNÁNDEZ
JOIN THE
RESISTANCE
Designer Carla Fernández fights the good fight at the latest V&A Fashion in Motion,
with extra muscle from Johanna Cree Brown and the Trevor Sorbie Art Team
Images courtesy of L’Oréal Professionnel
THE SPOTLIGHT SHONE on designer
Carla Fernández at the latest Fashion in Motion
event at the V&A, which showcased her
Manifesto of Fashion as Resistance and featured
a live chorus and a catwalk presentation with
work from five collections. Centred around the
designer’s commitment to decolonisation,
intersectionality and social justice, Carla’s
designs also reflect the rich history of textiles
and design of her native Mexico.
After studying art history, fashion design and
Mexican apparel, in 2000 she launched her
ready-to-wear brand inspired by traditional
Mexican textiles. By 2008, she had been named
Fashion Entrepreneur of the Year by the British
Fashion Council, and in December 2018 she was
honoured with the Design Miami/Visionary
Award alongside her husband, artist Pedro Reyes.
L’Oréal Professionnel, which has provided
hair teams for the Fashion in Motion event since
its inception, tasked leading stylist Johanna Cree
Brown and the Trevor Sorbie team to create
editorial looks with an out of this world element
that befitted the work. Johanna explains that
each look “was a mix of editorial hair but with a
surreal quality. The show was performance
art”. For Carla, she says working with Johanna
to create the looks “demonstrated the hair was
also an art piece, a crafted hairstyle”.
The Trevor Sorbie artistic director worked
closely with style consultant and designer Sam
Lambert to create the initial concept for the hair,
which featured centre-partings and a mix of
long and woven braids. Using references from
the textiles of Mexico’s indigenous communities
that influence Carla’s work, Sam explained that
they “wanted to pick inspiration from the
culture and make it contemporary”. From this,
Sam and Johanna developed the idea of making
the hair part of the clothing, to make it an
accessory coming out from the cloth or using
long single braids as necklaces.
t
FEMINIST
A luxe shape with
disconnected
lengths, using
TECNI.ART
Web to slick down
the sides.
t
ANDROGYNOUS
Hair as nature
intended, with a
little TECNI.ART
Web to slick hair
back from face.
RUNWAY
SPRING/SUMMER 2019
45