Francisco Cancino is happy. This was clear in his new show, which opened with a scarlet red blouse and pants set, followed by another look in Mexican pink, and a third in orange. The collection’s festive tone and joy were unmistakable.
“Plateros,” as he named the collection, is the third in a series of four dedicated to Mexico City—following “The First Mexicans,” and “Diego.” The Chiapas-born designer was inspired by the emblematic Maderos street, a “historic street, with all the cultural confluence of our Mexico: guerrillas, revolutions, good times, bad times, happy years, not-so happy years,” Cancino explained backstage. “It is a street that describes, in depth, Mexico City.”
This was a maximalist collection. The sum of references, layers, and textures gave life to pieces with plenty of movement, like tied skirts that danced with each step, “a rhetorical study of pattern making,” as the designer described them.
Cancino’s aesthetic is typically characterized by clean finishes and the simplification of traditional Mexican clothing. Of course, elements of his signature style were present, particularly in the vests that at first glance seemed to nod to Japanese design, but were a reference to the traditional clothing of his country. “The confluence of traditional patterns; the huipil, the quexquémitl, and all of that, is part of a hegemonic minimalism that emerged in various parts of the world,” he explained. “It is very similar to the Japanese, but to me, it comes from the Mexican. What happens is that there is a point in the primitive in which they [all] coincide.”
Passion was a word Cancino kept returning to. During a year that’s been widely regarded as difficult for many in the industry, his passion for the craft of making clothes remains very much alive; and the very act of presenting a new collection was a triumph. If there’s one force that continues to propel Latin American brands today, it is certainly this one.