Lorena Saravia Brings Mexico’s New Generation to H&M

For H&M Head of Womenswear Ann-Sofie Johansson, that steadiness is what makes this collaboration historic. “Fashion is a craft,” Johansson says. “It’s about the hands behind the work, and making that work accessible to more people.” Together, the partnership displays a worldwide style home assembly a deeply native perspective — one which honors course of, emotion, and storytelling as a lot as fashion.

In a panorama usually dominated by European homes, Lorena Saravia x H&M feels defiantly private: a love letter to heritage, resilience and womanhood. It’s a celebration of the place Saravia comes from, and a promise of the place Mexican design is heading subsequent.

PAPER caught up with Lorena Saravia and H&M Head of Womenswear Ann-Sofie Johansson to speak in regards to the ladies who formed her, the ability of craft, and what it means to make style that endures.

I do know that is H&M’s first collaboration with a Mexican designer, however how did you need Mexico to really feel within the garments? What emotion or environment did you need to translate past the motifs or design references?

Lorena Saravia: I feel primarily we wished to present a up to date Mexico. There’s lots occurring proper now — within the meals, the artwork, the music — and we’re a part of a brand new era of designers creating an business with lovely items and messages to provide the world. I feel our essential purpose as a collaboration was to create one thing that confirmed this modern Mexico. The artisanal facet is gorgeous, in fact, however there’s additionally this different half: the ladies of at the moment. As Mexicans, we’re a part of a group of robust ladies, and that’s a part of the model’s DNA. So pushing that message globally via this collaboration actually made sense.

Was there a selected picture, tune or reminiscence that you simply saved in thoughts whereas designing? Something that grounded the gathering in a temper relatively than a map?

Lorena: It was actually in regards to the values of Mexican heritage — the values of household, custom, craftsmanship and course of. The artisanal strategies we’ve in Mexico, whether or not in meals, artwork or garment building, are so wealthy and diversified, and we wished to honor that. These are values we supply in our households, issues we go down via generations.

That’s what we wished the gathering to signify: Mexico in a timeless means, with a timeless essence and DNA. Of course, once you see the total assortment collectively, you get this earthy, ranch-inspired, cowboy feeling. But once you separate every bit, it speaks to ladies all around the world. You can put on the leather-based jacket with denims and sneakers and it turns into a part of a up to date lady’s wardrobe. Or perhaps you’re 55, a mom with a social life — it nonetheless matches in your closet.

It was lovely to work that means with the H&M group, who clearly have all of the expertise of democratizing style and stepping into many ladies’s closets. Combining these two tales, the Mexican custom and H&M’s world attain, created a extremely modern, lovely consequence.

I do know your grandma taught you to sew, proper? My grandma used to sew, too. She used to make my pajama pants. My grandpa had a ranch, so I really feel like that’s all very…

Lorena: Mexican. We’ve misplaced that, no? But you will have these lovely recollections of your grandmother.

Yeah, my mother doesn’t understand how to sew, however she simply purchased a stitching machine as a result of she desires to study, like how my grandma did. So it’s passing it down.

Lorena: Yes, precisely. And I feel with the cellphone and all this data, we’ve misplaced what we used to do — the handwork, even enjoying playing cards, proper? I feel this assortment can also be an homage to custom. We wished to go one thing on to new generations, to emphasize and give attention to what actually issues: these values. And I feel we had the identical imaginative and prescient as groups. We labored as one on that.

Ann-Sofie Johansson: And additionally, style isn’t just a sketch or one thing glamorous. It’s a craft. People typically neglect that, or they don’t actually perceive it. To find a way to present all the pieces that goes into the making of a group or a garment — that’s a number of work.

Yeah, strolling again the place the sewers are, it’s like that’s the place the actual ability lives.

Lorena: Yes, precisely. There’s a craft to it. You have to manually assemble every bit. The first one, you actually construct it by hand to see the way it matches and strikes in actual life. Especially with these varieties of clothes, it’s so necessary to perceive the sample and the way it all comes collectively.

Anne-Sofie: Yes, it’s such a tangible factor. And the extra digital we turn into (and we already are), the extra necessary it’s to present the craft, the fingers behind the work, and to protect that manufacturing course of.

Yeah, with quick style…

Lorena: Yes. And I feel that makes a distinction when one thing sells — once you put that vitality and the proper essence into it. It would possibly sound mystical in a means, but it surely actually does make a distinction. You transmit the story into the gathering, and into every garment, and that makes individuals really feel one thing private.

We additionally tried to make that story comprehensible, to assist individuals see the small print we created collectively as a group: the buttons, the cuts, the stitching, the lace, the denim particulars. Everything was thoughtfully made via a course of that was actually hands-on and artisanal. We created one thing that elevated the gathering in a gorgeous means.

H&M has finished world collaborations, however this one feels genuinely native. It’s shot in Mexico City, it’s launching right here. What shifted in H&M’s mindset to make this sort of partnership doable now?

Anne-Sofia: One factor is that yow will discover creativity and style in every single place. It doesn’t simply come from the massive homes in Paris or Milan. This is a means for us to present that and to open up the world a bit for our prospects. You can discover style in Mexico, in Korea. We’ve additionally finished collaborations with native designers in Korea and India, for instance.

It’s a technique for H&M to be just a little extra native the place we are able to, as a substitute of at all times being an enormous world firm. But most of all, it’s about discovering sensible designers — it doesn’t matter the place they arrive from — and collaborating with them. That’s what we purpose for. It’s additionally a twist on the concept of collaboration, making it extra native and genuine.

Lorena was only a good match. H&M and Lorena collectively made a lot sense. From the very starting we felt it might work. When our groups met, we shared the identical imaginative and prescient for what we wished to obtain, and that’s how this lovely assortment got here to life.

Even with Gen Z (if H&M is focusing on youthful audiences) it seems like they’re shifting away from quick style. They need authenticity, one thing tangible and analog, like “back to the ranch,” truly doing issues with their fingers.

Anne-Sofia: Exactly. And that’s a part of telling style historical past, too. Every collaboration turns into part of style historical past in its personal means. We haven’t labored with Jean Paul Gaultier, for instance, however these sorts of partnerships nonetheless write historical past, presenting area of interest or smaller design worlds to a wider viewers. That’s what H&M can do.

We’re an enormous firm with actual tasks, however youthful generations at the moment need to know the story — to see the design, to really feel the authenticity. They purchase secondhand, they perceive high quality. With each collaboration we’ve finished, the items go on to have a couple of life: ending up in classic or resale outlets, typically promoting for even larger costs later. That’s what occurs with well-made clothes: they endure. So in a means, we’re designing future classic items.

Yeah, fascinated by it being in a classic retailer in 20 years…

Lorena: Exactly. For me, the collaborations with H&M are like items of bijou you’ll by no means discover once more. For instance, I nonetheless have items from the Lanvin collaboration saved in my closet — with the unique paper bag and hanger — as a result of I do know I’ll by no means discover one thing like that once more. You should purchase from the model, or from H&M, however placing them collectively creates one thing really particular. It received’t ever occur once more.

Anne-Sofie: It’s actually a gift to our prospects. That’s what we at all times say about collaborations. They’re presents. We need to make it doable for extra individuals to purchase one thing from Lorena that they won’t have been in a position to earlier than, since we are able to provide completely different value factors. It’s a technique of liberating style for extra individuals. That’s actually the entire concept behind our collaborations: accessibility.

Yeah, it’s an ideal combine. I really feel like a number of Mexican style or new designers get caught on this folkloric or conventional lane, which is gorgeous, however you’re fusing that with one thing futuristic and Western. I adore it. I do know your grandma’s earrings impressed the lion earrings within the assortment, however was there one other particular reminiscence out of your childhood along with her that got here to thoughts whereas designing?

Lorena: Yes. You can see the buttons on the beige items. We recreated the identical ones my mother used to have in her stitching machine. Maybe you bear in mind this too. My grandmother had this massive bag stuffed with buttons.

My grandma had one too.

Lorena: Exactly! They have been full of those orange and coloured buttons. I nonetheless have that bag in my workplace. When we began setting up the gathering and I used to be explaining to the group what was behind the model and why, I started exhibiting all of them these little particulars from my grandmother.

You noticed my workplace, proper? It’s lined in household pictures. I’ve this enormous habit to them — footage from way back to the Twenties. Even when my grandfather handed away, he left a observe on a field that mentioned, “All the photographs go to Lorena.” Because individuals may need thrown them away, however I feel it relies on the place you’re in life. You can at all times discover new that means in images.

I take them out usually, have a look at them once more, and uncover one thing new. Recently, I used to be planning a visit to Barrancas del Cobre — these huge mountains in Chihuahua — and I noticed my ancestors, the Tarahumara, got here from there. So I began creating that connection. Those images are an enormous inspiration for me as a result of they at all times reveal new messages.

Today, we’ve misplaced that. Everything’s on our telephones, and we don’t print something anymore. I fear about that, about what future generations in my household could have to have a look at. My mother just lately handed me a field of my childhood pictures and mentioned, “This is your archive.” I feel my grandmother was making an attempt to do this for us — to be certain we always remember the place we come from.

If you look carefully in my workplace, there are pictures of my mother and my aunts all wearing the identical matching little clothes my grandmother made herself. There have been 5 children, so she’d sew them one thing easy, quick, not good in any respect. When you flip considered one of her clothes inside out, it’s chaos, however that’s the great thing about it. She created this stuff for the household.

For me, it was necessary that this assortment confirmed those self same values: custom, household, Mexican heritage — issues we have a tendency to neglect as time passes. What will the brand new generations look to once they develop up? A whole lot of the items within the assortment are impressed by these recollections, by clothes my aunts wore, by the ski fits my household had. Every piece carries a narrative about what Mexican household values and custom actually imply.