Armando Mafud: Designer On a Hot Tin Roof

Since the early 1990's, Mexican-born designer Armando Mafud has been mesmerizing critics with innovative interpretations of traditional cultural influences and a liberal, and sometimes saturated, color palette. His Spring 2009 collection (which was just presented at Mexico Fashion Week) is no exception. Though, I must admit I was a little confused by the unexpected, sometimes disconnected, patterns and colors at first.

The collection possessed a lack of direction -- that is to say, the pieces didn't fit together when seen alongside one another on the runway. But after revisiting the collection, ripe with tiled patterns, mural paintings, intricate embroidery, and metallic sheens, I was instantly struck with the visual of 'nichos' -- the small, tin altars made popular by Latin American folk art, which vary from very plain to extremely ornate. Do you see what I see?












Photos: tupuebloimports.com, mexicanfolkart.com, and Lee Carter Company