All Together Now

A new FIT exhibit celebrates the Latinx fashion community

- By Kerensa Cadenas

In 2019, Tanya Melendez Escalante planned a dream trip. The senior curator of education and public programs at the Museum at FIT wanted to introduce two of her colleagues to her native country of Mexico. Melissa Marra-Alvarez, curator of education and research, and Elizabeth Way, associate curator of costume, joined her for a journey full of fashion and food. After seeing (and eating) the best that Mexico City had to offer, the three piled into an Uber back from the airport, giddy over what they’d experienced. That’s when Melendez-Escalante had an idea: What if they curated an exhibit at the museum on Latinx designers?

The result is ¡Moda Hoy!: Latin American and Latinx Fashion Design Today, which opened on May 31 at the Museum at FIT. (An accompanying book from Bloomsbury will be released in early 2024.) The show, curated by Melendez-Escalante and MarraAlvarez, includes over 60 objects from the museum’s permanent collection as well as new acquisitions. Expect boldface names such as Rick Owens, Proenza Schouler, and Willy Chavarria, but also carefully selected works from designers who are lesser-known stateside, like a gray suit from Carla Fernández, developed with Chamula artisans from Chiapas in southern Mexico. (Every piece they acquired, Marra-Alvarez explains, had to be “the type of fashion that makes fashion history.”)