Carla Fernández is the founder of her eponymous brand which works with indigenous communities throughout Mexico, especially with women co-ops that produce handmade textiles and clothing.

Carla has developed a unique pedagogy where participants to our workshops can translate their ideas into designs even in those places where only indigenous dialects are spoken. After ten years of research, she collected and catalogued hundreds of garment designs that were at risk of extinction.

Carla was the winner of the IYCE Fashion Award 2008 and started collaborating with British designer Erin Lewis.

Traditional patterning in Mexico is an incredibly elaborate system of pleats, folds, and seams that construct a vast array of garments using squares and rectangles only due to the woven nature of the textiles. The Carla Fernandez collections fresh and innovative style relies on this untapped inventory of techniques. These endless resources are inspiration to set new trends in fashion. Carla Fernandez collections have been shown in major venues in London, Boston, Japan, China and Mexico.

Carla has developed a successful enterprise where the fashion industry and the handmade crafts of Mexico become compatible. It consists of paying artisans not only for the hand labour but also for intellectual property of their designs. This innovative system allows the brand to integrate as much as one thousand artisans while keeping pace with the speed of fashion. The enterprise focuses on meeting the demands of the market both in volume and innovation. Carla's personal challenge is to meet social commitments with the communities and make the brand grow internationally.