Which Latinx People Get To ‘Make It’ In Fashion?

Take, for example, Carolina Herrera. While the designer may speak with an accent, she has always been among New York’s wealthy elites. She grew up in socialite circles in her native Caracas, and later married a direct descendant of Spanish royalty. In 1965, she got a job as a publicist for Italian fashion designer Emilio Pucci, who was a close family friend, eventually becoming well known for her own glamorous style. This was part of what inspired former Vogue editor-in-chief Diana Vreeland to encourage Herrera to become a designer herself. She eventually debuted her first collection at the exclusive, members-only Metropolitan Club in Manhattan, and found great success afterward. The kind of access that Herrera had is worlds apart from the reality of poor and working-class people, who are largely Black and Indigenous, in Latin America and Latinx communities in the United States. 
By: Frances Solá-Santiago