Teocintle, our new collection, delves into the path of collaboration and celebration of popular craft, inspired by the importance of corn and insects in Mexico’s culture and the existence of its communities.

“Teocintle” refers to the wild ancestor of corn, which was domesticated until it became the fundamental element of our culinary traditions and the basis of our cultural identity. Along with the grain, chapulines and other insects that have been part of our traditional diet are incorporated into the collection’s imagery, inviting reflection on contemporary agricultural consumption and the importance of taking care of native crops and traditional food practices.

In this context, the collection puts at the centre of the conversation the role of ancestral crops in the country and the controversy that their defence has generated: the ban that the Mexican government imposed on the use of transgenic corn has generated enormous pressure for part of the United States within the framework of the USMCA, a conflict that has escalated to the point of creating a dispute resolution panel.

For this reason, clothing is visually constructed from a universe where tortillas, tlayudas and tortilla chips make up celestial bodies sustained in a cosmos of grasshoppers and insects, a fauna that has created a symbiotic relationship with corn culturally, biologically and gastronomically.

Within the different garments you can see how the tortilla, the tlayudas and the insects build and form diverse universes and constellations, through the jumps of the grasshoppers in the designs and colours of the garments.

This game between memory, cultural expression and iconography is a constant in the work of Andros Hernández (Oaxaca), responsible for the visual identity of the collection. To be more precise, his work addresses the ways in which memory inhabits spaces and people, be it identity, historical legacy, or everyday life (the ways of dancing, cooking, harvesting, eating).

Much of Andros’ work happens in a communal space, the Chingón Club, an open collaborative forum where artisans, farmers, outlaws and artists share knowledge and tasks for collective creation. Ultimately, memory materialises in cultural identity, the basis of the individual spirit; and to the extent that two or more creative forces come together, what makes us one stands out.