Mexican Ricardo Seco brings ‘Migrant Pride’ to Barcelona

Mexican designer Ricardo Seco provided an emotionally charged catwalk presentation in Barcelona. It was a committed and activist proposal that corresponded to the designer’s creative codes. Seco came to Barcelona to make his debut on the city’s catwalk and celebrate his 25-year career in fashion.

As the surprise star of this 37th edition of 080 Barcelona Fashion, he took the honorary position of international guest designer. This role was originally intended for Raúl López, founder and creative director of Luar.

Seco is one of the most celebrated and recognized voices in the Mexican and Latin American fashion scene. He ended the third day of the 080 presentation as an international guest designer. Under this title he presented his activist collection ‘Migrant Pride’. It consisted of newly created pieces as well as reissues and updates of designs that the couturier considers iconic and particularly representative of his 25-year career in fashion. This combination of new designs and pieces from previous collections added depth to both the proposal and the messages Seco wanted to convey to the audience.

These were more than just declarations of protest. The designer dealt intensively with the topic of migration. He was largely inspired by the work ‘Borders’ by the Mexican-American photographer Mónica Lozano. He examined how the migration process can influence our perception of ourselves and others as individuals.

Although originally announced as a retrospective, Seco now clarifies that ‘Migrant Pride’ “is more than a retrospective collection; it is a manifesto, a narrative of identity, resistance and visibility,” the designer said in a statement. The collection combines new pieces with others “from different collections where I have always shown my commitment to this pride.” It “also comes from a dialogue with Mónica Lozano’s work ‘Borders,'” which was used to illustrate many designs. She “speaks about migrating, but also about what forces migration”. It’s also about “borders that separate, systems that exclude” and “labels that try to define who belongs to a certain place and who doesn’t.” From this intimate perspective, “she also speaks about what it means to be Mexican, to be Latino” and to have to “carry that meaning in areas where you are often not welcome.”

Between ‘Lady’s cloaks’ and protest messages

Starting from this discursive identity, Seco has put everything that constitutes the proposal at the service of this message of protest and awareness-raising. When we say everything, we mean everything. This includes the color palette that characterizes the collection and the nature of the patterns. These patterns tie into the urban aesthetics that dominate the streets of Latin American countries or are stereotypically seen as the “uniform” of Latin American emigrants. This extends to the garments themselves. They are decorated not only with images from Mónica Lozano’s work, but also with messages proclaiming the ‘Migrant Pride’ that gives the collection its name.

Looking at each of these elements, the color of the collection is based on a chromatic symphony dominated by green, white and red, the colors of the Mexican flag. To these tones, Seco added “Mexican pink,” a color associated with the country in the 20th century thanks to the architect Luis Barragán. An orange that not only connects to Barragán’s work, but is presented by Seco as a transmitter of “energy”. And black as a symbol of “strength, sophistication and urban intensity”.

As for the garments and designs themselves, which are “genderless”, the designer used materials such as cotton, silk, wool and, above all, leather. Around 70 percent of the collection items were made from leather. The designs include jackets, capes, shirts, crop tops and various types of shorts. With this, Seco has reinterpreted both urban and traditional, stereotypical clothing from Latin American countries. Some of the cultural elements most closely associated with this clothing were also included. This approach has resulted in powerful pieces and designs. These include capes and jackets whose cuts appear to imitate coats such as that of the Virgin of Guadalupe – she illustrates one of the key pieces of this ‘Migrant Pride’ collection. There are also bags that are presented as reinterpretations of migrants’ bundles and have messages such as “identity,” “dignity,” or “freedom.”

This series of elements gave the proposal a “conceptual dimension”. This is exactly what paved the way for several pieces presented on the 080 catwalk this Thursday to be added to the collection of the Franz Mayer Museum in Mexico. From there, they are expected to be curated by the FIT Museum in New York and presented as part of a cultural program, although no further details have been announced yet.

Every piece of clothing in this collection, which was presented exclusively at 080 for the first time, “is a statement”. Likewise, “every look is a way of occupying a space” that is often denied to migrants. From this activist stance, says the Mexican designer, the gender-neutral silhouettes “invite reflection in a space where freedom is not negotiated,” such as on the street. He notes that the streets “represent the true catwalks of the world” and “understand no imposed rules, only identity.” From this perspective, “color is not an aesthetic” but is reclaimed as a “symbol.” In this case, “green, white and red as roots,” “Mexican pink and orange as vibrant energy,” and “black as the harshness of the city,” and “as the shadow that also builds us up.” “This collection doesn’t try to conform. It tries to question” and “it doesn’t ask for permission.” She doesn’t do that, “because being a migrant is not a weakness. It is an identity that is defended, honored and worn with pride.”