Latin fashion: the View from New York; a recent exhibition of Latin style at the New York Fashion Institute of Technology shows an influence more profound than the current infatuation

Latin CEO: Executive Strategies for the Americas, March-April, 2002 by Jose Velazquez

DESIGNERS IN THE U.S. DON'T NEED TO speak Spanish to understand Latin American glamour. In fact, language was not an issue during the New York Fashion Institute of Technology exhibition "Latin American Fashion: Exploring Identities On The NY Runway."

"The Latino culture is so rich and diverse that there are no words, in English nor Spanish, to explain it anyway," says Chicago model Carla Cohen, who attended to opening night at the FIT's museum in March.

The exhibition showcased the work of celebrated and rising-star designers, but most of all dug down into the roots of Latino influence--even before Carolina Herrera and Oscar de Ia Renta.

The United States discovered the stunning shapes, passion and mysticism of the Latino world as early as the 1910s, when textile designers in New York looked to Latin America for inspiration. Rich U.S. tourists would travel down to Central and South America and come back with Indian fabrics. The architectural patterns soon caught the eye of designers, who began to visit museums to observe the ethnographic textiles from the Mayans and the Incas.

The admiration for Latino chic increased even more in the 1920s after Mexican-born actress Dolores del Rio brought her classy Mexican style to the big screen, along with Parisian haute couture. She was the image of a young woman with a new style and high fashion," explains FIT fashion graduate student Annie Langlois.

But Latin America really came into the spotlight during World War II, when the Nazis overran Europe and interrupted the French influence over U.S. designers. By then "Brazilian Bombshell" Carmen Miranda had landed on Broadway with her turbans and platform shoes.

By the time Miranda moved on to Hollywood, her look had already become an icon in U.S. fashion circles. Cuban Mambo and Conga rhythms and Dominican Republic Merengue were filling New York's dance halls, and Latino fever quickly spread to the rest of the arts. Fashion was no exception.

By 1939, actress Lupe Velez became the new Latin-movie sweetheart, while Vogue magazine published its take on typical Latin American hats from Bolivia and Peru. Three years later, Harper's Bazaar magazine recommended the Mexican rebezo as a "fashionable accessory."

In the years immediately following the war, talented Latino designers invaded the US. In 1948 Cuban Adolfo Sardina moved to New York after working in Paris for the Balenciaga and Chanel houses. He first designed hats for Bergdorf Goodman and later made his own way to the top, dressing Hollywood stars and even first lady Nancy Reagan. Two years after Sardina arrived in New York, one of his colleagues from Havana, Luis Estevez, made his own name in the fashion world with his trademark plunging necklines.

A half-century later, American designer Elsa Jimenez shares Estevez' belief that the daring dip flatters any figure. "I admire healthy bodies. I enjoy the beauty of different shapes," says Jimenez, a former sculptor who now is part of a new generation of US-born Latino fashion designers. The 37-year-old Texan artist says she aims at an "organic sensuality" in women, regardless of their body type. "I love how in Latin America the woman is an icon and they live their lives with such mysticism."

Indeed, in addition to sensuality, the spiritual side of the Americas has also influenced New York fashion,

Contemporary designers such as Oscar de la Renta get part of their inspiration from Catholic issues and objects like schoolgirls' uniforms, monks' robes and even nuns' habits.

Religion certainly meets seduction in the traditional celebration of quinceanera that marks a girl's transition from childhood to adulthood on her 15th birthday The tradition begins with a mass in which the girl dresses in white to confirm her commitment to the Catholic religion. It ends in a big party where the quinceanera wears a pink or white evening gown and switches from flat shoes to heels. Now, that's inspiration.

And like the transition from youth to sophistication, Latin designers brought to the U.S. the concept that high fashion goes beyond age, or body shape. "They just go beyond the stereotypes we expected," says Langlois,