Editor’s Letter

Fashion is culture. Fashion is history. Fashion is fun.

Oh yes, and fashion is collaborative, from the people who imagine clothing, who manufacture it, who model it, who sell it, who wear it and who invent it all over again.

That’s why it’s so appropriate that this ReVista issue on Fashion in the Americas came about with the enthusiastic collaboration of Parsons School of Design Assistant Professor of Fashion Design Carolina Obregón and ReVista intern Ada Cruz.

I’ve long been interested in perspectives on fashion, perhaps from the time in my 20’s when I realized that the garment I adored as a virgin wool woven poncho called a ruana in Colombia was perceived by many (at that time) as carrying a lower-class stigma. Besides its peasant origins, the ruana was made of wool—and polyester and other synthetic garments were symbols of modernity and progress (as hard as that is for me to imagine now in the current era of prestige for natural fibers).  Culture shapes the way fashion is perceived.  This experience sparked my curiosity.

But the collaborations with Carolina, Ada and then with this issue’s many authors brought me into a cultural and historic terrain I’d never even imagined—ranging from the debris of used clothing in a Chilean desert to religious head coverings to the meaning of outfits in the National Puerto Rican Day Parade. I’ve had the privilege of seeing fashion through the eyes of designers, models, promoters, anthropologists, community members, museum directors, historians and consumers.

We share with you here these voices and perspectives on fashion. We hope they provoke your curiosity too!