The Dress Reimagined

Every morning, you decide what clothes to wear. Whether plain or elaborate, your choice of apparel reflects a quiet act of self-definition. Through her exhibit, Addressing the Dress, Mexican artist Angeles Salinas reclaims the dress as a site of transformation, threading together themes of personal struggle, cultural inheritance and feminine agency to assert control over her evolving identity.

Originally from Mexico City, Salinas moved to the United States in 2015. We met during graduate school in 2022—Salinas was enrolled in the University of Texas at San Antonio’s (UTSA) Master of Fine Arts program, while I was pursuing my Master’s in art history. Since that time, her work has consistently challenged traditional roles assigned to Mexican women.

In Mexican culture, sewing is often considered women’s work—a tradition Salinas knows intimately, having apprenticed under her abuela during childhood. On the opening night of Addressing the Dress, June 21, 2025, Salinas told me in a personal conversation that “the dress is a garment first and foremost. But it is also a metaphor for the female mind. Dresses reveal the roles assigned to Mexican women and Latina women in a patriarchal society.” Despite her traditional upbringing, Salinas uses those very materials—thread, fabric and pattern—as tools to negotiate and subvert the expectation of quiet obedience.

Angeles Salinas, “I Can Fly,” 2024, wedding dress, fabric, wooden dowel, bobbin lace, wire mesh, ribbon and video projection, dimensions variable. Courtesy of the artist.

Upon entering the Latino Cultural Center’s gallery, visitors are immediately confronted by three of the artist’s dresses that stand in visual and conceptual conversation with one another. The first dress, I Can Fly, is an elegant garment, originally made by Salinas’ mother and later transformed by Salinas. The bodice reflects her mother’s craftsmanship, adorned with delicate pearl beading. Salinas reminisces that pearls on wedding dresses are considered a bad omen, stating, “las perlas significan lágrimas” (pearls signify tears). In time, the superstition proved true, as the artist divorced her now ex-husband.

Salinas has since sewn black butterflies, their shapes based on the silhouette of Monarch butterflies, onto the skirt. The death of love is effectively reborn through those butterflies, which are symbols of renewal rising from mourning. Salinas recalls, “Sometimes you lose yourself. In many ways, I am still finding myself because of the things that have happened to me.” The entirety of the dress is a subtle nod to her immigrant identity.

Angeles Salinas, “Sky-Escape,” 2023, acrylic paint on aida cloth, old dresses, steel bars, newspaper, fabric, thread, yarn, aluminum foil, wire mesh, dimensions variable. Courtesy of the artist.

I Can Fly stands in dialogue with Sky-Escape. The skirt of the dress hangs from the ceiling, its colorful fabric cascading downward in a funnel shape. Beneath the inverted garment, Salinas presents a cage crinoline, visually evoking both structure and confinement. In this piece, the artist deconstructs the idea of what a dress is, and what it could be. By lifting the apparel from its cage, she symbolically frees herself from the expectations of obedience and the constraints upheld by a patriarchal gaze.

Angeles Salinas, “Self-Made,” 2024, repurposed artwork, 72 x 60 x 96 inches. Courtesy of the artist.

The third artwork in this series, Self-Made, is Salinas’ proclamation of resilience and self-actualization. This dress celebrates her embrace of personal accomplishment. Fragments of her earlier paintings and fabrics from past exhibitions are sewn alongside photographs resembling Polaroid snapshots. These images document recent moments in her life: working in her studio, graduating from UTSA in 2024 and sharing time with David, her new partner. In Salinas’ words, she juxtaposes “pieces of my life that still work” to construct the garment.

Furthermore, Self-Made showcases Salinas’ comfort in her femininity. The dress is completed with two objects placed over the mannequin base. One is a heart necklace, with a ceramic base that the artist received from one of her mentors, ceramicist Verena Gaudy. The other object is a repoussé and nail polish on brass crown, reflecting how Salinas’ newfound sense of confidence enables her to be the creator of her story.

Angeles Salinas, “Nihilista,” 2021, oil and acrylic paint, thread and yarn on mesh and canvas. 59 x 22 inches. Courtesy of the artist.

The artist takes a more abstract approach to the idea of the dress through Nihilista (Nihilistic). The word refers to someone who rejects traditional values, and Salinas embraces her relationship to the term. Nihilista features a painted overhead power line, which sits above a landscape of fabric that protrudes from the canvas. With red yarn, Salinas sews the word “Nihilista” prominently across the center of the artwork. Below, the artist paints a congested highway with cars stuck in traffic. This visual hierarchy, with the power line above, traffic below, and the phrase “Nihilista” boldly intervening between them, suggests conceptual estrangement. The traffic jam represents rigid structures and conformity expected of an obedient Mexican woman, while the power line exemplifies connection to the landscape around the artist. Positioned between systems of power and social stagnation, Nihilista signals a refusal to be confined to prescribed lanes.

Salinas reframes dresses not just as items of adornment, but as autobiographical objects. Her sewing reflects themes of defiance, healing and reclamation. Addressing the Dress is ultimately an exhibit about crafting identity from the fabric of lived experience. In bearing witness to Salinas’ personal transformation, you are invited to consider your own. Maybe you can ask yourself today, “What do my clothes say about me?”

Addressing the Dress is on display at the Latino Cultural Center in Dallas until July 25, 2025.