Rafael Cuevas and Roberto Sànchez are the designers behind Teamo, a label that's currently at the epicenter of Mexico City's bubbling fashion scene. We spent the past weekend in the Latin American capital with the local fashion duo as our guide, and had a tour of some of the city's up-and-coming ateliers. First up is Teamo HQ, where the label houses its studio and store. The new fall 2010 collection is called Skate Witches, a crossbreed of scuffed-kneed grunge girls and waifish goth queens who clearly know how to paint the town red. Hence the drop-dead LBDs, tomboy peekaboo blouses and sweeping long skirts splattered with a print that's dripping black magic.
Like many of their peers, neither Cuevas nor Sànchez have a traditional training in fashion. Cuevas is a musician, and channels a lot of that experimental energy into epic runway symphonies, while Sànchez uses his skills as an artist to embellish their line of T-shirts. For example, the Kate and Courtney shirts are part of a series of illustrations, pieces that have quietly sparked their own international frenzy—one US store recently scooped the rights to a Morrissey exclusive. Teamo usually design their spring collections with specific homegrown references in mind, and their spring 2009 Day of the Dead offering famously caught the attention of Chloe Sevigny, who swiped some perspex skull bracelets. Folkloric inspiration aside, Teamo are determined to move Mexican fashion into the international spotlight without surrendering any of the label's DNA. And although both designers enjoy fashion jaunts to New York, they've no desire to leave for good. Ultimately, the city's electric sprawl is what feeds them.
