As the editor of Vogue Mexico, Karla Martinez de Salas brings what could be called an outsider’s insider eye to the fashion and design worlds in Mexico and Latin America. Born in El Paso, she grew up speaking Spanish at home and visiting relatives in Mexico every summer. Working as a fashion market editor at magazines such as Vogue, W and T gave her an international perspective on style. So when she landed the top spot at Vogue a year after she and her husband moved to Mexico City for his work in 2015, Martinez de Salas was determined to highlight not only the country’s incredible new talent, but its vivid and intensely held culture. Rather than feature the same light-skinned models and global celebrities as her sister titles, de Salas broke new ground in 2018, when she put the indigenous actress Yalitza Aparicio on the cover, not to mention the striking Mendoza sisters (three generations of Oaxacan tortilla makers), and has continued to celebrate the diversity and depth of the country that she proudly calls home.
We caught up with her in her office, where she joined the call in a Vogue face mask, to learn more about her exploration of Mexican life and style.
Carlos Huber: To address Mexican style, I feel like we need to unravel some of the clichés, right? In my opinion—as a Mexican living abroad, and seeing how it’s seen from here—Mexican style has long been something of a caricature, extremely campy in a way. It's either the Mexican revolution “Adelita,” or it's an intellectualized pre-Hispanic interpretation by Diego Rivera.
Karla Martinez de Salas: Or Frida, right? That's it. I feel there's no in-between.
But then as Mexicans, we have our stereotypes of Mexican style as well. You have the bombastic look with the makeup and the hair and the flamboyant way of dressing, or you have the intellectual, austere type of woman with a rebozo shawl, something woven from Oaxaca. For a long time that's what Mexican style seemed to be. It was big, it was bold, it was borderline tacky — and then it was also sophisticated and chic and informed as well.
I love seeing those women. If you go to Oaxaca you see the indigenous women walking around in their little blouses over their skirts, or the old ladies who wear those printed ‘50s dresses, and then in Chihuahua you see the Raramuri women in those big colorful skirts. I feel it's too bad that the American influence came and [brought] T-shirts and jeans, because you see those people and their grandmothers are wearing the beautiful huipiles. It just looks so pretty.
How do you tie all of these styles together as Mexican?
I do think of color when I think of Mexican style. I think of artisans and, as you're saying, the woman in the all-gray outfit—she might be wearing a rebozo, a shawl that has some sort of embroidery. It's funny, I don't know if you feel this too, but my friends from other parts of Mexico always say that the most casual people are in Mexico City. That in other cities, women dress up. They either will wear a dress or at least they’ll always wear high heels. They're always done. I feel like Mexico City recently has had more of an L.A. casual influence.
