True Norte

Mexican designer Paloma Hurtado drew inspiration for her first US collection, Nómada, from her experience as an immigrant. Created as a tribute to the influences of both cultures, Nómada’s dresses (seen here in images from the designer’s Spring 2018 lookbook) feature unique and contrasting fabric combinations such as lace with burlap (below right) and sheer mesh (below left).

“YOU DON’T HAVE MANY CHOICES WHEN YOU’RE TRAVELING AS AN IMMIGRANT,” says Mexican designer Paloma Hurtado. “You gather your resources and make them into something beautiful because that is all you have.” Her resources resulted in Nómada, the first US collection from the now Seattle-based designer’s line, Norte. Arriving in Washington in 2015 on a fiancée visa (Hurtado’s husband is American and an architect at Miller Hull), Hurtado was unable to find full-time work until her green card was approved. The 34-year-old designer fell back on her fashion education—a design degree from Centro University—to create a womenswear line from lace, leather, and wool she sourced from all over Seattle, even from the fabric bins at Goodwill. “When I came here, all I had was what fit in my suitcase,” she says. “So I had to be creative about transforming what I already had, and what was already used, starting from nowhere.”

Nómada, Spanish for “nomadic,” nods to Hurtado’s journey through different countries and cultures. Her line shows the range of these influences, from vibrant swatches of pink that reference Mexican modernist architect Luis Barragán to woven knits that are absolutely at home in the layersrequisite Seattle climate. This June, Nómada will debut in Belltown boutique Sassafras, the first brick-and-mortar shop in the US to carry the Norte line. Of her Stateside success, Hurtado says, “I want to show the world that even though your resources may not be that good, that doesn’t have to stop you from doing something good.”

Peeking through black lace, deep-pink silk is Hurtado’s nod to the signature color that Mexican modernist architect Luis Barragán used in his own vibrant works.

The cotton viscose dress was made from a single piece of uncut 2-by-3-meter fabric and constructed using only seams.

OPPOSITE: A handsewn deer leather jacket with a front lining woven by the Mazahua people of central Mexico continues the designer’s innovative pairings of material. Hurtado found the wool blanket in the background in Chinconcuac, Mexico.