On the final day of Mexico Fashion Week, the label Minena made its debut. Originally founded in 2020 by María José Jiménez and sisters María Gabriela and María del Mar Carbonell, the brand is now led by the latter two.
For this milestone, the Señorita nena collection centered on the tension between biological age and the way a woman perceives herself. Both sisters recently turned 31, and most of their clients are around the same age, so the transition into adulthood is something they think about often. They also believe that the idea resonates with the youngest Millennials, who turn 30 this year and leave behind a decade broadly associated with youth.
Minena’s most evident exploration of this in-between space, described as “girls wanting to be adults and adults wanting to be girls,” came through in the numbers associated with birth dates featured on some of the pieces. The same tension played out in the silhouettes, which ranged from prim A-line skirts and dresses to frisky miniskirts, as well as in the naïve attitude of wearing unbuttoned shirts, oversized pearl necklaces draped across the torso, and corsets layered over tops. Some looks felt deliberately unfinished.
The creativity with which Minena gathers fabric into ruching, builds volume, and experiments with texture is among the brand’s most recognizable codes. Through these elements, the designers have developed a proposition that has resonated with figures from Mexico’s art scene and content creators, several of whom sat in the front row.
To bring the runway presentation to life, Minena received support from adidas and the designers integrated the brand’s sneakers into their own creative universe, transforming some styles into what appeared to be knee-high boots simply by adding on the upper portion; other accessories included bags and corsets made through origami-like folding, alongside the incorporation of small “relics” they had kept for years. “We have buttons, ribbons, fabrics that we always want to save for something special, and that moment finally came.”
Although it was not mentioned explicitly, Miuccia Prada’s influence was evident in some of the looks, especially those that featured lingerie-inspired pieces with V-shaped necklines, which recalled Miu Miu’s spring 1995 collection. At Minena, nostalgia coexists with a gaze toward the future, within a universe the designers describe as “somewhere between the 1960s and a future that doesn’t exist.”
