Growing up with a historian father and a fashion-conscious mother, Fernández appreciated Mexico for its heritage, especially its rich history of textile and fashion design. Rather than creating something outside of her culture, she used traditional shapes and techniques as a jumping off point for new garments. With experience in art history, design, and Mexican apparel, Fernández learned to look at indigenous clothing through an anthropological lens.

Carla Fernández is a pragmatic visionary. She combines an artist’s appreciation of shape, form, and materials with an entrepreneur’s excitement about the market. Fernández built a successful enterprise, Taller Flora A.C., which combines fashion and the handmade crafts of the dozens of regions of Mexico.

Fernández worked for over 10 years researching and cataloguing hundreds of clothing designs, including ancient Mayan and Aztec designs and other pre-Hispanic traditions, some at risk of being lost. She initially founded her company as a traveling workshop laboratory that partners with communities throughout Mexico to preserve these designs.

Many of the local partners that Fernández collaborates with are women-run cooperatives that produce handmade textiles and embroidery. By supporting their creativity, handwork, and ideas, she seeks to prevent the extinction of the Mexican textile tradition, while meeting the demands of the marketplace.