12 Unforgettable Moments in Modern Latino Fashion History

Eva Perón’s glamorous style — including the voluminous ball gown she wore in 1951 — made her a controversial yet beloved figure in Argentine history.

Eva Perón, better known as Evita, became the first lady of Argentina in 1946 and advocated for women’s suffrage and workers’ rights. Britannica writes that Perón never took public office, but acted as “de facto minister of health and labour, awarding generous wage increases to the unions.”

Perón was also known for her love of fashion and luxury. Italian shoemaker Salvatore Ferragamo made dozens of shoes for the first lady between 1946 and her death in 1952, according to a 1997 Wall Street Journal report. The outlet also noted that Ferragamo wrote in his book “Shoemaker of Dreams” that she liked footwear made from rare animal skins, including lizard and armadillo.

“Mrs. Peron ‘had the wildness of the Andes in her feet and wildness of extravagance in her demands,” Ferragamo wrote, per WSJ. “They were the most extraordinary shoes I have ever made, and the prices I was forced to charge were astronomical.”

Rita Moreno recycled her ornate 1962 Oscars dress at the same ceremony in 2018.

The Puerto Rican actress first wore the gold and black Pitoy Moreno gown to accept the award for best-supporting actress in “West Side Story,” becoming the first Latina to win an Oscar, according to the History Channel.

“It’s been hanging in my closet and I go and stroke it now and then. I just love — it was an amazing night,” she told People when she wore the gown again for the 2018 Oscars. “They didn’t have a red carpet then, it was so different.”

Bianca Jagger’s cool-girl wedding dress put her on the map as a fashion icon.

Jagger, who was born in Nicaragua, filed for divorce from the Rolling Stones frontman in 1978. She would later travel the world as a human rights activist, all while attending parties at Studio 54 with the likes of Roy Halston, Liza Minnelli, and Andy Warhol.

Since 1977, the mothers of Argentina’s “disappeared” children have donned white headscarves to protest kidnappings in the country.

According to the History Channel, the Mothers (and Grandmothers) of the Plaza de Mayo go to the famous Buenos Aires square every Thursday to protest the disappearances of up to 30,000 people.

The outlet reports that thousands of abductions took place during Argentina’s “Dirty War” in the 1970s and 1980s, noting that the nation’s military dictatorship “turned against its own people.” To bring attention to the “Desaparecidos,” or those who disappeared, the Mothers wear white headscarves that symbolize the cloth diapers their children wore, according to the Los Angeles Times.

Oscar de la Renta became the first person from the Dominican Republic to design for a French couture house when he joined Balmain in 1993.

The Dominican designer left his home in Santo Domingo to study art at The Academy of San Fernando in Madrid, according to Business of Fashion. He later trained under Cristóbal Balenciaga, who is of Spanish descent.

De la Renta designed collections for Balmain until 2003. He also served as president of the Council of Fashion Designers of America from 1973 to 1976 and again from 1986 to 1988.

Mexican American singer Selena Quintanilla-Pérez, often called the “Queen of Tejano music,” wore a stunning red jumpsuit for a performance in 1995.

Quintanilla-Pérez, known mononymously as Selena, wore many daring looks during her short career. She often donned sparkling fabrics and included fun items like bustiers and bedazzled hats in her performance attire.

Her 1995 concert at the Houston Astrodome was her final televised concert before she was shot and killed on March 31, 1995. She was 23.

Jennifer Lopez’s head-turning Versace gown was the talk of the town at the 2000 Grammys. She stunned in a similar style when she walked the Versace runway in 2019.

Lopez created so much buzz with her deep-cut, leaf-print gown that it inspired the creation of Google Image Search, Insider previously reported.

“At the time, it was the most popular search query we had ever seen. But we had no surefire way of getting users exactly what they wanted: J.Lo wearing that dress,” Google executive Eric Schmidt wrote in an essay for Project Syndicate in 2015.

He later added that as a result of the attention-grabbing dress, “Google Image Search was born.”

Narciso Rodriguez was behind the red-and-black midi dress Michelle Obama wore the night Barack Obama won the 2008 election.

The Cuban American designer also created an iconic dress for another member of a political family: Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy’s silky 1996 wedding dress. 

In a 2020 episode of the PBS series “Finding Your Roots,” Rodriguez told historian Henry Louis Gates Jr. that he was close with Bessette-Kennedy well before her wedding, an event thrust him into the spotlight.

“I made that wedding dress with so much love for the person that I loved most in the whole world,” he said. “I never viewed it as a press event … but then the next day, after the wedding, it was on the cover of every newspaper around the world. I went from being a very, kind of private person to being a very public person overnight.”

In 2017, the National Museum of African American History and Culture celebrated the life — and fashion — of iconic Cuban entertainer Celia Cruz.

Cruz often wore sparkling dresses, gravity-defying shoes, and colored wigs during her performances.

According to the museum’s website, the red, white, and blue sequin dress featured in the Cruz exhibit was designed by Cuban American designer José Enrique Arteaga.

“Project Runway” crowned its first Latino winner in 2018 and its first Latina winner in 2021.

Colombian-born Jhoan “Sebastian” Grey, who won the show’s 17th season, worked in his family’s leather business while growing up, according to his website. He was inspired to go into fashion after watching a ballet performance with his parents.

Shantall Lacayo, the Nicaraguan designer who won season 19, started her eponymous brand with the help of her mother, whom her website describes as “her main business partner.” The brand’s about section also describes its mission of “reinterpreting national autochthonous elements in order to retake and promote Latin American cultural roots.”

Cardi B, who is of Dominican and Trinidadian descent, stole the show at the 2019 Met Gala.

The theme for the event was “Camp: Notes on Fashion,” prompting celebrities to walk the gala stairs in outrageous outfits.

Cardi’s enormous dress, which was fitted to her body before flaring out into a large train, was designed by Thom Browne.

“I designed this dress for Cardi specifically because she has the ultimate beauty in a woman’s body, and that is what the dress is about for me: taking advantage of that beauty,” the designer told Vogue that year.

Mexican fashion designer Benito Santos created the clothing for an exclusive Día de Muertos Barbie, which was released in September.

The Barbie website states that the $100 Barbie wears a black dress “inspired by the rich cultural tradition of charro suits,” a style introduced to Mexico through Spanish colonization.

In a 1999 article, The Los Angeles Times’ Agustin Gurza said the charro suit became a “symbol of Mexican pride and nationalism,” reminiscent of what the country’s horsemen and cowboys often wore.