The spectacular style of Eva Perón, notably the huge ball gown she wore in 1951, made her a controversial yet beloved historical figure in Argentina.
Eva Peron, First Lady of Argentina, at the 141st Independence Day celebration on May 30, 1951.
Keystone/Getty Photographs
In 1946, Eva Perón, also known as Evita, became Argentina’s first lady and pushed for women’s suffrage and workers’ rights. According to Britannica, Perón never held governmental office, but operated as “de facto minister of health and labor, granting significant wage hikes to unions.”
Additionally, Perón was renowned for her love of fashion and elegance. According to a 1997 Wall Street Journal article, Italian manufacturer Salvatore Ferragamo created dozens of shoes for the first lady between 1946 until her death in 1952. Ferragamo said in his book “Shoemaker of Dreams” that she preferred footwear fashioned from unusual animal skins, such as lizard and armadillo.
According to the WSJ, Ferragamo wrote that Mrs. Peron “had the wildness of the Andes in her feet and the wildness of excess in her demands.” “They were the most spectacular shoes I’ve ever made, and I was compelled to charge outrageous rates for them.”
Rita Moreno repurposed her elaborate 1962 Oscars gown for the 2018 ceremony.
George Chakiris and Rita Moreno accept their prizes at the 1962 Academy Awards; Rita Moreno on March 4, 2018 at the Academy Awards.
Rick Rowell/Getty Images; Bettmann – Contributor/Getty Images
According to the History Channel, the Puerto Rican actress originally donned the gold and black Pitoy Moreno gown to accept the prize for best supporting actress in “West Side Story,” becoming the first Latina to win an Oscar.
“It has been hanging in my closet, and I occasionally touch it. I adore It it was an incredible evening “She told People when she wore the gown to the 2018 Oscars for the second time. There was no red carpet back then; times were so different.
Bianca Jagger’s cool-girl wedding dress elevated her to fashion star status.
On May 12, 1971, Mick and Bianca Jagger celebrate their wedding day.
Express/Getty Photographs
In 1978, the Nicaraguan-born Jagger filed for divorce from the Rolling Stones frontman. She later traveled the world as a human rights crusader while attending Studio 54 parties with Roy Halston, Liza Minnelli, and Andy Warhol, among others.
Since 1977, moms of “disappeared” children in Argentina have worn white headscarves to protest abductions in the country.
Taty Almeida, a member of the Argentine human rights organization “Madres de Plaza de Mayo,” dons a white head scarf on April 20, 2017; Mothers of Plaza de Mayo protest in front of the Parish Santa Rosa de Lima in Bragado, Argentina, on November 17, 1988.
Eitan Abramovich/AFP by way of Getty Images; Ricardo Ceppi/Getty Images.
According to the History Channel, the Mothers (and Grandmothers) of the Plaza de Mayo protest the disappearances of up to 30,000 people every Thursday in the iconic Buenos Aires square.
Thousands of abductions occurred during Argentina’s “Dirty War” in the 1970s and 1980s, as the military dictatorship “turned against its own people,” according to the source. According to the Los Angeles Times, to attract attention to the “Desaparecidos,” or those who disappeared, the Mothers wear white headscarves that represent the cloth diapers their children wore.
When he joined Balmain in 1993, Oscar de la Renta became the first designer from the Dominican Republic to work for a French couture house.
On January 25, 1993, Oscar de la Renta designed his debut collection for fashion label Balmain.
Micheline Pelletier/Sygma through Getty Images
According to Business of Fashion, the Dominican designer left his home in Santo Domingo to study painting at The Academy of San Fernando in Madrid. He later trained under the Spanish-born Cristóbal Balenciaga.
De la Renta designed designs for Balmain through 2003. Additionally, he served as president of the Council of Fashion Designers of America from 1973 to 1976 and from 1986 to 1988.
Selena Quintanilla-Pérez, commonly referred to as the “Queen of Tejano music,” wore a gorgeous crimson jumpsuit for a 1995 concert.
On February 26, 1995, Selena Quintanilla-Pérez performs at the Houston Astrodome.
Arlene Richie/Getty Images
During her brief career, Quintanilla-Pérez, known mononymously as Selena, donned a number of bold outfits. She frequently used glistening fabrics and colorful accessories like as bustiers and bejeweled caps when performing.
Her Houston Astrodome performance in 1995 was her last broadcast performance before she was shot and died on March 31, 1995. She was 23 years old.
At the 2000 Grammy Awards, Jennifer Lopez’s jaw-dropping Versace gown was the talk of the town. In 2019, she stunned in a similar manner when walking the Versace runway.
Jennifer Lopez at the 2000 Grammy Awards on February 23, 2000; Jennifer Lopez walks the runway during Milan Fashion Week at the Versace presentation on September 20, 2019.
Jacopo Raule/Getty Images; Steve Granitz Archive/WireImage
Insider previously reported that Lopez’s leaf-print gown with a plunging neckline inspired the establishment of Google Image Search.
“It was the most popular search query we had ever encountered at the time. But there was no surefire method to give people precisely what they desired: J.Lo in that dress “In 2015, Google CEO Eric Schmidt penned an essay for Project Syndicate.
Later, he elaborated that “Google Image Search was born” as a result of the garment.
Michelle Obama wore a red-and-black midi dress designed by Narciso Rodriguez the night Barack Obama won the 2008 presidential election.
Barack Obama and Michelle Obama at a Chicago, Illinois, election night party on November 4, 2008; On September 5, 2018, Narciso Rodriguez attends the 2018 Couture Council Award Luncheon.
Joe Raedle/Getty Images/WireImage; Monica Schipper/Getty Images
The Cuban-American designer also made an unforgettable wedding gown for another member of a political family in 1996: Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy.
Rodriguez informed historian Henry Louis Gates Jr. in an upcoming episode of the PBS series “Finding Your Roots” that he was close with Bessette-Kennedy well before her wedding, which catapulted him into the spotlight.
“I made that wedding gown with so much love for the person I loved the most in the entire world,” he explained. “I never considered it a publicity event, but the day following the wedding, it was on the front page of every newspaper in the globe. Overnight, I moved from being a very private individual to a very public one.”
In 2017, the National Museum of African American History and Culture commemorated Celia Cruz’s life and fashion.
Celia Cruz performing in Madison Square Garden on October 23, 1993, while holding a Cuban flag; one of Celia Cruz’s gowns on display at the National Museum of African American History and Culture on January 15, 2017.
Photographs by Jack Vartoogian/Getty Images and Walter McBride/Getty Images
During her performances, Cruz frequently sported sparkly costumes, gravity-defying shoes, and colored wigs.
The red, white, and blue sequined outfit included in the Cruz show was made by Cuban-American fashion designer José Enrique Arteaga, according to the museum’s website.
In 2018, “Project Runway” crowned its first Latino champion, and in 2021, its first Latina.
Jhoan “Sebastian” Grey competes in season 17 of “Project Runway” in 2018; Shantall Lacayo competes in season 19 of “Project Runway” in 2021.
Karolina Wojtasik/Bravo/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty Images; Barbara Nitke/Bravo/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images
Jhoan “Sebastian” Grey, who won the seventeenth season of the show and was born in Colombia, worked in his family’s leather company as a child, according to his website. Seeing a ballet performance with his parents motivated him to enter the fashion industry.
Season 19’s winning Nicaraguan designer, Shantall Lacayo, founded her namesake label with the assistance of her mother, whom her website describes as “her primary business partner.” The purpose of reinterpreting national indigenous components in order to reclaim and promote Latin American cultural roots is described in the brand’s about section.
At the 2019 Met Gala, Cardi B, who is of Dominican and Trinidadian origin, stole the show.
Cardi B will perform at the Met Gala on May 6, 2019.
Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images/The Metropolitan Museum of Art/Vogue
The event’s theme was “Camp: Notes on Fashion,” which prompted celebrities to climb the gala steps in outlandish attire.
Thom Browne designed Cardi’s huge gown, which clung to her body before bursting out into a long train.
The designer told Vogue at the time, “I designed this dress for Cardi because she has the utmost beauty in a woman’s physique, and that is what the garment is about for me: capitalizing on that beauty.”
Benito Santos, a Mexican fashion designer, designed the clothes for an unique Da de Muertos Barbie that was released in September.
On September 26, 2022, Benito Santos poses at the introduction of his Da de Muertos special edition Barbie.
Medios y Media/Getty Images
According to the Barbie website, the $100 Barbie wears a black outfit “inspired by the rich cultural legacy of charro suits,” a style that was introduced to Mexico by Spanish colonialism.
Agustin Gurza of The Los Angeles Times stated in a 1999 article that the charro suit became a “symbol of Mexican pride and nationalism” since it resembled the attire worn by the country’s horsemen and cowboys.