From Jovel
The meaning resonates within our community as patterns that reflect and transcend those intricate threads of memory; it flows through our skin, our blood, our hands, and our hearts, ultimately materializing in our own visual experience of the world. This almost tangible evidence of the past becomes possible through the visible forms shaped by our incomprehension of time.
At Casilda Mut, we are constantly re-learning the shapes that have surrounded us since we first spread our wings in the Valle de Jovel, our home—the place that shelters us, keeps us united, grants us freedom, strength, and identity.
Identity is flexible; some things endure while others transform, just as shapes do. However, Casilda always returns home as the figure that remains immutable at its core. Our story is who we are, always tied to a place, to what we call home: The Valle de Jovel.
In this way, Desde Jovel is a unique way to represent what we perceive from our own experience, reminding us that there are many perspectives and attitudes toward reality.
The Valle de Jovel
Before the arrival of the Spanish, the Valle de Jovel was known as Hueyzacatlán, derived from the Náhuatl word meaning “by the great grass.” Later, the name changed to Valle de Jovel, which means “great pasture” in Tsotsil, and it was founded in 1528 by Diego de Mazariegos. By 1848, the city officially adopted the name San Cristóbal de las Casas.
In the Valle de Jovel, the central area consisted of a few blocks surrounding the main square, where Spanish families and their servants resided. In contrast, the surrounding neighborhoods were indigenous residential areas.
In Jovel, each neighborhood has its own patron saint or virgin and is organized based on the predominant economic activities of the area, such as pottery, candle making, confectionery and baking, pyrotechnics, wooden toy production, and more.
Stylistically, Jovel is historically rooted in the Baroque style, a legacy of formal elements that primarily define its architecture. The garments of Desde Jovel emerge from an understanding of reality based on visual elements of our surroundings. Our goal is to revive Baroque forms as a way to access the past and analyze their development, adaptability, and evolution over time.
How We See Things
Every creative process raises questions that pave the way for building a new collection, one imbued with meaningful elements tied to our identity. Some of the questions that explain and sustain this process are: What does it mean to see? Why do forms change? And how can we explain their development?
Throughout the development of this collection at Casilda Mut, we have crystallized forms into patterns, contours, strokes, and geometric figures. These elements shape a reality composed of snapshots, buildings, surroundings, journeys, and more.
We cast a net and discovered a sea of possibilities—forms that resonate with us. These forms, which have traveled through a dance with time, endure in the present moment. In this way, Desde Jovel represents our now—a vision that is not necessarily a mirror but a compression of reality, where we are and where we find ourselves. The creation of our garments reflects how we perceive home and the construction of the spaces we inhabit.
Thread and artisanal techniques have embraced these forms, propelling their evolution throughout the making of this collection. We believe that, just as architecture shapes space through the environment, clothing shapes space through the body (skin and fabric). For Casilda, home always evokes that unmistakable valley, where its first contours were drawn and its first lines were woven.
We Inhabit Forms
The geometric style is present through the use of lines that, in turn, shape more complex figures such as triangles, squares, and circles. Historically, this style emerged from the need to construct spaces. The beginning of construction coincided with the origins of textiles and the development of patterns rooted in techniques of braiding and weaving natural fibers. Through this manual practice, humans created the notion of an inside and an outside—a concept we revisit in the assemblies of this collection.
Desde Jovel explores this notion through the inhabiting of garments, giving meaning to an important concept: the architectural envelope (Semper, 2004). The materials, techniques, designs, and compositions of each piece in this collection act as a medium that defines the relationship between interior and exterior—recognizing the dimension of space between two moments (past and present), two bodies (skin and fabric), and two intimacies (body and environment).
Desde Jovel serves as a reminder that forms have lives of their own, which is why they transform and become vehicles that enable access to the past, constantly shaping the present moment.