Carla Fernandez Chicomecoatl Coat

Chicomecóatl is the Nahua goddess of maize. Her name means Seven Serpent, from her day-sign in the ritual calendar, and she was the deity of the crop that everything else in Mesoamerica was built on: not a goddess of abundance in the abstract, but of the specific thing that had to come up every year or people died. She is usually shown holding maize in both hands.

That is the name on this coat. It tells you nothing about the cut, and it tells you a great deal about the house, which names outerwear after the agricultural deities of the people its garments are made with rather than after streets in Paris. We do not hold a composition or an origin for this coat, so this page will not describe cloth it has not been told about. What it can say is that a coat is the piece where this house’s method is hardest to execute and most worth looking at, because a coat has to hold a shape while standing empty and a panel-built garment would rather not.

Why we selected it

Outerwear is where a house either has a method or does not, and Fernández’s shows up under a coat more plainly than anywhere else in her work. We wanted one piece in this selection carrying that weight.

Carla Fernández names her outerwear after Nahua deities, and this is the one carrying the goddess of maize.

Materials and construction

We do not hold a fiber content, a color, a weave, or a country of origin for this coat. Please ask us and we will look at the piece with you.

Fit notes

A coat built from panels rather than cut on a curve tends to sit square through the shoulder and to fall straight from there, so it goes over volume more easily than a tailored coat does and holds less of a waist. Ours is on the record in one size only, which is a fact about the record rather than a recommendation, so please ask before choosing.

Styling

Over the Vestido Chenalho or the Vestido Rebozo Corto. Over the Top Teco with the Pantalón Concreto. Not over a poncho, which is asking two garments to do one job.

Care

Follow the care label on the coat itself until the composition is known, and treat an unlined panel-built coat gently at the shoulder, which is where all of its weight is carried. Our care guidance covers the principles.

Related pieces

The Saco Chinanteco is a jacket named for the Chinantec of the Sierra Norte de Oaxaca, and the Capa Charra Gris Calado Negro is gray wool with black hand-cut leather applied. Everything we carry from Carla Fernández is listed together.