Mexican Designer Ricardo Seco Brings Culture to “LIFE” with Latest Collection

The Mexican designer Ricardo Seco took to a Chelsea hotel roof top this week to show off his new collection for New York Men’s Fashion Week 2016. Dubbed “LIFE”, this Spring/Summer 2017 collection makes heavy use of prints and paste-­like colors to embody not only the designer’s origins in Mexico, but also Seco’s spirit of “always looking forward, while remembering where I’m from.”

The designer, clad in a simple outfit of a white t­shirt, black jeans, and a leather jacket tied around his waist, seemed to be in all places at once; he was adjusting the clothes on models one minute and conducting an interview the next. His models stood stoically on a series of small platforms, one per, as eclectic house music blared from the rooftop pool’s sound system.

His pieces were decidedly resonant of Mexico,­ for example, a pink neoprene sweatshirt with black palm tree print was just one of the many items in the “LIFE” collection. Such colorful designs stand in stark contrast with the New York stereotype of all ­black outfits. When each designer was asked to create an emoji this year, Seco chose to have a white silhouette of Mexico within a big red apple ­ representing, of course, New York City.

Overall, the presentation itself was curated impeccably and evoked the same emotion that Seco intended to convey with his collection. His pieces, illuminated by the late-­afternoon sun on the rooftop of a Mexican­-owned hotel in Chelsea, were able to say without words “where I’m from and what I love.”