Meet the Indigenous women behind Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum’s ‘most stylish’ looks

Audio By Carbonatix

Enlarge

SAN ISIDRO BUEN SUCESO, Mexico (AP) — In the Mexican mountain town of San Isidro Buen Suceso, Virginia Verónica Arce Arce begins her days as she has for decades: seated at her vintage Singer sewing machine, guiding bright threads into intricate patterns passed down through generations.

Arce is part of a group of talented female Indigenous artisans who collaborate to create the colorful embroidered dresses and huipiles — traditional blouses worn by Indigenous women — that have become a closet staple for Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum and earned her a spot on the New York Times “Most Stylish” list.

Since launching her campaign for president, Sheinbaum has worn garments that honor the textile traditions of different Mexican Indigenous communities.

“In each embroidery there is not only a lot of work, there is tradition, there is history, there is legacy … each embroidery represents something that a woman designed and thought of,” Sheinbaum said Wednesday.

The president’s style caught the attention of the New York Times, which this month included her in its list of the most stylish people of 2025, saying she has drawn attention to the country’s Indigenous fashion by wearing “embroidered clothing.”

Arce learned the art of Nahuatl embroidery at a young age from her father. Her motifs of flora and fauna from La Malinche mountain in the central Mexican state of Tlaxcala became her signature and soon caught Sheinbaum’s attention.

The president wore one of Arce’s embroidery designs sewn on an elaborate purple gown to lead her first Mexican Independence Day celebration on Sept. 15.

When the president stepped onto the balcony of the National Palace to wave the Mexican flag, millions of Mexicans saw Arce’s work.

“It was very emotional,” Arce said, describing how her family gathered in front of the TV to spot the familiar stitches. “When she came out and was wearing the dress, it was a very emotional to see her with it, with the embroidery from Tlaxcala and, above all, from my community.”

It wasn’t the first time Sheinbaum had worn something made by Arce. One of Arce’s traditional huipiles was worn by Sheinbaum during her presidential campaign and later readapted into a formal suit by Olivia Trujillo Cortez, one of the president´s seamstresses.

Sheinbaum’s team often recycles her clothes. When Sheinbaum has worn a blouse or a dress a few times, she asks to readapt the piece into a suit or a jacket, giving them new life without spending too much, Trujillo said.

Using embroidery and textile patterns from Indigenous artisans from Oaxaca, Chiapas and other places, Trujillo began producing suits, dresses and formal ensembles for debates, campaign rallies and, eventually, the presidential palace.

“People from all social backgrounds now want a dress like the president’s. It’s become a trend,” Trujillo said of Sheinbaum’s embroidered pieces.

Sheinbaum, like former President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, has showcased and defended Mexican popular art from plagiarism. In August, her administration accused sportswear company Adidas of ¨cultural appropriation¨ and of copying the design of the traditional footwear known as huaraches made by the Zapotec Indigenous people in Oaxaca.

In 2021, the federal government asked brands including Zara, Anthropologie and Patowl to provide a public explanation for why they copied embroidered blouses from Oaxaca’s Indigenous communities to sell in their stores.

These pre-Hispanic shoes and clothing, whose patterns and fabrics vary according to region, were for centuries seen with contempt within Mexico. There were even periods during the colonial era when huipiles were burned in public bonfires as part of an effort to eradicate all that came from Indigenous people.

For years, if someone wore a huipil “it looked bad,” the president said, adding that disdain for the clothing, which is an expression of racism, remains in some places in the country until this day.

Claudia Vásquez Aquino, an artisan from the state of Oaxaca and one of the many women behind the president’s signature style, is grateful Sheinbaum is showing the world the value of Indigenous clothing.

Sheinbaum was sworn in on Oct. 1, 2024, in an elegant ivory dress with a round neckline, long sleeves and colorful floral embroidery on part of the skirt. The dress was designed and embroidered by Vásquez in the style of the southern state of Oaxaca and sewn by Trujillo.

“You have no idea how significant this is for each artisan,” said Vásquez, who still remembers how as a child she would change her traditional clothes when going to the city to avoid being mocked.

“We went to that extreme of taking off our huipil, putting on a casual blouse or pants…we didn’t want to arrive in the capital looking like an Indigenous woman,” she said. “Today everything has changed.”