Reflections on the rain
Summer is about to begin in Mexico, which means a lot of rain for our region of the world. Taking advantage of the launch of our collection designed especially for this season, we wanted to open a space to reflect on this season, which distinguishes us and distances us from the commonly transmitted conception, even more so in the fashion sector.
Although it formally begins on June 21, the atmosphere here has been felt for weeks now. In the collective imagination, summer has a lot of beach and relaxation, sunny paradises, the seashore, vacations and swimsuits. We would prefer to be on a lounge chair under the sun, in the summer of advertisements, in Acapulco. But instead we live in Mexico City, where that summer—just like white Christmas—does not exist. There is the 25+ degree heat followed by a 99% chance of precipitation just a few hours later.
In less asphalt places, summer is a time of prosperity, of greenery, of life. It is time of many harvests, the sky is blue. Even in pictorial representations throughout time, summer has always been sunny and beautiful, yellow and abundant. However, summer is also a rainy time in most of the world and everywhere it causes as much havoc as it benefits. Take the summer monsoon, which causes severe flooding year after year, but also keeps alive the rice fields that feed many Asian countries.
In ancient cultures, the rain gods were praised and honored so that, thanks to them, the crops bore fruit and the fields flourished. This custom is not a fact of the past, in Mexico there are still communities that live in a close and sacred relationship with water. Near Popocatépetl, requests and offerings are made to the volcanoes so that the rain comes. The so-called weathermen are people who know the climate and their surroundings so well that they can determine if there will be strong winds that will not allow the harvest or if it will hail. For them the connection with the rains is simple: if there is no water there is no food.
People's relationship with rain (and nature in general) has changed since we live in cities, we are no longer aware of the impact it has on our environment and its importance in our lives. In the city, particularly in Mexico City, rain does not mean anything good: road chaos, flooding, delays in the subway, are just some of the inconveniences it causes. The rain brings to light the city's problems: road insufficiencies, poor paving, excess garbage, drainage problems. All these problems also seem to contribute to showing the worst version of people, a cursing, overwhelmed, stressed and frizzy version.
We no longer associate rain directly with obtaining our food, nor is the growth of rivers something that is our concern. Maybe we think that rain is no longer needed in cities, or we don't think about it at all. Speaking of things that do affect us, during the rainy season, the air quality increases noticeably, something that the city desperately needs, in addition to cooling off the intense and suffocating heat of summer. The streets are a little brighter with the greening of the vegetation.
Summer in Mexico City is, without a doubt, a time of contrast. Fire and water, joy and bad mood, sandals and rain boots. It is an uncomfortable time due to the constant presence of chance; Rain is always an unpredictable thing. Even when meteorology strives to provide accurate data, it never seems that we are clear when the rains are going to start and, even if we see the clouds, when it starts to fall it is always a surprise. The rainy season is a time of contrast. On the one hand, it shows all the inconveniences of life in the city, but it leaves behind us, as a gift, the freshness and smell of wet earth from which it cannot be separated, reminders of its true nature and importance in our lives.