Interview and text by : Karl Manrique
It is not the first time that the Sonoran designer Luis Corrales, better known as NOLO, goes to New York to present his design and vision. Once again, this September 2025, he was one of the creatives who was part of the Global Fashion Collective at the recent New York Fashion Week in its S/S 26 edition, along with a large group of designers from various countries such as Japan, Canada, the United States, South Korea, Peru, Mexico, Argentina, United Arab Emirates, and Taiwan, who showed in three shows a crucible of proposals with much to offer, once again accompanied by the mastery of Cristina Cuellar’s makeup and her team.
NOLO is already a powerful name within Mexican design. Already in 2023 he presented in Milan, also as part of the Global Fashion Collective, which positioned him as one of the contemporary designers who already has great international projection; something he has achieved in less than a decade.
The proposal that this brand manages remains intimately attached to streetwear, fused with Mexican culture, the essence of Sonora, music, and urban art. His latest Spring/Summer 2026 collection, at New York Fashion Week, was presented under the name Dream of Mexicanication, projected as a manifesto through clothing and color, reimagining Mexicanity from a global perspective.
In this exclusive interview for Fashion Thinking, designer Luis Corrales talks to us about his new collection, the concept of mexicanication, his roots, and fashion as a means of social manifesto..
Fashion Thinking (FT)- Your work has always been marked by music, urban art, and social and cultural themes. What message does this new collection convey and what were the main sources of inspiration that gave it life?
Luis Corrales (LC): To honor Mexico with mexicanication, with products, raw materials, fabrics that I find in Mexico. To show my roots. Everything that surrounds me in my daily life; for example, grass, something we always step on. I thought: let’s give it another life…
The message is: there is no limit, you can do whatever you want. Do whatever you want and whatever you can with what you have around you. I take into account everything I see and observe, everything. And in Mexico there are no limits; we are simply like that…
When something cannot be done, we make a “mexicanada”… that is mexicanication.
My main source of inspiration comes from my experiences. I have always been influenced by music and art, but more than anything, it is from my memories that I get the greatest inspiration.
Dream of Mexicanication is that… the dream that everyone knows what Mexicans can do with what we have at hand at the moment. When “mexicanadas” turn into some article or art. It is globalizing our culture without being literal and contrasting it with the world, as in this case it was New York, our second home, which also greatly influences my creative process.
FT- In your vision as a creator, do you consider that fashion can become a contemporary social manifesto or that it should be understood only from aesthetics?
LC- Yes, of course, there is always a manifesto. In what you wear there is a subtext in the garments: it is the story I tell. I do not seek for it to be understandable or literal; more than anything, it is something that moves, that makes you feel, when you see it and also when you wear it.
My vision is to positively impact people. Each garment tells a story, and when my designs connect with someone, the stories mix, and that is where we identify with each other. In this collection it is very clear: everything that happens in the world, everything around us, is constantly impacting us, and when I create something, that is reflected. Sometimes it is very literal, other times not.
FT- It is not the first time you present at New York Fashion Week. What do you expect from this particular edition and how do you live it differently from your previous participations?
LC- Yes, we are very grateful because this is already the 4th edition that we present in New York. What I expect from this edition is to connect: that the collection connects with people, with memories, experiences, sensations, even places. To connect and make people feel, that is what I expect from this edition: to connect my vision of what I am as a Mexican and of what Mexico is for me with different people in the world. To tell a couple of stories through clothing. To have the opportunity to make those who wear NOLO feel good.
Dream of Mexicanication was a concept that was born thanks to the way I was creating the pieces, and it became the main idea of this collection.
FT- NOLO MX has managed to build its own identity within Mexican fashion. How do you manage to maintain that essence in each collection and what would you say makes the brand unique in the current landscape?
LC- Always wanting to be original, searching from within myself. Following my intuition and saying “do it,” until it comes out. I believe that by keeping my feet firmly on the ground, being sincere with myself and freeing my creativity by not setting limits. I feel that I am at a point where I believe that nothing is impossible, and that makes me continue here, exposing what I am and what I believe in through clothing.
It may be because I take all the risks: materializing everything I feel and creating from my most honest place, as if I were doing it just for myself, beyond the rules and what is established of what it should be. Doing it my way, and for everyone: from kids to adults; clothing to make everyone feel good. I think that is what makes NOLO unique.
My main source of inspiration comes from my experiences. I have always been influenced by music and art, but more than anything, it is from my memories that I get the greatest inspiration.
FT- Tell us about the creative process behind this collection: from conception to final construction. What distinctive elements made the difference compared to your previous works?
We really took more risks, as I said before. I opened myself to the possibility of working with materials that I would only get in Mexico, which is where I worked on this collection. Even if the inspiration for a particular design was or was not from Mexico, I connected it with what I had at hand right where I was.
We gave life, in the world of clothing, to materials that are supposedly not for dressing. Dream of Mexicanication was a concept that was born thanks to the way I was creating the pieces, and it became the main idea of this collection.
** Agradecemos a Luis Corrales y Nolo MX por esta entrevista, y al Global Fashion Collective por hacerla posible. Todas las fotografías son cortesía de Global Fashion Collective.
Análisis, Cultura y Mindset de la moda. 
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