First Time Here?

In only two years, designer Paola Hernandez has exploded across the Mexican fashion scene. Already featured in spreads in Spanish language Elle, Marie Claire, and Harper’s Bazaar, among others, the 25-year-old designer is a south of the border phenom.

Think of her as Mexico’s Christian Siriano - a young designer with a mature, avante garde sensibility beyond her years.

Which is why I’m so excited to be kicking off our new “Next Big Thing” feature with Paola. “It is an honor to be the first Next Big Thing,” Paola tells Stylehive. “I love my work and sharing it with others. So it is always an honor to be heard and appreciated.”

Read on for more about Paola, then click WATCH VIDEO for her Spring/Summer 2008 collection, and SEE SLIDESHOW for pieces from her Fall/Winter collection.

Meet Paola
Paola was born in 1982 in Mexico City, and after studying painting and fashion in college, launched her first label, Glam, in 2005. She launched her eponymous Paola Hernandez collection just last year. “Yoga, meditation, dance, [and] music,” are constant sources of ideas, says Paola.

Her Inspirations
“My inspiration is different for every collection. But in general, it is about human evolution,” Paola tells Stylehive. Her Fall/Winter 2008 collection, which just debuted at Fashion Week Mexico, “was about how knowledge from your past supports you to be who you are now, to be stronger, to be more evolved. Therefore, the aesthetic inspiration was about a time in Mexico around early 1900s, called Porfiriato.” Her favorite materials for the collection were “golden metallic rooster shape buttons, silk, cashmere, wool, cotton, [and] angora.”

Follow Paola
Paola has a MyHive page on Stylehive, so click here to follow her and see what kind of style and fashion she’s into, and to see more images of her designs. Paola also has a bilingual website paolahernandez.com that has images from her amazing fashions spreads, and more insight into her work and personality.

Paola For Sale?
If you want to buy some of Paola’s creations, that takes a little more doing, unless you live in Mexico, where she is sold in select boutiques, or in Montreal, where she is carried at St. Laurent. “I want to start selling and showing in the U.S. to share my creation with more people,” she says. “Maybe Coterie in NYC.”

Perfect - we’ll be covering it!

Next Big Thing is a weekly feature spotlighting an as-yet discovered talent who we discovered on Stylehive. Click back every Monday for the next genius in our series.