The made-to-order women’s tailoring brand Chava Studio is in Mexico City’s Daniel Garza neighbourhood, just doors down from Casa Luis Barragán and adjacent to the renowned architect’s former home, Casa Ortega. To enter, you find the façade painted with swirling florals and press a buzzer beside a metal door.
Chava’s painted exterior © Fabian Martinez
The building, a former vecindad (housing complex), was built years ago by Diego Villaseñor, a student of Luis Barragán’s. The boutique, which was reimagined for Chava Studio by contemporary architect Sebastián Mancera, carries that lineage into a sun-filled courtyard, through its teal- and raspberry-hued walls and small garden of indigenous plants and on to what Chava founder Olivia Villanti affectionately calls the “shirt cave”, lined with floor-to-ceiling wood panelling.
“It really holds you,” says Villanti, a former dancer whose offices are in the same building. Paintings sourced from the city’s La Lagunilla flea market hang above and alongside furniture made or reimagined by Mancera, including a custom-framed Ikea mirror. The effect is less “upscale boutique”, more “dressing room in a modernist residence”.
Chava founder Olivia Villanti © Maureen Martinez-Evans
