Just a few years after launching his namesake brand, Benito Santos’s big break came in 2010, when Ximena Navarrete was crowned the new Miss Universe wearing a red gown made by the designer, becoming the second-ever Mexican to win the title after Lupita Jones in 1991.
For his fall collection, which he showed at the Donatella restaurant in Guadalajara, where he’s from, the designer was thinking about beauty pageants and their cultural impact. “I’ve been a big fan of pageants since I was very young,” he said. “It was my first approach to glamorous ball gowns.” This influence was reflected in a series of designs featuring tight silhouettes, transparencies, puffed sleeves, and opera gloves. The dresses were shown in a diverse color palette that ranged from pink to green to white without omitting the red shade that is his signature and featured a rigorous application of sequins and feathers by the seamstresses in his atelier. Elsewhere, cut-out numbers served as a balance to the classic, princess-line gowns.
