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Neithan Herbert is an Ecuadorian-Mexican luxury fashion label founded by designer and creative director Neithan Ruiz, working at the intersection of couture-informed craftsmanship and ready-to-wear from a production base in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. Rooted in Ruiz’s Ecuadorian Indigenous heritage and his upbringing in Mexico, the brand builds a distinctive visual language around romance, memory, femininity, traditional craft and contemporary construction. Its own vocabulary embraces apparently opposing ideas: softness and structure, minimalism and maximalism, perfection and imperfection, while placing Latin American identity and handwork at the centre of the clothes.
Ruiz’s personal history is inseparable from Neithan Herbert. The designer’s current biography identifies him as born in Ecuador and raised in San Miguel de Allende, with both parents originating from Otavalo. Ruiz describes his heritage as Indigenous and his childhood as one lived between two cultural worlds, each rich in dress, craftsmanship, ritual and folklore. His mother spent years travelling with musicians and artisans to promote Ecuadorian craft before establishing a clothing store in Mexico, where Ecuadorian and Mexican Indigenous workmanship formed part of Ruiz’s earliest exposure to clothing.
Family memory became another strand in his creative vocabulary. Ruiz has spoken about growing up with the stories of a grandfather who was a shaman and of grandmothers who worked as midwives. In the brand’s present-day narrative, those women are remembered as “guardians of life,” and their example informs Ruiz’s understanding of craftsmanship as something transmitted through care, knowledge and community rather than simply as decoration. That perspective helps explain why the label repeatedly returns to ancestry, femininity, ritual, movement and belonging.
The business itself is also a family undertaking. Neithan Herbert identifies Anga Ruiz as co-founder. A summa cum laude graduate of Texas State University in International Studies and Business, Anga brings an administrative and human-relations dimension to the label while sharing its broader interest in Indigenous communities and cultural heritage.
Ruiz studied Fashion Design at Istituto Europeo di Design in Milan and graduated in 2020. IED records him among its Fashion Design graduates, while his current brand biography also notes early freelance work for Italian artists and involvement in a sustainable menswear project associated with Pitti Uomo.
His decisive early platform was Milano Moda Graduate 2020, organised by Camera Nazionale della Moda Italiana. Ruiz was one of six Fashion Design finalists selected from Italian fashion schools, representing IED with his graduate collection Ñuka Shunku. The finalists presented six-look collections during Milan Fashion Week in September 2020. Ruiz’s thesis project also placed joint second in IED’s Avant Défilé graduate showcase that year.
Following his studies, Ruiz returned to San Miguel de Allende. The brand’s official biography dates the launch of his eponymous label there to 2021. Rather than treating Mexico simply as a source of visual reference, Neithan Herbert has made local production an operational part of its identity: the company states that its garments are manufactured in San Miguel de Allende and that it works directly with artisans while favouring local sourcing, limited runs and fair compensation.
The Fall/Winter 2021 collection Ñuka Shunku, translated by Ruiz as “My Heart”, remains fundamental to understanding the label. Developed from his graduate project, it examined his Indigenous roots while paying tribute to his mother and to cultural diversity across Latin America.
Camera Nazionale della Moda Italiana’s archive documents Ruiz’s study of traditional garments including the Ecuadorian anaco and Mexican huipil and Tehuana dress. Pleating, gathered fabric, volume and rectangular constructions were reconsidered through a contemporary ready-to-wear lens, alongside embroidery and knitted details. Wool, lace and chiffon formed part of the material vocabulary.
The collection also introduced a material relationship that illustrated Ruiz’s interest in connecting craft with newer alternatives. CNMI records his use of Desserto, the Mexican cactus-based material developed in Zacatecas. Desserto itself currently describes its product as a technically advanced cactus-based, plant-based material designed for applications including fashion.
Symbolism was equally important. CNMI documents references to tona and nahual concepts, translated through animal imagery including chickens and butterflies and appearing in embroidery, jewellery and accessories. The collection’s handmade brass jewellery incorporated cultivated freshwater pearls and was produced with the assistance of a San Miguel artisan known as Gustavo “El Chino.”
The result established several ideas that have continued through Neithan Herbert: garments as repositories of memory, artisanal detail as part of design rather than ornament added afterwards, and a preference for interpreting heritage rather than reproducing historical costume literally.
The label’s international development did not stop with its graduate appearance in Milan. In 2022, Neithan Herbert presented Stop Watering Dead Flowers through Global Fashion Collective during Paris Fashion Week. Vogue Italia described the collection as a tribute to Ruiz’s grandmother Rosa, while Vogue México highlighted its meeting of artisanal techniques, modern construction and deconstructed traditional silhouettes.
A different emotional landscape appeared with Granchio del mare in acqua “Crab in the Water” shown at Vancouver Fashion Week on April 12, 2023. Inspired by Ruiz’s Cancer zodiac sign and memories of the sea, the collection translated water into flowing silhouettes and contrasts between visual lightness and weight. Vancouver Fashion Week’s own designer archive confirms both the presentation date and the collection’s seaside narrative.
Ruiz described it as the official reveal of his first Resort collection. Black and white reflected his recurring fascination with the nostalgia of old photographs, while brown referenced sand and earth. Jewellery, buttons, closures and other metal elements drew on marine imagery; one particularly personal look incorporated coral symbolism in reference to his mother.
Moonlight, the Spring/Summer 2025 collection, brought the story back to San Miguel de Allende. Presented at Live Aqua Urban Resort on August 31, 2024, it marked Ruiz’s first runway presentation in the city where he grew up. The moon became both a visual guide and a symbolic presence, with the collection referencing Mama Quilla in Ruiz’s interpretation of Inca heritage. Horses provided another recurring motif, visible through extended braids, cowboy-influenced footwear, fringes and fluid silhouettes.
The production story was particularly significant. HOLA! reported cashmere and wool from Guanajuato textile producer Fábricas Soria alongside handmade belts, buckles and buttons produced by San Miguel artisans. Importantly, the widely repeated 80% statistic belongs specifically here: around 80% of the collection was made using fabrics produced in Guanajuato.
The runway also connected fashion with the local community. Part of the proceeds from ticket sales supported Equinoterapia San Miguel, an organisation that uses equine-assisted therapy with children, including those with autism and those facing developmental or traumatic challenges. The relationship was especially fitting for a collection in which horses had already become an important creative symbol. Oaxacan model Karen Vega was among the notable participants in the presentation.
For Spring/Summer 2026, the label turned toward a more abstract meditation on movement and belonging with Raíz Sin Tierra “Root Without Land.” The brand describes the collection as a reflection on identities shaped by memory, migration and lived experience: roots understood not as something confined to one territory, but as knowledge and identity capable of travelling and changing with the individual.
Presented in Mexico City, the collection brought together techniques including smocking, pleating, weaving and embroidery. Reporting around the show identifies cashmere, cactus-based material, cotton, brass and natural dyes among its material vocabulary, with artisans from San Miguel de Allende continuing to play a role in its making. Ruiz’s mother, Etelvina Pillajo Campo, participated in the presentation, while Adriana Paz and Peruvian model Juana Burga were among those on the runway.
In Raíz Sin Tierra, the recurring Neithan Herbert idea of the “nomad” matured beyond travel as a romantic image. Heritage became portable: something held in memory, technique, gesture and material rather than dependent on a single geography.
One of the clearest expressions of Neithan Herbert’s growing international visibility has been its ongoing relationship with Mexican actress Adriana Paz. Their collaboration became visible during the promotional journey for Emilia Pérez, beginning around the 2024 New York Film Festival, where Paz wore a chocolate-brown pleated Neithan Herbert dress. Stylist singled the look out in its coverage of the festival.
The collaboration continued at the 82nd Golden Globe Awards in January 2025. Paz wore a custom black Neithan Herbert gown; contemporary coverage described a corseted construction, lace, semi-transparent sleeves and a velvet skirt, while other reports emphasised its Bardot-style neckline and draping.
Two months later, Paz chose Neithan Herbert again for the 97th Academy Awards, this time in red. The custom gown used an off-the-shoulder or Bardot neckline with a structured, draped form and voluminous skirt, making the actress’s support for Mexican design highly visible on the Oscars carpet.
Paz’s international profile had already risen significantly through Emilia Pérez. At the 2024 Cannes Film Festival, she shared the Best Actress award with co-stars Zoe Saldaña, Karla Sofía Gascón and Selena Gomez; the official Cannes record lists all four actresses as joint recipients.
Their fashion collaboration returned to Cannes in May 2026, when Paz attended the 79th festival while appearing in Diego Luna’s Ceniza en la Boca (Ashes), selected for Special Screenings. For the opening ceremony, she wore a custom black Neithan Herbert gown made at the brand’s Guanajuato atelier. The Guardian noted its tulle overlay and deliberately visible stitching, which the brand explained as a way of foregrounding the human work behind the garment. Cannes’ official archive confirms Paz’s presence with Ceniza en la Boca.
Neithan Herbert’s story is now approaching a symbolic return to the city where Ruiz first appeared through graduate fashion. As of July 24, 2026, the provisional Camera Nazionale della Moda Italiana programme for Milan Fashion Week Spring/Summer 2027 lists Neithan Herbert among the brands scheduled to make their first runway appearances on the main Milan calendar. The September 22–28 edition currently comprises 60 shows, including 54 physical presentations, with Neithan Herbert named alongside fellow incoming labels Marques’ Almeida, Miguel Vieira and Victor-Hart.
Because the calendar remains provisional, individual scheduling should be treated carefully. FashionUnited reports that the definitive programme, including presentations and events, is due on September 8, 2026. Until then, a precise Neithan Herbert runway date and time should not be presented as final.
For Ruiz, the Milan inclusion creates a compelling circle: from a six-look graduate collection presented through Milano Moda Graduate in 2020 to an independent label returning to the city’s fashion calendar with production still centred in Mexico.
Neithan Herbert has developed through a consistent conversation between places: Ecuador and Mexico, San Miguel de Allende and Milan, family memory and an international fashion audience. Yet geography alone does not explain the label. Its defining strength is the way Ruiz turns biography into a working design system: pleating, draping, tailoring, lace, brass, embroidery, symbolic jewellery and locally developed textiles all functioning as carriers of memory.
The brand’s most enduring idea may be its conviction that heritage need not remain static to remain meaningful. From Ñuka Shunku to Raíz Sin Tierra, traditions are examined, deconstructed and moved into new silhouettes rather than simply replicated. Local makers remain present within that process, while international runways and red carpets provide an increasingly broad stage for the results.
In that sense, Neithan Herbert represents a contemporary model of Latin American luxury built not around distance from its place of production, but around closeness to it. San Miguel de Allende remains both workshop and creative reference point, while Ruiz’s Ecuadorian heritage supplies another layer of memory and cultural perspective. As the label prepares for its next Milan chapter, the thread connecting those worlds remains remarkably clear: clothing conceived not simply as an object of fashion, but as something capable of carrying a story from one generation, place and experience into another.
Camera Nazionale della Moda Italiana. (2020). Milano Moda Graduate 2020: Awards and Fashion Design finalists.
Camera Nazionale della Moda Italiana. (n.d.). Neithan Herbert Ruiz Pillajo: Ñuka Shunku, womenswear FW21.
Desserto. (2026). Desserto cactus-based materials. Adriano Di Marti S.A. de C.V.
Festival de Cannes. (2024, May 25). The 77th Festival de Cannes winners’ list.
Festival de Cannes. (2026). Ceniza en la Boca (Ashes). Official Selection—Special Screenings.
Festival de Cannes. (2026, May 13). Ceniza en la Boca, Adriana Paz, photocall.
García, L. (2025, January 5). Adriana Paz brilla en los Golden Globes 2025 con un vestido con corsé de diseñador mexicano. Vogue México.
Gomez, S. (2024, September 3). Neithan Herbert celebrates heritage and craftsmanship during his SS25 Ready-to-Wear fashion show. HOLA! USA.
Gomez, S. (2025, January 6). Adriana Paz debuts at the 2025 Golden Globes red carpet in a timeless gown from Mexican designer Neithan Herbert. HOLA! USA.
IED Istituto Europeo di Design. (2020, October 2). I talenti IED a Milano Moda Graduate: riconoscimento speciale ad Alessandro Rupilli.
Jiménez Rivera, A. (2025, September 27). “Raíz sin tierra”: la colección de Neithan Herbert que celebra orígenes y diversidad. Milenio.
Naef, I. (2026, July 24). La Milano Fashion Week donna partirà il 22 settembre, ad aprire il calendario sarà Prada. FashionUnited.
Neithan Herbert. (n.d.). About: The brand, our story, the designer, foundation and company.
Neithan Herbert. (n.d.). Fashion shows: Raíz Sin Tierra, Moonlight and Ñuka Shunku.
Reber, L. (2024, October 4). The New York Film Festival is the place to go for iconic celebrity outfit spotting. Stylist.
Vancouver Fashion Week. (2023). Neithan Herbert: Show day April 12, 2023.
Vogue Italia. (2022). Il sostegno al talento di Global Fashion Collective.
Vogue México. (2022, October 14). Global Fashion Collective presente en Paris y Milan Fashion Week primavera-verano 2023.
Zesati, L. (2024, September 27). Neithan Herbert presenta su colección “Moonlight” en San Miguel de Allende. Glamour México.
The Guardian. (2026, May 16). Capes, crinkles and couture: The best red carpet looks from the Cannes Film Festival.
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