“When I go to a place, my friends are always waiting to see my outfit,” Lagar Martell said with a grin. His casual look certainly caught my eye on a festive Sunday in early May while visiting San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. It was, in fact, a holiday — Día de la Santa Cruz — and in the central Jardín Allende where we met, the entire plaza was filled with people and the music of Mariachi bands, dancing and giant walking puppets made of papier-mâché called mojigangas.
As vivid as the scene was, Martell, 55, who works in construction, stood out for being both cool and chic in blue-tinted glasses, contrasting neutrals and a straw hat. He even managed to remain so while being flanked by his wife and daughters as they eagerly leaped in to translate his Spanish.
“I like my outfit because of the heat,” he said of the linens he wore, adding that he acquired one of the pieces from Mérida, in the Yucatán Peninsula, a city known for it fabric. He said that among his friends, he was known for having style that was “different” from the norm, and that he relished standing out. “I like people to look at me,” he said.
Simbarashe Cha is a Times photographer and visual columnist documenting style and fashion around the world.
The post Neutrals That Stand Out Even in a Raucous Festival appeared first on New York Times.
