This Week's Wow: Carolina Herrera Hosts a Glamorous Adventure in Mexico

In this weekly feature, InStyle’s Fashion News Director Eric Wilson shares his favorite fashion moment of the week, and explains how it could shape styles to come. Look for it on What’s Right Now every Friday.

The Moment: “How are you feeling with the altitude?” asked Carolina Herrera late on Thursday night at Casa Luis Barragàn in Mexico City, where the thin air has been known to slow some visitors down. Let’s just say that it seems to have had the opposite effect on Herrera, who hasn’t stopped moving since she arrived here this week for a gala that will take place tonight in her honor.

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While Herrera (pictured, above) has been overseeing model castings and plans for a double fashion show that will include both her spring 2015 collection and looks from her CH division, she has also been inundated with fans seeking selfies. Mexico, it turns out, is the designer’s top market for social media engagement. So we’ve invited her to take over InStyle’s Instagram account starting tonight to provide behind-the-scenes access to an event that Mexico City is buzzing about.

Why It’s a Wow: Herrera fans from around the world are converging for tonight’s show. Olivia Palermo, Dita Von Teese and Dianna Agron (pictured, above, from L-R) were among the first to arrive for a pre-dinner in the former residence and studio of architect Luis Barragàn, an austere but fascinating example of modern architecture with its famous cantilevered staircase and pink painted roof terrace. Touring the bedroom and guest rooms, with their humble tiny beds beneath portraits of the Virgin Mary, Agron and Von Teese were equally impressed to discover traces of Barragàn’s less pious passions, such as an extensive record collection and, of all things, a handmade shrine to the model Iman, whom he felt was the embodiment of physical perfection.

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Meanwhile, Herrera ushered guests into the late architect’s studio for a dinner of corn soup (spiced to taste), squash blossom crepes with poblano chili sauce and Veracruz-style fish served with almond rice. It was so delicious that a rather large brown spider descended from the rafters for a taste, nearly landing on a guest, when Marc Puig, the chairman of the fragrance company that owns Herrera, deflected it gallantly. Minutes later, the spider landed on him, and suffered a far less glamorous fate. Well, at that point, as one guest noted, you either name it, or you kill it.

Learn More: Stay tuned to instyle.com for updates on Herrera’s Mexican adventure through Monday, and watch for updates on Instagram from tonight’s show and festivities, which promise to run until the wee hours.

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