Growing up in Leon Guanajuato, Carlos was the oldest of three siblings, a busy household with a strong mother, surrounded by extended family in Leon. Style and design came easy to Carlos even as a child as he customized his hand me down clothes from relatives, and at the age of nine, he began to alter these slightly worn garments and transform them, by hand, into something he was proud to wear. Wi
th many girls in his family, he also began to take his cousins Barbie dolls and create new looks for them, designing new outfits and style combinations. This ignited his passion for sewing that led to creating ensembles for his mom and aunts’, jumping from Barbie to the ladies in his family was a natural step. In 1994, at the age of 22, Carlos relocated to San Diego where he found work in the hospitality business. He continued to sew, creating costumes and basic dresses for friends. Seeing his talent, a friend asked Carlos to make a gown for a beauty pageant she was in, and Carlos took his first step into personal design. From there he began to create over the top looks for the Imperial Court of San Diego, Best in Drag, Tantrums and Tiaras and other organizations who held shows to benefit the San Diego LGBT Community Center and it’s programs. These over the top designs gave free reign to his imagination, and helped craft his understanding of the theatric nature of an extravagant look. During this time, a make-up artist from one of the runway shows introduced Carlos to a Salsa Dancer within the Latin Dance community - launching his new venture as a dance costume designer. Currently numerous individual dancers, teams and troupes form the Latin World Dance Cup order costumes for their next competition . His designs have been worn at the World Latin Dance Cup and World Salsa Summit & Global Salsa Championship, including most of the winners. His work is in high demand within the Salsa community as well as other dance genres. Now his Salsa Costumes, which have grown into a small empire, are being shipped to Paris, Germany, New Zealand and Australia on a regular basis. Finally many of these young dancers are at the age of getting married. The first request for a wedding gown came three years ago from a Salsa dancer that was convinced Carlos, doing such a great job with her performance outfits, would do something amazing for her special day and the dress, as they say is history. This opened up a whole new world of couture custom gowns for his clients and just recently has been asked to create one of a kind designer gown for M Bride, a high end salon in La Jolla, California. Carlos has never used patterns and he understands a women’s body and what design would look best on her, keeping in mind the movement of both the garment and the lucky person wearing his design. His new lines will focus on evening, cocktail and bridal wear , a perfect next step to showcase his talent and how to “dress” a woman so that she is truly the star of the show.
