The deadly style of María Félix

It is 110 years since the birth of one of the great divas of Mexican cinema, a pioneering woman who conquered Hollywood and astonished the world. Her style went beyond the screen, and at Cartier they know it, when she adorned her neck with the shiny figure of a crocodile. She is an icon, and also a pioneer, she put women in the place they deserve. Battered and a defender of the female figure, today she is more than a universal symbol. As the author of her biography, Sergio Almazán, points out, Remember María: “Like every goddess of the show, the Doña stages feelings in accordance with her diva figure: the powerful film presence, the naturalness of luxury and the consequence of her haughtiness: the emotional surrenders of his followers; the envy of her followers, the imitation of her public and the scrutiny of her colleagues, coming out with flying colors and disproportionately in that examination of the industry, of her own and those of others.

Recently, El Palacio de Hierro de Polanco, to commemorate the anniversary of the birth of the great Mexican diva, María de los Ángeles Félix Güereña, exhibited for the first time very special pieces that accompanied María throughout her life, some such as a ceramic blessing pot – holy water font – in the shape of a dove that her father gave her when she was a child in Alamos, Sonora to an invitation from Diego Rivera with drawings and texts written personally by the great Mexican artist, in addition to numerous garments from great designers, witnesses of one of his great passions: fashion and haute couture. More than 70 pieces from her personal wardrobe, some never before exhibited, were presented on the ground floor of El Palacio de Hierro Polanco. Another of his passions was interior design and antiques, decorative pieces from his three houses in Paris, Polanco and Cuernavaca that reflect a cosmopolitan and refined taste that allowed him to create unique spaces in styles from Napoleon III, Louis XV to Indo-Portuguese in each one of his residences.

Much has been written about María’s life and anecdotes, but a very particular one involves her, El Palacio de Hierro and her first film El Peñón de las Ánimas. The story takes us to 1942, when a talent scout observes in the reflection of an antique store, on Palma Street, in the Historic Center, a face of extraordinary beauty. He talks to her and proposes introducing her to the film director Miguel Zacarías, who was in the final stage of the production of El Peñón de las Animas, already with Jorge Negrete in the male lead role and as the female lead, in very advanced negotiations. Gloria Marin. Upon meeting her, Zacarías is very impressed by María Félix, so he decides to give the unknown young woman the opportunity and asks her production team to show the progress of the costumes to the new protagonist.

When they present the clothes to María, after looking at them and touching them, she answers them defiantly: “I, in no way, am going to wear those rags, if they want me to appear in their movie, everything I wear they have to.” buy at El Palacio de Hierro.” Surprised, Zacarías’ collaborators told him that the young lady would not wear the clothes. Zacarías shook his head, took a card and wrote a note to the Director of El Palacio de Hierro Centro, where he asked him to give him everything the young lady asked for. To make the new costumes, María Félix, Armando Valdez Pesa and the production team arrived at El Palacio de Hierro. They were attended by Marguerite Himmel Esslinger de Rostan, better known in the fashion world as Madame Rostan, who had arrived in 1930 to direct the haute couture workshop of El Palacio de Hierro and who would collaborate in the store for 76 years. In one of the many conversations with her, she shared this anecdote with me, which María Félix herself told in an old interview and she herself was surprised by that outburst that perhaps she understood would be part of the magic and mystery that accompanied her personality until the end. end of his life.