From ateliers hawking handmade textiles by the country’s preeminent artisan groups to culinary supply stores where staples like molcajetes and jícaras are on display alongside artisanal Mezcal and vinyl records, these are Mexico City’s not-to-miss design studios and luxury boutiques for handmade home goods.
Utilitario Mexicano
Owners Libia Moreno and Enrique Arellano opened Utilitario Mexicano in Colonia Juárez in a quest to curate and promote a selection of made-in-Mexico goods produced by regional craftsmen, artisans, and small-scale traders. The home goods shop features a surplus of 1000 minimalist kitchen staples—plus additional items like woven shopping bags and vinyl records—from coffee cups made in matte-finished stoneware and molcajetes made from volcanic stone to hand-carved wooden jícaras, drinking gourds best paired with the shop’s selection of artisanal Mezcal.
Veta
Named after the natural grain patterns of their preeminent material, Veta is a design studio focused on crafting and manufacturing wood furniture and interior products. Established by Rodrigo Mendoza López and Celeste Medina Martínez, the studio’s talented collective of designers create each product—from oak rocking chairs with woven cotton seats to brass-wheeled bar carts made in tzalam wood—with the aim to revive the legacy of Mexican detailing and craftsmanship. The studio’s products are featured in their online shop, and custom commissions are available on request.
Ikal
Located on Avenida Masaryk in the luxurious Polanco district, this concept store shines a spotlight on independent Mexican brands. While the store’s anterior is dedicated to luxe fashion brands, the store’s opening gallery is all about quirky home goods and objects like Mesoamerican-inspired copper serving gourds and body milks and hand soaps made from marigold flowers by For All Folks, a formula inspired by the Maya’s use homeopathic use of the plant as medicine. Throughout the year, the store also hosts La Lonja, an outdoor design market formed to promote contemporary Mexican design culture.
Lago DF
Just down the street from Ikal is Lago DF, a boutique shop focused on promoting Latin American design in Mexico. Though the boutique features goods produced by artists in Peru, Colombia, and Brazil, some of the most popular items are by Mexican designers: patterned pillowcases by Colorindio, marble lamps with brass touch switches by andJacob, and gold leaf framed prints inspired by the country’s natural minerals, stones, and flora by Fervor. During the brand’s bi-yearly pop-up, Caravana Americana, the stores selection of goods increases to over 100 emerging designers, makers, and artisans who produce home goods like furniture and handmade textiles with most preserving the regional techniques of Mexico.
MA
Created by Melissa Avila, a multidisciplinary artist from Tijuana, MA is the confluence of her own artistic expression combined with ancestral weaving techniques of artisans located in several communities throughout Mexico. Each textile—from circular mats woven on a traditional handloom with a face resembling the sun to bespoke area rugs adorned with cacti, pineapples, and palm trees—is inspired by native traditions and cosmology and designed to preserve craftsmanship across the country by providing a platform to promote artworks by the country’s native communities. At her Condesa design studio, a floor-to-ceiling wall of hand-painted red clay mugs and multi-color terrazzo tile candlestick holders are available alongside one-of-a-kind textiles.
Querencia
Located on a corner block in Colonia Juárez’s convivial Plaza Washington, Querencia is a one-stop-shop for purchasing both native plants and ceramics by the city’s top artists. From cacti and fiddle leaf figs to bromeliads and ferns, this potting shop is overflowing with greenery, macramé plant hangers, and terracotta pots by design studios like Cúmulo, known for their elevated pivot holders. Also on display is an ever-evolving line of natural products like lavender candles by Flor de Venus, orange- and geranium-scented aromatherapy home sprays by Aroma 72, and organic balms made from cocoa butter, grapefruit, and oyamel (an indigenous evergreen fir native to Mexico) by Dermapoteca.
