It’s fair to say that Victor Alfaro is beloved by many in fashion. Since arriving in New York from his native Mexico in the 1980s, he has built a love and support system – and for good reason.

It’s apparent as we begin to discuss the trajectory of his life, friends and business that there is a sense of nostalgia for the New York he remembers in his early days designing. It almost seems like a bygone time, a New York where everyone in the industry protected and looked out for each other. For Alfaro, it was a timeless period of the greats, an era he recalls as “the days of magic.”

Alfaro is a man of many stories, often starting with a descriptive picture of a moment in his life that only he knows how to paint. For him, that picture had Calvin, Ralph, and Donna back in the day. There was Adolfo, Halston, and the Europeans, notably Giorgio Armani, Claude Montana, Thierry Mugler, and Azzedine Alaïa.

The designer is a cosmic believer. He told me he’s well-traveled and studied a lot, forming the dogma of his life’s creed from the same principles of quantum physics. For Alfaro, things come your way if they’re meant for you and you speak them into existence.

Born in Chihuahua, México, Alfaro always knew the goal was to be in New York City – he can’t remember a time in his childhood where he didn’t wish he were here. The love for fashion and photography came from the few magazines his mother would get in Mexico. Eventually, an exchange program in grade school brought him to the U.S. and reaffirmed his wish to move and become a fashion designer. He applied to FIT and started at 19.

On the way to the airport, his father gave him an unexpected piece of advice. “‘As you go to New York City, you’re going to see things that are very different from anything you’ve ever experienced,’” he recalled his father telling him. “‘I don’t know how much you have, if you have, or even thought you might be homosexual. But if you decide you are, enjoy it.’”

A sigh of relief, we agreed, as our fathers (and men at large) are the hardest to come out to. Machísmo in Latin communities plays a large role as toxic masculinity only perpetuates homophobia and misogyny. Luckily for the designer, he was met with the same acceptance in New York when he came in 1986, at the height of the AIDS crisis.

The designer’s stars quickly aligned after literally knocking on the studio door of Francesco Scavullo, the famed photographer known for his celebrity portraits and iconic Cosmopolitan covers.

“I will never forget the address to his East 63rd Street townhouse and still know his phone number by heart,” he laughed, reciting it with pride. “Scavullo was everything to me because of the beautiful way he photographed women: strong and sexy, with perfect hair and perfect make-up.”

Alfaro always visited the studio on Fridays, the day Scavullo shot the Cosmo covers, and this was where the designer’s relationships with all the key fashion players started: iconic makeup artists Kevyn Aucoin and Way Bandy, models Shalom Harlow and Amber Valletta, and many more.

The designer eventually put on his first fashion show relying on the help of creatives and loved ones around him, including the top models of that time. When he started giving his models looks to wear to Europe, Carine Roitfeld was one of many to take notice.

Alfaro always incorporated his Latinidad through his design aesthetic, inspired by the women in his life and the Latin flare ingrained in his DNA. “If I get a mannequin and I start draping a dress, it’s always going to have a neckline up to here,” Alfaro said, pointing close to his lower midriff. “It’s going to have color, satin and lace, and it will be form-fitting.”

The designer credits his respect for women by watching and imitating his mother, who was always put-together and took care of herself. It was important to him that models looked as impeccable as his mother, and laughed remembering a time when model Carolyn Murphy came off a flight from Florida to a fitting without a pedicure. Alfaro sent her straight to the salon, and joined Murphy in getting his nails done.

“I never really thought about it how Latinidad fit within my design because that was my DNA. I couldn’t give you the deconstruction, grunge and ‘heroin chic’ that was having a moment,” he said.

As his career took off and Alfaro joined the CFDA, he made two of the most important friendships of his career: Calvin Klein and Oscar de la Renta.

One day, de la Renta asked him to lunch, and they had a monthly standing lunch date from thereon after. It was the start of a mentorship born out of de la Renta’s desire to become a confidant to a young Latin designer, which was still a rarity in fashion at the time. De la Renta attended all his runway shows and even asked Alfaro to succeed him at Balmain where the late Dominican designer designed couture. Alfaro politely declined, because he wanted to put his energy and focus on his own collection.

“The thing about New York is that everyone wants to help each other and everyone wants to see people succeed,” he said. “It doesn’t exist everywhere, and I think that’s a wonderful thing that the CFDA does.”

For Alfaro, celebrating Latinidad is a personal journey. He pays homage to his roots not only through his designs, but also in the smallest acts of everyday life. As he put it, “If you feel like this month is a time to raise your voice as a Latin person then great, and how can I help?”

Alfaro is a highly decorated designer: the CFDA honored him with a Perry Ellis Award for emerging talent in 1994, and he also received awards such as the Vidal Sassoon Excellence in New Design and the Omni-Mexican award for Best Latin American Designer.

He’s a humble man, and when asked how it feels to represent the Latin community on a global scale he said, “I have a really hard time taking that kind of credit. It makes me too emotional.” But for us Latinxs, Alfaro is one of the few we can look to, and we are grateful for his life’s work. He recalled one of the instances in his life when he was reminded of his impact.

“I needed some technical help from a knitwear designer and ended up working with a sweet kid,” Alfaro recounted. “One night, working late, he was sitting with my assistant Johnny, and said he saw me and my work in his country, and because he did, he decided to come to New York.”

He gives back by teaching courses at his alma mater FIT, and he has been a mentor to fashion students in Mexico. Today, he’s working on a personal project for which he hopes to engage Mexican artisans, manufacturers, resources and factories to empower his people.

This is the last day of Latin Heritage Month, and although celebrating our culture and heritage doesn’t end today, trust me when I say that we haven’t heard the last of Victor Alfaro.

Editor’s Note: This feature is part of an ongoing editorial series celebrating Latinxs in fashion during National Hispanic Heritage Month.  Click here to access the series.