“When I die,
I don’t want to go to heaven,
I want to go home.”

VÍCTOR CARRASCO, WRITER AND COLLECTOR OF
BEAUTIFUL OBJECTS AND ANECDOTES.

When death has permission *

In prehispanic cultures – just as in various other civilizations all around the world – the dead were buried surrounded by the objects they most treasured in life, so those objects could help them on their way to “the other side”.

Objects represent history, anecdotes and personal experiences. They give form and spirit to our homes, that with time becomes our personal paradise, where we want to live and die. Death cannot be detained but by filling our lives with history and meaning, we can accept it and give death permission to come and take us with all our beautiful memories.

About Us

La Muerte Tiene Permiso* arose from a desire to share a contemporary Mexican design aesthetic in a international context.

Omar Ortiz Franco created La Muerte Tiene Permiso* to celebrate the unique materials and historic traditions of his country with a contemporary finish. His design inspiration comes from the vernacular materials and crafts traditions from around Mexico, histories and folk stories, and Mexican cinema and photography. The collection is equally informed by Omar’s architectural design aesthetic, which focuses on clean lines and attention to materials, and his desire to explore what it means to dwell in a home.

We work in partnership with traditional workshops around the country, many of which have been running for generations. Faced with the global environmental crisis, we have taken solace in the ways in which communities across Mexico have for generations created useful objects with natural materials they find around them, and which at the end of the item’s useful life can help it to degrade back into the earth. We are proud to be a part of that tradition and believe that an object made with love, thought and knowledge of technique can be reflected in objects that change our way to consume.

Design Studio

As well as a collection of contemporary pieces, we aim to be a platform for intercontinental cultural exchange. We pursue collaborations across design consultancy, art direction, bespoke product design and restaurant decor.

In 2019 we presented a curated collection of Mexican designers along with our own first collection at London Design Week, at Milagros on London’s famous Columbia Road. During the Wiener Festwochen design week 2019 we participated in an exhibition with the Unik Gallery.

In 2022, we presented the Botellones collection in the art fair Zsona MACO in Mexico City.