A model displays a bulletproof jacket designed by Miguel Caballero, for sale at his boutique in Mexico City.

MEXICO CITY JOURNAL

By MARC LACEY

MEXICO CITY - Exclusive clothing boutiques line Avenida Presidente Masarik here. A Burberry coat- A Corneliani suit- A Gucci scarf- Have enough pesos, and they are yours.
But tucked on a leafy side street in the Polanco neighborhood is a shop unlike the others, one whose bustling business says much about the dire state of security in this country. At Miguel Caballero, named after its Colombian owner, all the garments are bulletproof.
There are bulletproof leather jackets and bulletproof polo shirts. Armored guayabera shirts hang next to protective windbreakers, parkas and even white ruffled tuxedo shirts. Every member of the sales staff has had to take a turn being shot while wearing one of the products, which range from a few hundred dollars to as much as $7,000, so they can attest to the efficacy of the secret fabric.
“If feels like a punch,” a salesman said of the shot to the stomach he received.
Just who is willing to pay thousands of dollars for these chic shields- Customers include Presidents Hugo Chavez of Venezuela and Alvaro Uribe of Colombia, not to mention assorted royalty, movie stars and other prominent people.
There is the surgeon who finishes work at the hospital late and feels vulnerable while walking through the parking lot to his car. Now, a potential burglar can take a shot at him with a. 38-caliber revolver, a 9-millimeter pistol or a submachine gun and still not pierce his lightweight, heat-resistant and quite fashionable coat.
There is the bullfighter who is scared not of bulls but of bullets and consequently ordered a matador’s suit that can withstand gunfire.
Then there are Mexican politicians and business executives, some who have received threats and others who want to supplement their existing security measures.
“What we offer is one more chance at life,” said Javier Di Carlo, the marketing manager, as he showed off the top-of-theline Black collection in a private fitting room. “We don’t want people to say to the criminal, ‘Shoot me.’ Nobody should feel like Superman. But if the criminal does shoot, we give our customers a chance to run away.”
There is a whole lot of shooting going on in Mexico today. Every day, the papers are full of victims, bodies lying out in grotesque poses with bullet wounds all about. The drug cartels that control much of the Mexican countryside are behind the overwhelming majority.
Still, not everybody is lining up. Jon French, a former American State Department official who now runs a security company in Mexico City, said he considered the bulletproof luxury items more about ego than anything else.
“Certain members of the well-to-do class here have a tendency to be ostentatious,” Mr. French said. “You see it in their bodyguards and chase cars. Some of this is so while at the country club they can talk about how protected they are. Now they can say, ‘Look, I’m wearing body armor!’”