Llevar (ropa) vs traer: uso en España (ropa y movimiento hacia aquí)

When the movement is “towards here / towards the speaker” (aquí), in Spain people use "traer". The sentence with "traer" sounds natural: “bring (them) here”. Tip: traer = movement towards aquí (“here”).

When we talk about clothes that someone is wearing, we normally use "llevar": “She is wearing / she has on a coat and a scarf”. "Traer" is not used for clothes you are wearing in this sense. You can emphasize “is wearing right now” with "llevar puesto(s)": llevar puestas las gafas = “I’m wearing glasses right now”.

The speaker is moving “there” (allí), away from their current place – so we use "llevar": “I’ll take / bring a cake to your place (with me)”. In Spanish, traer is for movement towards the speaker’s place (aquí), llevar is towards another place (allí).

You will come to me (here, aquí), so we use "traer": “Traer el pasaporte (aquí)”.

In Spain, to say “I have them on right now”, people often use "llevar puesto(s)": “Llevo puestas las gafas”. "Llevo gafas" is more like “I wear glasses (in general / usually)”.

When you take someone “there”, you use "llevar a alguien a un lugar". The destination is also expressed with the preposition "a": llevar a + lugar (compare: ir a + lugar).

The movement was “to here / to us (aquí)” – so we use "traje" (the preterite of traer: traje, trajiste, trajo…).

The pattern "llevar + gerundio" expresses how long an action has been going on up to now, with present relevance: “¿Cuánto tiempo llevas viviendo…?”