A white box. White chairs. A white table. Even an all-white floor. The contrast of colours in the clothes hanging in this colour-starved space is quite welcome. It makes you want to touch the coats, the skirts, the shirts. 'Please do,’ says Antonio Miro, one of the few Spanish fashion designers to be well-known outside his hometown of Barcelona, as well as inside of it, of course.
It’s Moda Barcelona this week, and Miro has invited some international press to his atelier. We can see his collection, feel the mood of the season, and talk to the guy whose interest in culture goes beyond the four fashion collections he designs each year for both men and women. Of course, he’s into fashion, but snooping around his workshop we find books on architecture (and not just Gaudí), on art (and not just Picasso), on music and on the creative process in general. Miro works here with a team of young designers from all over the world. A Dutchman helping him out tells us that working with a guru like Miro is fantastic. And who are we not to believe him? So, it seems Spanish fashion is still popular? I ask. Miro just smiles, instead of giving a proper answer.
Spanish fashion is something strange. We’re not that bad as designers, but most journalists only look at Milan, Paris or New York
'Spanish fashion is something strange,’ he admits. 'We’re not that bad as designers, but most journalists only look at Milan, Paris or New York. And when they do come to Spain, they don’t know which is more important: Madrid or Barcelona. Why not focus on one fashion week, in one city?’
Miro is right, of course. The Pasarela, or catwalk, Gaudí in Barcelona is quite important, but so is the Cibeles Pasarela in Madrid. Some designers show at both, but most opt for just one, and, needless to say, it often comes down to whether they’re a fan of Catalunya (the region which contains Barcelona) or are just opting for the nationalistic appeal of Madrid. Luckily, this geographic juggling act hasn’t stopped young Spanish designers from showing their work to an audience. Miro may be the guru (he’s been in the business for well over 20, maybe even 30, years), but the Spanish avant-garde fashion scene is full of youngsters, especially today. A few examples are MAGNETIC PROJECT IBIZA (www.magneticproject.net), Josep Abril and Miriam Ocariz, or the duo Juanjo Gómez and Alicia Sonlleva (the designers behind the fashion label Yono Taola). Others, like Barbara Polo, combine working as a freelance designer with assisting somebody else, in this case Lydia Delgado, who has already found a bigger audience. Jose Castro is another fine example: he designs the Miro Jeans line, but also lectures in fashion at two fashion schools in Barcelona, a clever way of combining creativity with money-making.
Demo Fashion Guide, the exquisite trade magazine published twice a yearin Barcelona, regularly focuses on Spanish avant-garde fashion, but some of its writers are not optimistic: 'Spain has more than 20 fashion design schools,’ says Marta Camps, 'but we place quantity before quality.’ What she means to say is that the industry refuses to help young designers, that television only gossips about princesses in nice (French or Italian) gowns and that the level of fashion schools is not something to be proud of.
At the end of the 1980s, the Catalunyan authorities were doing everything to promote their own fashion designers. International fashion journalists were invited to Barcelona to come and witness the new creativity springing up in a town that was vibrating like never before. Antonio Miro was there at the time, so were the duo behind Adolfo Dominguez, Roser Marcé, Joaquim Verdu, Peter Aedo and Roberto Verino were more or less popular in their own city near the sea. As long as the journalists were invited, they came and wrote enthusiastic stories, but all hell broke loose when the invitations were discarded. Barcelona as a city-trip was still generating lots of hype, but its fashion designers had lost it – or so it seemed.
The truth was a little different. The fashion press forgot about them, and started focusing on other nationalities: the Belgians, the Japanese, the Scandinavians, the Americans, the English… Yet, all these years later, most of the designers we knew back then are still there. Roser Marcé continues in a kind of haute couture tradition – working for customers that come to her store/ atelier; Verdu, Dominguez, Verinno and Aedo have flagship stores of their own and still present their clothes during fashion week in either Barcelona or Madrid. Dominguez even has stores in Paris, Brussels and Antwerp. And, luckily, a younger generation has emerged from Spain’s many fashion schools.
Has nothing changed over the years? On the contrary. Twenty years ago, it was hard to think of a fashion label that was 'Made in Spain’. Today, the designers are there – even the young ones – but so are the more commercial labels, ones that sell clothes or shoes in all four corners of the globe. Ever heard of Camper shoes? Spanish. Or Custo? Spanish again. Needless to say, chain stores like Mango and Zara have put Spain on the map of fashion. And maybe for young, up-and-coming designers these commercial hotshots are a starting point. As fashion
AVANT-GARDE SHOPSMadridAntonio Miro, Lagasca 65 (tel: +34 (0)914 260 225) Hannibal Laguna, Jorge Juan 35 (tel: +34 (0)915 771 029) Jesus del Pozo, Almirante 9 (tel: +34 (0)915 313 646) Josep Font, Don Ramon de la Cruz 51 (tel: +34 (0)915 759 716)
BarcelonaAntonio Miro, Consell de Cent 349 (tel: +34 (0)934 870 670) Armand Basi, Passeig de Gracia 49 (tel: +34 (0)932 151 421) David Valls, Valencia 235 (tel: +34 (0)933 871 285) Josep Abril, Princesa 25 (tel: +34 (0)933 100 211) Josep Font, Provença 304 (tel: +34 (0)934 872 110) Lydia Delgado, Minerva 21 (tel: +34 (0)934 159 998)
THE STORY OF CAMPERPICTURE THE ISLE OF MALLORCA, SOME 130 YEARS AGO. Antonio Fluxa takes the boat to England to buy a shoemaker’s machine and comes back full of bright ideas and high hopes. His shoes appeal to businessmen and the company flourishes. When he dies, his son-in-law takes over the company, but the success fades. Only when Antonio’s son Lorenzo comes into the company, and later his son, Lorenzo Junior, is the tide turned in his favour. Lorenzo Junior loves the type of shoes that were worn by hippies in the 1970s: unisex espadrilles, made of cotton and old car tyres. He names the collection Camaleon, and later, Camper (Catalan for farmer). In the ’90s, it’s the Japanese that crowd the Paris shop of Camper and create the real hype. By the end of the ’90s, Camper is a hit throughout Europe, especially one of its models: the pelotas. It helps that Uma Thurman, Woody Allen and Mick Jagger are photographed wearing them. Today, Camper has shops in over 30 countries in the world. Their secret? Being different – which in this context means something special. Why should a pair of shoes be identical? Why can’t one foot be different from the other one? The answer is 'twins’, a line within Camper that was started in 1991, but is still part of each collection. Check it out on http://www.camper.com/ or in the newest flagship store inMadrid (corner of Calle Jorge Juan and Calle Serrano).
designer Miriam Ocariz says: 'Zara is a very hard and exhausting challenge. It’s up to us to create a more personal product which adapts itself to the moment in which we live, without slavishly following the latest trends. I think a difference in quality, or a more artistic and handcrafted piece of work, can differentiate itself from what Zara is offering.’ She’s probably voicing what most Spanish designers think: be different. But there’s more work to do, says Marta Camps, a journalist at Demo, who is convinced that fashion is not a decoration, but a means of expressing an opinion: 'Fashion culture in Spain is impoverished, but we can turn the tide.’ How? With better fashion education, more backers from the industry, and an enthusiastic press.
In the meantime, some avant-garde designers do get to enjoy an international career. Take Ailanto, for example, the label co-owned by Inaki Munoz and his twin brother Aitor Munoz. Born in Algorta (in Vasc County), both graduated with fine arts degrees from the University ofBarcelona; Inaki even graduated in fashion. In 1992, they started their company, which launched in 1995. Today, Ailanto is sold at the best stores in the world, from New York (Barneys) to Hong Kong (Lane Crawford). Their secret? Maybe it lies in the finishing and the details, or the eye for colours and graphics, or the fact that they go for a clear, visual line.
Colour and graphics is also a dada of avant-garde designer Agata Ruiz de la Prada, who’s probably the most international one of the bunch. She’s into fashion for the entire family, but also focuses on items for the office and the home. Come to think of it, I once bought colour-pencils in an airport shop that were designed by her. The fact that she was Spanish didn’t escape me. But how could it have with a name like that?
CUSTODIO AND DAVID DALMAU ARE BROTHERS. Since the 1980s, they’ve shared a common dream: to become fashion- designers. In 1996, they started a collection called Custo Barcelona. Instead of launching it in Spain, they ventured out to America, and got lucky. Some Hollywood stylist started the hype wearing some of their crazy T-shirts, and a season later New York Fashion Week invited the Custo brothers to stage a show in Bryant Park. Their secret? The way they mixed print and colour – especially at a time when minimalism was still going strong.Today, Custo Barcelona is sold in over 3,000 multi- label shops. Check out their flagship in Barcelona (Ferran 36) or surf to http://www.custo-barcelona.com/
It’s Moda Barcelona this week, and Miro has invited some international press to his atelier. We can see his collection, feel the mood of the season, and talk to the guy whose interest in culture goes beyond the four fashion collections he designs each year for both men and women. Of course, he’s into fashion, but snooping around his workshop we find books on architecture (and not just Gaudí), on art (and not just Picasso), on music and on the creative process in general. Miro works here with a team of young designers from all over the world. A Dutchman helping him out tells us that working with a guru like Miro is fantastic. And who are we not to believe him? So, it seems Spanish fashion is still popular? I ask. Miro just smiles, instead of giving a proper answer.
Spanish fashion is something strange. We’re not that bad as designers, but most journalists only look at Milan, Paris or New York
'Spanish fashion is something strange,’ he admits. 'We’re not that bad as designers, but most journalists only look at Milan, Paris or New York. And when they do come to Spain, they don’t know which is more important: Madrid or Barcelona. Why not focus on one fashion week, in one city?’
Miro is right, of course. The Pasarela, or catwalk, Gaudí in Barcelona is quite important, but so is the Cibeles Pasarela in Madrid. Some designers show at both, but most opt for just one, and, needless to say, it often comes down to whether they’re a fan of Catalunya (the region which contains Barcelona) or are just opting for the nationalistic appeal of Madrid. Luckily, this geographic juggling act hasn’t stopped young Spanish designers from showing their work to an audience. Miro may be the guru (he’s been in the business for well over 20, maybe even 30, years), but the Spanish avant-garde fashion scene is full of youngsters, especially today. A few examples are MAGNETIC PROJECT IBIZA (www.magneticproject.net), Josep Abril and Miriam Ocariz, or the duo Juanjo Gómez and Alicia Sonlleva (the designers behind the fashion label Yono Taola). Others, like Barbara Polo, combine working as a freelance designer with assisting somebody else, in this case Lydia Delgado, who has already found a bigger audience. Jose Castro is another fine example: he designs the Miro Jeans line, but also lectures in fashion at two fashion schools in Barcelona, a clever way of combining creativity with money-making.
Demo Fashion Guide, the exquisite trade magazine published twice a yearin Barcelona, regularly focuses on Spanish avant-garde fashion, but some of its writers are not optimistic: 'Spain has more than 20 fashion design schools,’ says Marta Camps, 'but we place quantity before quality.’ What she means to say is that the industry refuses to help young designers, that television only gossips about princesses in nice (French or Italian) gowns and that the level of fashion schools is not something to be proud of.
At the end of the 1980s, the Catalunyan authorities were doing everything to promote their own fashion designers. International fashion journalists were invited to Barcelona to come and witness the new creativity springing up in a town that was vibrating like never before. Antonio Miro was there at the time, so were the duo behind Adolfo Dominguez, Roser Marcé, Joaquim Verdu, Peter Aedo and Roberto Verino were more or less popular in their own city near the sea. As long as the journalists were invited, they came and wrote enthusiastic stories, but all hell broke loose when the invitations were discarded. Barcelona as a city-trip was still generating lots of hype, but its fashion designers had lost it – or so it seemed.
The truth was a little different. The fashion press forgot about them, and started focusing on other nationalities: the Belgians, the Japanese, the Scandinavians, the Americans, the English… Yet, all these years later, most of the designers we knew back then are still there. Roser Marcé continues in a kind of haute couture tradition – working for customers that come to her store/ atelier; Verdu, Dominguez, Verinno and Aedo have flagship stores of their own and still present their clothes during fashion week in either Barcelona or Madrid. Dominguez even has stores in Paris, Brussels and Antwerp. And, luckily, a younger generation has emerged from Spain’s many fashion schools.
Has nothing changed over the years? On the contrary. Twenty years ago, it was hard to think of a fashion label that was 'Made in Spain’. Today, the designers are there – even the young ones – but so are the more commercial labels, ones that sell clothes or shoes in all four corners of the globe. Ever heard of Camper shoes? Spanish. Or Custo? Spanish again. Needless to say, chain stores like Mango and Zara have put Spain on the map of fashion. And maybe for young, up-and-coming designers these commercial hotshots are a starting point. As fashion
AVANT-GARDE SHOPSMadridAntonio Miro, Lagasca 65 (tel: +34 (0)914 260 225) Hannibal Laguna, Jorge Juan 35 (tel: +34 (0)915 771 029) Jesus del Pozo, Almirante 9 (tel: +34 (0)915 313 646) Josep Font, Don Ramon de la Cruz 51 (tel: +34 (0)915 759 716)
BarcelonaAntonio Miro, Consell de Cent 349 (tel: +34 (0)934 870 670) Armand Basi, Passeig de Gracia 49 (tel: +34 (0)932 151 421) David Valls, Valencia 235 (tel: +34 (0)933 871 285) Josep Abril, Princesa 25 (tel: +34 (0)933 100 211) Josep Font, Provença 304 (tel: +34 (0)934 872 110) Lydia Delgado, Minerva 21 (tel: +34 (0)934 159 998)
THE STORY OF CAMPERPICTURE THE ISLE OF MALLORCA, SOME 130 YEARS AGO. Antonio Fluxa takes the boat to England to buy a shoemaker’s machine and comes back full of bright ideas and high hopes. His shoes appeal to businessmen and the company flourishes. When he dies, his son-in-law takes over the company, but the success fades. Only when Antonio’s son Lorenzo comes into the company, and later his son, Lorenzo Junior, is the tide turned in his favour. Lorenzo Junior loves the type of shoes that were worn by hippies in the 1970s: unisex espadrilles, made of cotton and old car tyres. He names the collection Camaleon, and later, Camper (Catalan for farmer). In the ’90s, it’s the Japanese that crowd the Paris shop of Camper and create the real hype. By the end of the ’90s, Camper is a hit throughout Europe, especially one of its models: the pelotas. It helps that Uma Thurman, Woody Allen and Mick Jagger are photographed wearing them. Today, Camper has shops in over 30 countries in the world. Their secret? Being different – which in this context means something special. Why should a pair of shoes be identical? Why can’t one foot be different from the other one? The answer is 'twins’, a line within Camper that was started in 1991, but is still part of each collection. Check it out on http://www.camper.com/ or in the newest flagship store inMadrid (corner of Calle Jorge Juan and Calle Serrano).
designer Miriam Ocariz says: 'Zara is a very hard and exhausting challenge. It’s up to us to create a more personal product which adapts itself to the moment in which we live, without slavishly following the latest trends. I think a difference in quality, or a more artistic and handcrafted piece of work, can differentiate itself from what Zara is offering.’ She’s probably voicing what most Spanish designers think: be different. But there’s more work to do, says Marta Camps, a journalist at Demo, who is convinced that fashion is not a decoration, but a means of expressing an opinion: 'Fashion culture in Spain is impoverished, but we can turn the tide.’ How? With better fashion education, more backers from the industry, and an enthusiastic press.
In the meantime, some avant-garde designers do get to enjoy an international career. Take Ailanto, for example, the label co-owned by Inaki Munoz and his twin brother Aitor Munoz. Born in Algorta (in Vasc County), both graduated with fine arts degrees from the University ofBarcelona; Inaki even graduated in fashion. In 1992, they started their company, which launched in 1995. Today, Ailanto is sold at the best stores in the world, from New York (Barneys) to Hong Kong (Lane Crawford). Their secret? Maybe it lies in the finishing and the details, or the eye for colours and graphics, or the fact that they go for a clear, visual line.
Colour and graphics is also a dada of avant-garde designer Agata Ruiz de la Prada, who’s probably the most international one of the bunch. She’s into fashion for the entire family, but also focuses on items for the office and the home. Come to think of it, I once bought colour-pencils in an airport shop that were designed by her. The fact that she was Spanish didn’t escape me. But how could it have with a name like that?
CUSTODIO AND DAVID DALMAU ARE BROTHERS. Since the 1980s, they’ve shared a common dream: to become fashion- designers. In 1996, they started a collection called Custo Barcelona. Instead of launching it in Spain, they ventured out to America, and got lucky. Some Hollywood stylist started the hype wearing some of their crazy T-shirts, and a season later New York Fashion Week invited the Custo brothers to stage a show in Bryant Park. Their secret? The way they mixed print and colour – especially at a time when minimalism was still going strong.Today, Custo Barcelona is sold in over 3,000 multi- label shops. Check out their flagship in Barcelona (Ferran 36) or surf to http://www.custo-barcelona.com/
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