080 Barcelona Fashion Uplifts a New Generation of Designers

ADOLFO DOMINGUEZ

This year, one of Spain’s most popular fashion brands, Adolfo Dominguez is celebrating its 50th anniversary, quite a major milestone in a fashion world that often has a short attention span. I should know. In the mid-80s I lived in Madrid for two years during college and by the end of my time as a Madrileño, I owned nothing but Adolfo Dominguez clothes. Dominguez was always known for chic minimal pieces with interesting deconstructed twists; a sort of Michael Kors if he was Belgian, if you will. Dominguez’s father had a tailoring shop in Ourense, Galicia in northwestern Spain, a region known for its fashion. Zara began there and still has its global headquarters near A Coruña, Galicia.

The younger Dominguez launched his line in 1976, it was a time of cultural flowering in all the arts in Spain. Almodovar started making movies that made him one of the world’s most celebrated filmmakers. Dominguez, like many of the artists at the time, was reacting against the uptight, old-fashion, conservative style of the Franco years. Their website explains, “We dressed the social vanguard that established democracy in Spain. We disrupted the rigid, corseted style of the late Franco era with relaxed silhouettes and natural materials. We allowed linen to wrinkle. Naturalness versus iron.” One of the company’s mottos is Wrinkles are Beautiful.

The brand quickly became known for the relaxed, chic, pulled-together look of the 80s. In 2017, Dominguez’s daughter Adriana took over the company, reviving it and bringing it to a new generation. Adriana’s sister Tiziana, is design director of the company. The show at 080BCN featured modern, tailored, architectural clothes in neutral colors. Our favorites are the splashes of color, a lavender overcoat, an acid green skirt, top and sweater set, tops in chocolate brown sequins. These clothes are chic.

TXELL MIRAS

While her brand isn’t 50 years old, Catalan designer Txell Miras launched her first collection in 2004, she’s got a very clear vision of her style identity. She relates to icons of the avant-garde like Rei Kawakubo, Martin Margiela and Ann Demeulemeester. Some of her collections in the past had such compelling names as Posthuman, Post-Robot, Dystopia and Conventual featuring stylish nuns with crosses and wimples. Spain is, after all, a Catholic country.

The silhouettes were sophisticated, reminding me of expensively-tailored career woman clothes like Akris or 1990s Donna Karan, with a creative twist. They felt modern yet nostalgic. Like a futuristic movie made in the 1940s. The color palette was black, white, grey and beige.

Miras is obviously an artist with many techniques of expression. Her erotic drawings were featured as panels on some looks. She collaborated with other artists from a place near Barcelona called Konvent, a 19th century convent/textile colony which was converted into an interdisciplinary arts centre. The accessories in the show were beautiful white ceramic pots, adapted with leather straps into handbags. What a perfect way to carry flowers and other greenery in the bag/vases. Arrangements of dried foliage were shaped into headdresses creating a pagan, goddess of the harvest feeling. This was probably my favorite show of 080 . Miras has so many great ideas and knows how to make very interesting clothes.

NAZZAL STUDIO

Another designer with a skill for adapting traditional shapes into young, modern silhouettes is Palestinian designer Sylwia Nazzal of Nazzal Studio. Her website features such modern street style gems as the Hijab hoodie and the Keffiyeh hoodie. The show featured modern takes on classic Arab and Bedouin shapes in lace and latex, some done in collaboration with artist Jad Maq. The looks had a beautiful simplicity and felt modern paired with corsets and leather bomber jackets.

DOMINNICO

One of the hot tickets of the week was the brand Dominnico. Throngs of local fashion fans, decked out in their wildest looks, were fighting to get in and the energy felt more like a rock show than a fashion presentation. The kids went crazy over the models, some of whom were local celebrities like Carmen Lomana, a glamorous reality tv star who’s often called the most famous woman in Spain. The brand was founded in 2016 by creative director Domingo Rodriguez Lazaro and they’ve dressed style goddesses like Beyonce, Lady Gaga, Rosalia and Dua Lipa. They love leather and fur and when they do a mini it’s a barely-there mini. These are super sexy, fun, well-made clothes for women who like to have a good time with their lives and their style.

RICARDO SECO

Designer Ricardo Seco is a Mexican immigrant who combines fresh, sportswear shapes with political statements which feels so right for the times we live in. His show was called Migrant Pride which Seco described, Migrant Pride is a retrospective: a curation of pieces that have marked my history, from various collections where I have maintained a constant commitment to sharing this pride, intervened by the present, because identity is not static… it transforms, resists and evolves.

There were printed and embroidered messages on shirt, jackets, pants etc: Orgullo Latino (latin pride); Proud Mexican Immigrant, which was printed on the back of coat which brought to mind Mrs Trump’s insulting I Really Don’t Care, Do U? moment but with a positive, uplifting message. Other messages included: Fuck Ice, Wise Woman, mujer migrante, I….legal and Visa, Visa, Vida, Vida (Vida=life). Models carried garbage style bags emblazoned with words like Libertad (liberty), Raiz (root), Dignidad (dignity) and We are Humans. The shapes were very classic streetwear, sporty and fun. My favorite pieces were the leather dress in the red, white and green colors of the Mexican flag and men’s hot pink and orange leather pants with the message, Immigrant, down the leg.

BOULARD

Ugo Boulard of the brand Boulard was a dancer before he taught himself to sew and became a designer. He made his runway debut this week with a series of looks that often appear deceivingly simple but in reality, had a complicated and fascinating thought process behind them. What appeared to be a simple burgundy t-shirt was actually an elaborate knit top featuring a beautiful but subtle street map that highlighted important places in the designer's life. More assertive in their fabulousness were a men’s overcoat dripping with bits of metal and several highly structured dresses that seemed to be women together strips of paper.

EÑAUT

In the final show of the week, Eñaut showed a collection called Ego Dissolution featuring sexy, structured pieces. The strongest were the leather pieces with strong shoulders and the slinky dresses. The kind of dark sexiness one finds in brands like Rick Owens.

080 Barcelona Fashion was a wonderful celebration of local design talents, as well as a coming-together of some of the most interesting fashion content creators like Jasmina TV, I Deserve Couture, Louis Pisano, Sophia Hadjipanteli and Sara Camposarcone. Barcelona is building itself a strong and vibrant fashion community and we’ll certainly be back.