Barcelona Fashion Week – Women Collection
The start of February saw the 15th edition of Barcelona Fashion Week. 080 is now in its seventh consecutive year, and continues to go from strength to strength. As well as a bastion for established and recognised talents, it is also a sartorial hot bed for new ones, both within 080 and MODAFAD.
Taking pride of place at the foot of ´Las Ramblas´ in the refurbished Museo Maritimo, this recent installation acted as a flagship for fashion talent in Catalunya. Here are some of my favourite collections as I sailed through four days of sartorial buoyancy.
CELIA VELA
In terms of Catalan fashion, Celia Vela is always a good idea. The Figueres based designer served up, in her own unique style, a very oriental inspired collection. In fact, it´s more like a Catalan / Japanese love story. Ceremonial / Wedding / Kimono, it was all here in a palette of dark and smoky colours which met muted silvers and tobacco prints. Oriental, flora inspired satin-esque long skirts sailed through the runways as softly as the first winds of spring. Her females strutted with elegant sophistication while the men swaggered in a plasi-Samurai themed ensemble. A thoroughly delightful collection.
MIRIAM PONSA
Miriam Ponsa may have her design headquarters outside of Barcelona, but her influence is still firmly fixed in the heart of the city. As Catalan values goes, Miriam Ponsa always wears her humanitarian heart on her sleeve. This time the tragic plight of the Spanish Civil War was presented in a touching show reel and then desfile paying homage to the grief and suffering of this bittersweet journey. Identification tags and suitcases reflected the past, while she looked to the future with oversized layering and volumes with (highly) texturised knitwear, which was presented in a melancholic offering of grey khaki and black. This collection was sculptural, comfortable and emotional.
MANUEL BOLAÑO
The ´Wild Child´ of Catalan clothing presented a runway show that was a visual and aural extravaganza. Having won the award twice before for the best female collection, his latest offering ´Paloma Cojo´ (Lame Pigeon) was anything but lame in design terms, This was a high octane folk inspired – with shards of glam collection.(Think Little House on the Prairie meets Dynasty.) Metallics, florals, Babushkas, textures and ultra-cool scarfs and glasses were set to some of the best runway music I´ve heard in a long time.
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