people in the sun
Pablo Erroz, designer of the aforementioned garment worn by the queen in Valldemossa, maintains that fashion “also has a social discourse”
A few hours before Queen Letizia walked the streets of Valdemossa gracefully wearing a flattering full skirt with Majorcan-inspired motifs, its designer, Pablo Erroz, had turned 33. “That she chose my garment for that occasion has been a great birthday present,” admits this creator with a Basque surname, born in Mallorca to an Asturian father and a Navarrese mother. Behind that one hundred percent handmade fabric and that impeccable cut, there is a whole story and even a message that deserves to be told.
First-generation Majorcan, single and owner of a dog and a cat, Pablo Suárez-Puente Erroz (for his brand he uses his mother’s surname) is the son of an Asturian who, after a few years in London, came to the Balearic Islands looking for the sun and ended up become a well-known businessman of the night, with successful nightclubs like ‘Mi Habana’. His mother, born in Pamplona and a window dresser by profession, also settled in Palma attracted by the climate. There they met and their two children, Pablo and his sister, who is a nurse, were born. Today the designer lives between Barcelona and Palma, “but a large part of my family lives on the island and we are a pineapple”.
Erroz accidentally learned that the Queen had chosen her skirt for the Royal Family’s first posing of the summer. “My mother told me, who was watching it on TV.” Trained at Inditex and considered by ‘Vogue’ “worthy heir to New York ‘cool'”, the designer is delighted with the use that Letizia has given to the garment. «More than a ‘royal’ image, it has conveyed a very natural image, something super-Mediterranean that coincides with my brand and its values. It is clear that Eva Fernández, the Queen’s stylist, does a great job », he assures. Even the green top (from another brand) with which Letizia combined the skirt, and the flat espadrilles seem to the designer “a very successful style”.
The Majorcan will be at the Marivent cocktail tomorrow. “I’m looking forward to shaking hands with Doña Letizia”
It had all started long before. Erroz, whose brand has just turned 10 and today also manufactures furniture, rugs and decorative objects, presented its new collection at the MBFW in Madrid in March, based on Majorcan-inspired garments and fabrics. The parade was attended by Begoña Gómez, the wife of President Sánchez. But not the Queen or her stylist. The designer had met Doña Letizia days before, when she went to support the fashion sector. “She seemed very conscientious and involved. She is a stupendous brand image of Spain and she has become a style icon».
“It is a goal of many designers to dress the Queen,” acknowledges the Mallorcan. “But in my case it has happened in a very natural way, through the relationship we have with Eva, his stylist.” One day the order came to him, along with the measurements of Doña Letizia… Erroz then decided to design a high-waisted midi skirt made of ‘ikat’, the emblematic traditional Majorcan fabric famous for the print of tongues or streamers, although in this case they were ‘blurred moles’. It was woven by hand in Bujosa, one of only three artisanal looms left on the island.
Made of one hundred percent cotton, “with several washes to give it greater fluidity”, the skirt takes seven meters of fabric and needed several cuts because the ‘ikat’ pieces, coming from manual looms, have a limited width. Erroz sent the garment to Zarzuela three weeks before in case something had to be rectified. “But it wasn’t necessary.” Nor did they tell him when he was going to release it.
It is tradition that everything Letizia wears is sold out in stores. Erroz, who only sells ‘online’ and is in favor of “buying less and better”, will soon put the skirt on sale, “with some variations”, for a price of 1,045 euros. And, like all of his garments, it will include a QR that explains who made it and with what techniques. “Fashion is sustainability, inclusion and also has a social discourse,” defends the Majorcan designer, who has been invited to the cocktail that the King and Queen are offering tomorrow at Marivent to Balearic civil society and is looking forward to shaking hands with Doña Letizia. “I still don’t know what I’m going to tell him, I prefer that things flow.”
#skirt