stitches with thread
Marcos Villafruela shows his collection at Paris Fashion Week. He is the only Spaniard in a parade of 30 international talents
The first garment she designed was in college. “My friend Miriam was graduating and asked me for a dress,” says Marcos Villafruela (Miranda de Ebro, 1995). “We did endless tests, touch-ups, but in the end it exceeded my expectations,” explains the dressmaker. A jet black crepe dress with a ribbon that came from the waist to the back in ivory silk that you will never forget. Neither will he from his first time at Paris Fashion Week.
Last Friday, he was the only Spaniard selected along with some thirty young international talents to present his collection in a joint fashion show in the city of light. «Paris is more than a symbol. It is a very broad concept of architecture, art and luxury. A spectacular sensation that you can only get by being here. Stay at the classic Intercontinental Le interGrand Hotel, dine in Loulou, visit the Louvre, go shopping on Avenue Montaigne and Saint Honoré. Enjoy its streets, its smells, its walks on the banks of the Seine. It’s something magical! ”, He says excitedly.
One of the designs that Marcos Villafruela showed last Friday in Paris. /
For that same reason he likes to summarize his signature “with the concept of Paris for the enjoyment of those intoxicating sensations. Magic, comfort and happiness ». And there, in the city he is “in love” with, he fulfilled one of his dreams. Specifically in the legendary Galerie Bourbon, in the Marceau room, where he showed his new collection, ‘Kokoro’. Its name is inspired by a Japanese novel that talks about the union of body, mind and spirit. A proposal in which “300% has been left in each of the pieces”, bathed in only two colors, indigo purple and pink, and made with subtle transparencies in natural silk organza and satin.
«It is a wonder that a silk or a noble fabric can wrap you like a second skin with which to feel pleasure, comfort, softness. A return to the elegance and sophistication in the streets without losing the comfort and the contemporaneity ”. Beautiful pieces like those made by his admired Elie Saab, Stéphane Rolland and Giambattista Valli or like those that the great Balenciaga sewed with skill. “You can wear any of his clothes from the 60s today without any problem and that’s what I want.” For this reason, it is also committed to the collaborations that are so booming today. «I would love to collaborate with Christian Dior or Hermès. They are two fashion houses full of luxury that have adapted to our days perfectly with ready-to-wear collections. It would be a real pleasure.
“At home there was always a sewing machine”
The young man aims high, who always excelled in drawing and studied Creation and Design at the University of the Basque Country without the backing of any family member involved in the sector, although «at home there was always a sewing machine, the old ones, the kind that they worked at great speed with the force of our feet ». “I have seen my mother sew curtains, cushions, bedding and my grandmother crochet, cross stitch, embroideries, hemstitches and countless amazing crafts.” Nor did it have the support of national institutions. «I love Spain, but if I have to talk about support policies for young entrepreneurs, I flee without looking back. They do not support us in anything. If it is not for one thing, it is for another, they are always making excuses, ”he says from his experience.
So it’s no wonder you’re so proud of your firm, funded from your savings. “I am sure of what we offer: a product of exceptional quality, elegant and sophisticated. Fabrics imported from different countries in search of high durability ”thanks, also, to its timeless designs of tailoring meticulous to detail for special pieces or wardrobe backgrounds for a lifetime. An ethical fashion for which his clients bet, «women of a very wide age range, from 25 to 70. Of course, very cosmopolitan and current. They live in various places, but mostly in large capitals such as Moscow or Paris or coastal cities such as Saint Jean, Cap Ferrat, Marbella or Palm Beach ». Quite an achievement in just over a year and a half of “winning or losing, but learning.”
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