During the offering to the Virgen de los Desamparados in Valencia, in the years when it has started to rain, the premise for all women is clear: you have to hold the bottom of your skirts and leave your petticoat visible so that it does not fall even a drop on the Valencian costumes. The biggest enemy for the fabric of fallera costumes – made mostly of silk, linen and cotton – is water. When they get wet, the stain never goes away, and not only that: the fabrics become stiff. This fear came true the night of the flood in the Andrea Indumentaria store in Aldaia, where the mud reached two meters high. Four and a half months after the Fallas were celebrated, this establishment, which Andrea Hernández founded 35 years ago, was full of Valencian fabrics, mantillas, manteletas and scarves, shoes, espadrilles, cancanes, satin ribbons, lace… now on the racks hanging some mismatched Valencian skirts and bodices that I already had made, and torrentí jackets, from the men’s clothing. They are the few pieces that he has been able to save from DANA, with some mud stains, after throwing away more than 200 Valencian outfits that were impossible to recover. The economic losses have not been dared to quantify, but between hours of work, the sewing machines that will not be able to work again and the investment in fabrics and accessories, at first glance they would exceed 200,000 euros. MORE INFORMATION news No Valencia in the heart: never again «The only thing that has been saved is a coat rack that was up high. It’s all cardboard. My store is large and I have it full of goods. The first days you had to select and throw away. I have halves left, that means I have nothing left. If there are 15 skirts, the bodices are not there and vice versa,” laments Andrea, while pointing out that she cannot “save anything”: “People don’t know how this fabric works and they think that it can be fixed by taking it to the dry cleaners.” “When the fabrics become moist and wet, a barrier is created, but it also softens and the fabric does not have the finish,” he explains. He will not be able to sell the pieces he has left, not even at a bargain price. Reopening for ChristmasAndrea and the two workers in her workshop are not the only ones suffering the damage from DANA. There is also the textile Compañía Valenciana de la Seda, Artesanía Valenciana or the Hijas de Carmen Esteve tablecloth workshop. When he entered his store the day after the flood, he couldn’t believe it. “I thought about my clients, about Falleras Mayores to whom I had to deliver costumes, about my suppliers… now I just want to have everything clean so I can start again,” she says. Their plan is for Andrea Indumentaria to reopen at Christmas. He refuses to fail to meet his clients, although he believes that this year “the Fallas will be sadder.”
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