April is the month of fashion in Barcelona. Prior to a new edition of Barcelona Bridal Fashion Week, a week ago saw the start of the latest edition of 080 Barcelona Fashion, with 22 virtual parade shows and designers who presented the new season in the Macba, within the rationalist building designed by the architect Richard Meier. A new staging of the imaginative creativity exhibited by brands via Fashion Films, seasonal collections that can be followed visually on the website of the Catalan catwalk. Gratacós has also followed the latest fashion trends to check once again how our fabrics have taken shape thanks to the designers who habitually trust in us: Avellaneda, Eiko Ai, Menchen Tomás, Yolancris and Victor Von Schwarz. We review the new creations and some of the key looks.

Summer nights

Faithful to his hedonist philosophy the dandy Juan Avellaneda transposes us to tropical latitudes in his new summer collection to continue exploring the most relaxed elegance, inspired by warm paradises in the north of Africa. The central feature of the creation is via natural fabrics, luminous or fiery shades such as pink, orange and coral, and patterns that in general lack rigidity. There are also several models of jacket, the fetish garment of the brand of this Barcelona designer, which oscillate effortlessly between male and female wardrobes. The prints move away from the banal to embrace a Mediterranean version of delicateness that gives character to ethereal skirts and smoking-jackets which rebel against the boring. The garments evoke the practical elegance of Saharan and classic tailoring by those mid-century holiday-makers who immortalized Slim Aarons. Blouses caress the body and intertwine. Trousers dance and dresses cling to the skin or deploy fabulous volumes and flyers, another 100% Avellaneda detail. In Au réveil il était midi all the clothes combine with everything, they harmonize and flow for a perfect summer.

The warm sunlight

Eiko Ai dazzles us with Lucid Dreams, a radiant collection inspired by the vitality of solar energy. In addition to this inspiration Glò Lladó’s formula remains firm in each of her designs and consists of promoting feminine beauty by playing with delicacy and sensuality. And how does she achieve it? Via vaporous silhouettes, ethereal fabrics which give glimpses of skin and via evocative stamping that mixes sophistication without abandoning the casual and cosmopolitan spirit of this Barcelona company. The new summer creation from Eiko Ai enhances the kimono dresses, fluid blouses and two-piece combinations featuring transparencies, subtle glitter and faded prints with other florals that pay tribute to that mystical vision of woman as an urban nymph. The palette of the collection goes for positivism, summer life and golden light via intense oranges playing with the range of yellows, pinks and whites and brushstrokes of intense blue sky. 

Class is class

For his part, Menchen Tomás reminds us of the importance of inheritance in Old Money, a collection that is inspired by the way of dressing and living of American families who have managed to pass fortune, class and status from generation to generation. An aesthetics characterized by sophistication, the fusion between the classic and the contemporary and timeless elegance, far from the culture of logo and ostentation. With that interpretation the Barcelona company brings together garments such as dresses and midi-skirts, pinned wide trousers, voluminous poplin shirts with other sporty garments that could be used for a day in a country-club or dinner in a garden on a summer night. Regards fabric details there is no shortage of silks, organzas and tulle flowers in a vibrant chromatic palette: blue, lime green, yellow, fuchsia-pink and bright-red.

Fashion without gender

Victor von Schwarz is part of the new generation of young talents that bring creativity and freshness on the 080catwalk. This time, the designer Barcelona presented a collection inspired by the Asian Mafia films of the 80s and 90s, whose centre of operations was the red neighbourhoods of cities such as Taipei or Hong Kong. Victor von Schwarz is committed to fashion without gender. Therefore, the designer, inspired by oriental clothing, creates open pieces, which anyone can wear, regardless of sex or gender. The silhouettes of the new summer creational are divided into two blocks. The first is very bright, with volumes, drape and transparency features that give a glimpse of skin. The second, part of a much more square silhouette and with variations of the classic tailored jacket. In this collection the fabrics are characterized by their imaginativeness. Sequins are prominent, from Vichy print to bright degrade. We also highlight bright laminates based on viscose and tulles with silver prints. As for colours, pastel shadestones and splashes of colour are a feature of this genderless creation.

Black velvet

Yolancris this time participated in the 080 Barcelona Fashion with her party collection, leaving aside her more experimental project Y Como. The new creation highlights the craft-work redolent of her own workshop itself where the accent is on velvet, flesh-colour and black. With regard to detail, velvet is mixed with golden threads, embedded French lace and macramés in an attractive combination. Binomies of colour also dominate: gold-black and white-black, and are separated with explosions of monocoloured dresses: red and powder pink. As for silhouettes, the collection brings together some classic pattern ideas combined with some more daring features, evident, for example, in the openings of the dresses. In general Yolancris’s creation aims to be timeless so as to offer an expansive wardrobe for special occasions.

Another edition, Gratacós fabrics have made their appearance at Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Madrid that was held in the Spanish capital at the beginning of March. Companies such as Brain & Beast, Dominico, Fely Campo, Malne, Redondo Brand and Teresa Helbig have trusted in our creations with new designs for the Autumn-Winter Collections 22/23. As always we have put together some of the most prominent looks with gratacós fabrics as well as the spirit that each designer wanted to transmit. It is worth remembering that it is an honour to have the confidence of these Spanish designers who, year after year, are opting for our family-run business.

Brain & Beast

Brain&Beast returned to the Madrid catwalk – after an absent edition – to claim the heritage of this Barcelona company with its usual style characterized by humor, riddles and double meanings via colour, print, unstructured patterns and references to the idols of contemporary culture. This time in Puzzle, Ángel Vilda presented a seasonless collection – irrespective of all seasons – which exhibited the playful DNA of the most rebellious company at Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Madrid. Garments with deconstructed phrases, patterned collage, as one that mixes the faces of Alain Delon and Catherine Deneuve, denim everywhere and impossible mixes of prints that seem to coexist effortlessly. In short, daring and casual outfits that go beyond trends because what they seek is to vindicate authenticity, a trait not always appreciated in the fashion industry.

Dominnico

Domingo Lázaro, winner of the Who’s on Next 2021 prize, with his creation Lovercross took us to a dystopian future to dive into the origins of Cyberpunk and Grunge via silhouettes of aerodynamic lines with the retro futurism of the 90’s as a connecting thread. In the new Dominnico creation proposal there is no shortage of volume or intermingled textures: Tweed, Lamé, mesh with rhinestone, laminates, taffetans, Renylon or 3D textured foams, present in long cloaks, evening dresses with asymmetric neckline or impossible hair-pieces. The dark inspiration is also represented with skewers, black leather and metallic details. As for the chromatic palette used, the Barcelona company created in 2016 is committed to primary colors and acidics, such as neon orange, fuchsia, green lime and apple and Klein blue to contrast with black, white and silver. In general this new Dominnico creation recalls the world of the motor-bike which the singer Rosalía also explores from her own private vision. We will see if together they establish a new dialogue between music and fashion.

Fely Campo

If there is a designer who has made our fabrics visible on the Madrid catwalk it is Fely Campo. The designer from Salamanca presented a luxury prêt-à-porter collection inspired by the natural beauty of the balconies of the Arribes and its landscape. This admiration is transmitted via the creation named Diafonía for the contrast of textures: the subtle beauty of nature give it the fine details, the transparencies, the vaporous tissues and the delicate reflections that open out onto the ruggedness of a more abrupt landscape, composed of coats which are firm and strong in the touch, such as those in wool. The most sober collection lines are composed of tailored volumes and oversize garments which are presented like a breastplate. Diafonía truly has constructed a feminine wardrobe which reflects the hardness and delicacy of an inspiring landscape via aesthetic counterpoint.

Malne

“Fashion is the glare of a moment, and it is also the immortality of beauty. Fashion is as ephemeral as unforgettable. ” Under this premise was framed the new Splendor creation from the Malne designers Paloma Álvarez and Juanjo Mánez. On the catwalk this winter collection is evident in the fusion of fabrics in the same garment or in the composition of each look, volumes in key garments with details ranging from pearls to feathers and the black and white binomial to represent the mystery and the brightness of fashion. For the feminine wardrobe it is an elegant and timeless creation for all those special occasions.

Redondo Brand

Jorge Redondo, creative director of Redondo Brand, gives a contemporary twist to party styles by reinterpreting the classics of elegance. The designer remembers his childhood when he admired the spectacular dresses that were exhibited on the red carpets and how one of his dreams would be to dress the celluloid stars. That glamour is behind a company that defines itself as “a very democratic guest brand” because it adapts the main trends on the catwalk to those of a real woman. In his new creation the eclecticism of americana becomes the central axis of the winter collection, an inspiration that merges with the essence of Redondo Brand to create natural volumes, asymmetric silhouettes and colour blends. Natural fibres such as silk, cotton or wool appear in different finishes and together with embroidered, glass or shiny pieces coexist between the more acidic and the most harmonizing tones. For the designer Jorge Redondo this sophisticated creation led to the L’Oréal Award for the best collection of the MBFWM at its 75th edition.

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