The Rec industrial district is coming alive with a new edition of REC.0 Experimental Stores, the retail genuine experiment where major brands and independent designers sell their stocks at the old tanneries of this picturesque area of Igualada. As you know, Rec.0 is an unprecedented and unique special sales concentration, a festival for the senses that encompasses fashion, culture and gastronomy in an ephemeral format.
For the first time, the summer edition will be held in May, from 10 to 13 and in total 88 fashion brands will be involved, divided into 52 pop up stores that combine the industrial heritage of the city with the creativity of areas of fashion.
In this edition, Rec.015 has managed to attract new brands such as Carhartt, Sebago, Tiny Cottons or Castañer, extending an unprecedented offer. The big international brands like Levi’s, Adidas, Pepe Jeans, Mango, Camper retain their faith in the event, as do local firms like Sita Murt, Punto Blanco, Javier Simorra or Pretty Ballerinas. Sport and urban fashion are also featured in the Rec with Adidas, Fox Head, Santa Cruz, Wesc or Buff.
A design area for 080 Barcelona Fashion
Rec.0 continues to opt for independent design and aims to position itself as a great platform of sales and promotion of Catalan fashion. For the first time, the parade 080 Barcelona Fashion and REC.0 join forces to create a large area devoted to Catalan emerging fashion: the pop up store that will house 080 new designers and brands like Carlota Oms, SSIC and Paul, Les Chausseurs, Pau Esteve or Rita Row, besides the designers Dorotea, IKA Editions, Loa, Maria Roch or Kinetik Supply. As in each edition, the event features the trident of Catalan design formed by Txell Miras, Miriam Ponsa and Josep Abril, who are joined by other leading companies such as Who, Ingrid Munt, Gorni Kramer, David Valls, Poison in the Skin, Cuirum, Susi Sweet Dress or Jordi Rafart, among others. They will be joined by the winner of the Time Out fashion award, which is awarded to an original and dynamic proposal to promote young talent.
More gastronomy and culture
In culinary terms, the Rec Street Food Festival has widened its range with new pop up bars by local chefs and food trucks featuring different international cuisine. Furthermore, there will also be pop and rock concerts and book presentations for all ages with different themes such as illustration or gastronomy. For the little ones there are also some activities planned so that the whole family can enjoy an evening of shopping, leisure and entertainment.
Totally recommended!
They are not everyday designers and each of them maintains his or her differing style within the independent design sector, a cake to be divided up between creators who share the same philosophy: authenticity, character, workmanship, honesty and just some doses of austerity. Txell Miras, Josep Abril y Miriam Ponsa gelled very well in the Rec district of Igualada, where in the same presentation space they defended their creations before the consumers who were visiting the Rec.0 Experimental Stores, a commercial initiative in a temporary format where twice a year fashion companies sell their stock. This casual alliance, together with good relations between the three of them swiftly led towards a robust and motivating project for all three.
Some years ago the experimental shop Project #01 in the district of Le Marais, the celebrated fashion district of Paris, was born in a similar way. The good welcome it received in the French capital was key to its successful move to Barcelona. In a similar way, when NU#2 emerged last year in the Eixample it revitalized local trade with its offering of alternative design, its ethics and aesthetics far away from the traditional franchises and chain-stores that flood the centre of Barcelona.
NU#2 is not a conventional shop and the presentation are reflects the essence of the designs and the personality of its creators. As its name indicates, #NU2 is a reference to nudity and its radical approach is to show the world fashion such as they conceive it, without make-up or cover-up. Situated in a 260m2 former store-house for electrical materials #NU2 recreates the spirit of the original space by preserving its structure and the charm of its old industrial aesthetic as found in the cracks in the walls or faults in the floor. In it Txell Miras, Josep Asbril and Miriam Ponsa exhibit the season’s male and female fashion collections while at the same time housing other designers with a similar attitude and which complement what is on offer, such as handbags by Cristina Corres, shoes by the Mallorcan Pep Monjo, pieces of industrial design by Aparentment or the spectacular metallic furniture of Jonathan Singleton, who was also responsible for the lay-out of the shop-window and for what is hanging in the shop. Nothing is there just by chance.
The space is also often utilized as a multi-purpose hall where events are held which are linked to independent fashion. Recently the influential Catalan trio opened a new shop, #NU3 situated on the creator design floor in Pedralbes Centre. One more reason to confirm that a different form of production and consumption is possible and totally necessary within the current panorama.
We applaud initiatives which bring the fashion industry together in its broadest vision: large fashion-houses are coming together with independent design and young talents in one and the same space, where each one has his or her plot of terrain – and his or her public. And if it is an ephemeral format, then so much the better, because it creates a much more memorable phenomenon in time without exhausting the formula which gives it balance.
This is one of the reasons why we value the initiative Rec.0 Experimental Stores, a retail experiment dating back to 2009 which takes place in the industrial district of the Rec in Igualada. For two months in the year the old tanning factories in the area are home to distinctive pop-up stores of brands and designers in a unique concentration of special sales and concurrent too for just four days with other cultural and gastronomic activities.
The new edition, which runs from the 9th until the 12th of November, sees the participation of more than 80 brands of clothing for men, women and children distributed among four large areas within the district. There the consumer can go about discovering at his own pace what the temporary shops have to offer by following an unusual route through all the tanneries. Apart from the high quality brands such as Adidas, Levis, Mango or Lacoste which raise high expectations in the general public one can also find designers linked to 080 Barcelona Fashion such as Miriam Ponsa, JosepAbril, Txell Miras or Sita Murt. These designers share the same space with others of smaller format who likewise parade on the Catalan cat-walk, such as Carlota Oms, Rita Row, Chausseurs, SSIC and Paul or Paul Esteve. Those are some of the names to be found in this edition on the new space 080. Also present are small brands by young designers outstanding in their originality, yet without abandoning the commerciality of their designs. To name just a few examples : Colmillo de Morsa, Costalamel or Dutch Delight. Rec.0 thus aims to create a platform of brands and emerging designers which is swelled by each new edition.
In addition to their own sales from previous seasons and the opportunity offered to the public to get to know at first hand the designers who are directly involved in the buying process, the initiative also seeks to offer the visitor other gastronomic experiences -food-trucks, cooking competitions – and cultural experiences – concerts, workshops, activities for kids. All of these make of Eec.0 an authentic leisure experience to be shared with family or friends. In the last edition, held in June, more than 100,000 people passed through the district. They must have had a reason…
