Adriana Domínguez, president of Adolfo Domínguez, is trained in resistance.
She studied in the best national and international centers, speaks five languages, lives between two cities, and traded her acting career for a show jump in the Galician fashion group.
Ask.
What memories does she have of her when she was little?
Answer.
The one from the grandparents' tailor shop.
My cousins and my sister played in the basement, on the corner of Avenida de La Habana in Ourense.
The delivery boy was going to pick me up, so it was included as one more delivery (laughs).
Q.
How was that childhood?
R.
I changed a lot of schools.
In Ourense I was in the Franciscanas and Concepción Arenal, and from the age of eight, interned abroad.
Every two years I changed centers, for me it is a very nice memory.
Q.
Well, hospitalization sounds like trauma.
R.
_
Not at all.
It was more of a
Harry Potter
vibe , I loved it.
Q.
They say that your father was very demanding with you and your sisters.
R.
_
In summer he made us do three things: drawing, piano and swimming.
We did it and he supervised afterwards.
He told us that, since he had three daughters, we were not going to do the military.
And he was sorry, because he believed that there were certain teachings that we were going to miss.
Q.
I understand that you gave them real training.
R.
He had a platform built on the farm about five meters high from which ropes and poles hung.
He made us go up and down.
He used to say: “If there is a war and you have to jump from a helicopter, you can't say you don't know”.
Q.
Did you like your career?
A.
I did Business Studies at Icade (Universidad Pontificia de Comillas), and in France (Cesem) although I would have preferred to study humanities.
I had a designer father who told me that there was no way out... the world has changed a lot.
Many careers that before seemed like they had no way out, now do: design and pattern making, for example.
The Jesuits, in the race, included contents of ethics and values.
Over the years I have realized how important it is to have a vision of building the society in which you are, in the medium and long term.
In the business world, ethics is very important.
Q.
And the interpretation arrived.
R.
I wanted to study film, since I had studied business I thought that a logical sequel would be to dedicate myself to production.
But along the way I got sidetracked (laughs).
I was going to do a master's degree in New York, I was first on the waiting list and while I was waiting I started studying individual postgraduate subjects.
I discovered acting [he studied at the select The Lee Strasberg Theater Institute in New York].
I jumped in and it went well, I was 22 years old.
I did five movies.
P.
He shared a cast with Geraldine Chaplin and Robert De Niro.
What went through your head to want to return to the company?
R.
I did not continue because I really liked the trade, but not the profession.
Q.
From the United States to Spain.
How was the return home?
R.
He had a small company that collaborated in the creation of the brand and communication of Adolfo Domínguez.
In the end, this is also telling a story, the story of a brand.
Q.
But what made you change your mind?
R.
It is not so much what happened to me as what happened to the company.
I was in a difficult moment, a little on the edge of the abyss.
Those of us who love it well decided to do something about it, I was not the only one: shareholders, workers, directors... they said we are going to rearrange the pieces so that this goes ahead.
Q.
Did the last names help you or hinder you?
A.
I am quite enthusiastic about my family.
My grandparents were very well known in Ourense.
When I came to take over the company, they would stop me on the street and ask me if I was one of those girls from the Lighthouse (that was the name of the tailor shop).
My grandparents were very special people, I have some cousins who have set up Bimba y Lola, some uncles who have set up Sociedad Textil Lonia (develops the Purificación García and CH Carolina Herrera brands)... I think I have a very creative, enterprising, and who does a lot for this province.
Q.
What brands do you admire besides yours?
R.
I really like brands like Ecoalf: how Javier Goyeneche started with an idea to clean the oceans and how he has tied everything together, how he convinced fishermen to recycle... I also really like The North Face, the Californian, the founder of that company wrote a book called
Let My People Surf
.
He has a company that hires sports fans.
Q.
How do you manage stress?
R.
I don't think about it much.
Life is energy, I don't have an expectation of enormous tranquility, nor does being in constant movement stress me out a lot.
I have done meditation, yoga, but I have realized that I like a very Galician practice that is to go out into the countryside and walk.
It relaxes me a lot.
I try to do it at the beginning or end of the day.
I live between Ourense and Madrid and I have made sure I have a field in both places.
I like the garden, I have animals, chickens, rabbits and a dog.
Q.
I hope the dog is not a hunter.
A.
He is trained not to kill them (laughs), but he still has temptations.
The world of having animals and a garden settles me down.
Q.
And on weekends?
R.
I don't fill myself with things, I let time flow.
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