Barcelona, ​​a new fashion hotspot

What strikes at first glance is the light.

Warm, radiant, dazzling, it floods the whole city under an azure sky, like an antidote to depression.

In Barcelona, ​​on the seafront lined with palm trees as in the historic Barrio Gotico, there are countless days of sunshine – nearly three hundred a year throughout Spain – nor the number of trendy addresses, trendy boutiques , designer galleries and trendy restaurants.

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For a handful of years, Spain has asserted itself as the new European creative Eldorado, inspiring and attractive, with an ultra-desirable art of living.

Moreover, four Spanish cities are among the ten best cities in the world where it is good to live and work, according to the study published in March 2020 by InterNations (the largest expatriate community, with 4 million members).

"Here, people are extremely warm, chat with passers-by and cultivate a sincere joie de vivre spiced up with eccentricity", underlines Véronique Vaillant, a sparkling Franco-Spanish, based in Barcelona and creator of the label very popular with fashionistas, The Label Editing.

"This colorful and unbridled side, clearly anchored in the Movida of Almodóvar, we find it today"

In video, the Emerging Talents fashion show during Milan Fashion Week, spring-summer 2022

A bit of madness

On April 5, just opposite the Museum of Contemporary Art in Barcelona, ​​the convent of Los Àngels hosted a joyful display of “trendyness”.

Behind this facade of 16th-century Gothic architecture, the inauguration evening of the 28th edition of Barcelona Fashion Week was held, bringing together only a few days after its cousin, Madrid Fashion Week, all the elite of the Iberian Peninsula.

Long considered a country on the fringes in the world of fashion, Spain is now revealing its full potential, in particular thanks to a new style guard, with original philosophies, whose talent is now exported internationally: the Palomo Spain brand, by Alejandro Gómez Palomo, which seduces American celebrities, such as Beyoncé and Miley Cyrus, with its sexy romantic fashion, twisted with Iberian influences;

the acid flamenco style of María Escoté seen on the shoulders of singer Rosalia;

blazers, trench coats and pants of all sizes and styles from Louis Rubi's LR3 label;

the spirit of freedom and the indolent sexyness of the collections of Glo Lladó, the designer of the Eikō ai brand, trained at Central Saint Martins in London…

Rather than following trends, this younger generation is creating their own aesthetic, inspired by history and Spanish pop culture

Blanca Miro

In just a few collections, these designers have shaken up the codes and won the votes of the fashion world.

"Rather than following trends, this young generation creates its own aesthetic, inspired by history and Spanish pop culture", analyzes Blanca Miró, the influencer with 565,000 followers accustomed to the front rows of fashion shows and who also twists , women's wardrobe classics with a whimsical touch via its La Veste label.

“It is this difference and this touch of madness that is increasingly fascinating abroad.”

Fashion is a playground for me, where joy prevails over trend

Véronique Vaillant, creator of The Label Edition label

Festive spirit

Being an outsider in the fashion sphere, far from the diktats of the industry and the usual seasonality, is also the DNA of The Label Edition, the eco-friendly and

label launched in 2019 by Señora Vaillant, which is a hit with United States and all over Europe.

"A floral shirt with oversized sleeves tucked under a man's waistcoat, a sweatshirt slipped over a tuxedo shirt or gold leather pants paired with a checkered blouse, fashion is a playground for me, where joy l 'trumps the trend', explains the designer who presented her new collection on April 6 at Libertine, the very popular cocktail bar in Casa Bonay, the vintage-style hotel in downtown Barcelona, ​​located a few blocks from La Sagrada Família.

That evening, all his

had come to attend his virtual fashion show.

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Creation of a shirt with oversized sleeves by Véronique Vaillant.

Anthony Perez

There was the actor Luka Peroš, who plays Marseille in the hit series

(Netflix), the young duo of interior designers from Quintana Partners, Benito Escat Velez and Pol Castell, new "children terribles of the design", or even Pablo Bofill, the son of the late Ricardo Bofill, the internationally renowned Spanish architect: all the Spanish creative hype gathered in a chic and relaxed atmosphere to share platters of Iberian charcuterie and drink an

artisanal

or a glass of natural wine.

“It may sound a bit cliché, but it happens like that in Spain, whispers Véronique Vaillant in our ears.

Whether for a fashion event, the opening of a restaurant or an

, you always come across personalities from all walks of life.”

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The Franco-Spanish designer Véronique Vaillant.

Anthony Perez

The art of blends

A little further, between Jean Nouvel's Agbar Tower and the large Bogatell beach, you can also feel this positive energy.

Known as the former industrial district of Barcelona, ​​Poblenou has become, in a few years, a paradise for tourists in search of street art and the stronghold of creative people, with its Design Museum and its lot of lofts, workshops, fashion boutiques, coworking spaces, advertising agencies, art galleries and even

with DJs.

Luna Paiva, sculptor: "Gaudí paved the way for creative madness"

From plant installations in bronze imagined for the windows of Hermès boutiques to the design of a limited edition bag for Salvatore Ferragamo, via engravings made for Cartier, the Barcelona sculptor Luna Paiva is the fetish artist of the big houses.

“After studying art history in Paris, my father's city, I went to live in Buenos Aires, my mother's city.

There, I discovered the bronze tradition and made it my art.

Three years ago, I fell in love with a Franco-Spanish (

), and I moved to Barcelona.

“An XXL curtsying yucca, a rustic kitchen chair, rock-cut steps… I imagine plants that don't exist and objects that weren't born to be art.”

“Tàpies, Miró, Gaudí… There is a real tradition of art and design in the Catalan capital.

A link with the land and a Mediterranean style in total contradiction with the pop spirit and the Almodóvar aesthetic of the rest of the country.

The proximity to the sea and the mountains, the Tramuntana, the light, the sun... This relationship to nature, combined with that of the city, plays a lot on the creativity of artists.

Gaudí opened a creative path, that of freedom of expression and a certain madness, which young artists continue to follow today.

"Welcome to Barcelona's Brooklyn," laughs Maria Fontanellas, flaunting her colors in a flashy red patent leather trench coat with sleeves pimped with pink feathers, from her clothing and accessories brand Mietis, which has just opened in this district a hybrid concept-store mixing art and fashion.

“How can you imagine anything other than pop and joyful fashion when you get up every morning facing the Mediterranean?, smiles the designer.

And then we are lucky to be able to count on exceptional craftsmanship here to make our wildest dreams come true.”

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Maria Fontanellas.

Anthony Perez

Like her, the Spanish cultivate an explosive personality.

They are experts in the art of whimsical mixtures between styles, folklore and colors.

"In Spain, everything is fusion," she continues.

Thus, in the district of Sant Martí, whatever their activity, everyone takes pleasure in making discover their know-how to the other.

Especially at the time of “

”, which is translated into French as “the blessed hour”… that of the aperitif.

Spain or the joy of living.