February 2021. Call of Zarzuela.
Warning: “Be prepared, curves are coming.”
When Diego Díaz from Malaga and Italian Roberto Ferlito hung up the phone, they didn't really know how to take the warning.
It was formulated in a friendly tone, but they did not understand its meaning.
Suddenly, after days of nerves, they understood.
Queen Letizia attended the National Sports Awards with gold earrings and turquoise rhinestones, which simulate the laces of a shoe and were designed by them.
It was the first garment that she debuted after the arrival of the pandemic.
Hours later the collection was sold out and the waiting list for new orders reached six months.
Those same days, in full whirlwind, the fourth season of
Elite
began .
Rebbe, one of her protagonists, also wore her jewelry.
They are two of the three viral moments of the brand Rod Almayate, whose rings and earrings have also been worn by Beyoncé, Cara Delevingne and Céline Dion.
“And we have said no to Rihanna,” these creators maintain.
Díaz (36 years old) and Ferlito (42 years old) live in Torre del Mar, a coastal neighborhood of Vélez-Málaga, east of the province of Málaga.
It is a quiet place, with wide beaches and beach bars where fish are grilled on boats.
No one would suspect that some of the most exclusive jewelry on the market is designed here.
It is the place where these creators arrived fleeing from a sector in which they almost did not survive.
“The world of high fashion destroyed us emotionally.
It is a system of constant stress, stress, pressure.
Where everything is a lie and pure
marketing
,” Díaz sums up, effervescent.
He knows what he's talking about because he did his first campaign as a photographer for Roberto Cavalli at age 20.
“It was like playing the first soccer game of your life in a Champions League final,” he says.
He used a chicken, put it as a co-driver in a Ferrari and it worked.
It was his rampant departure towards an intense professional career that led him to work for
Vogue
, Martini and Versace, sign a cover for
Harper's Bazaar
, receive two nominations at the Cannes photography festival and travel constantly between Milan, Paris, London and New York. York.
In Italy he met Ferlito, who has spent two decades designing for Cavalli and has rubbed shoulders with the Spice Girls, Lenny Kravitz, Shakira and Beyoncé.
Together they also raised a project and succeeded.
“I became dominated by ego and became an asshole, I lost many clients because of it.
Thank goodness we achieved quick success to know that it was just what we didn't want in our life.
That's why we left," says the man from Malaga.
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In 2009, while living in Florence, they launched the Schield brand.
It worked well but never caught on.
Upon arrival in Malaga they decided to change course.
They got rid of the
showrooms
, the press office, any intermediary;
and they renamed her Rod Almayate to start from scratch and pay tribute to his origins.
They did it without too many expectations.
They believed that you could not work or succeed in the fashion industry from a place so far from the circuit.
However, they have promoted a revolution based on designs that, they explain, seek beauty in the politically incorrect and the everyday.
They are jewelry plated in gold, palladium or ruthenium in the shape of a shrimp, olive, cigar, band-aid or beer can ring.
Also a condom or vagina container.
“It's all very intuitive.
We seek the limits with shapes that intrigue you from afar and surprise you up close.
It is a balance between provocation and design,” says Ferlito, calmly.
Calmly, behind a pair of sunglasses, he clarifies that the workmanship is done in a workshop in Forlì, an Italian city near Bologna, where jewelry for Elizabeth Taylor was already forged decades ago.
“A shrimp can be very elegant or something very daring, it is the woman who interprets it,” they maintain.
Queen Letizia with Rod Almayate's earrings at the delivery of the National Sports Awards, in 2021.Juan Carlos Hidalgo (EFE / Cordon Press)
In their origins, their creations went unnoticed.
His Instagram profile was filled with insults and negative comments.
They couldn't find their audience.
Some stars helped them do it.
Beyoncé used her pieces, then other celebrities such as Ruby Rose, Cara Delevingne and Jessica Alba arrived.
And also Spanish actresses like Najwa Nimri and Blanca Suárez.
But the one who changed everything was the Royal House.
“The Queen saved us,” they say when remembering March 2021, when the editorial offices of the specialized press despaired at the lack of information about the brand behind those sneaker bow-shaped earrings that Queen Letizia wore.
It was not the first time that she wore her designs, but that one went viral.
Sales skyrocketed.
His presence in the fourth season of
Elite
ended up overwhelming them.
In between they received an email from Rihanna's team.
“They wanted to send a person to Malaga to collect pieces from the collection, because they were in a hurry.
We told them no.
We had opted for the series, they had been very good to us and we wanted to be honest,” says Díaz.
The designers admit to looking for beauty in the politically incorrect and the everyday, as can be seen in some of their creations.Garcia-Santos (El Pais)
That same honesty is what they maintain when actresses, singers or any celebrity knocks on their door.
“We only work with people we admire.
And never with
influencers
who are dedicated to taking a photo jumping on the beach,” reveals the man from Malaga.
Among the first are Nathy Peluso, Lady Gaga and Céline Dion – whose stylist, Pepe Muñoz, is also from Malaga – María León and Natalia de Molina, whom they met furtively in an elevator.
Candela Peña wore the same earrings as Doña Letizia in one of her appearances in
La Resistencia
and wore several of the other pieces in the
Hierro
series , such as Macarena Gómez in
30 coins
.
The firm's particular designs have conquered artists like Beyoncé and platforms like Netflix.Garcia-Santos (El Pais)
Last summer they launched a collection with the Malaga artist Javier Calleja and Maxi Iglesias and Manu Carrasco have worn their brand.
It is a success that they live as if it were not with them, with the tranquility that their beach hideaway gives them away from big events, parties and pressure.
“We have already experienced that and we don't want it,” highlights Ferlito.
“Before I lived without feelings.
Here now there are days when I leave
CrossFit
crying with happiness.
And every morning I come to have a half [a coffee with milk] and a smurf [a bread roll] on the beach and tears come to my eyes,” adds Díaz, who personally serves his clients.
He has now launched a series of mugs with phrases that define his feelings, while he sporadically returns to photography for artists like Martina diRosso, the ex-partner of journalist María Casado.
“We have created a recognizable design.
“Tous has the bear, we have the pussy,” explain the designers.Garcia-Santos (El Pais)
The third time this brand went viral was last November.
The National Police reported that during an operation they had arrested two twin brothers who were posing as delivery drivers to steal valuables.
They recovered a small Yves Saint Laurent collection belonging to a Spanish actress and a group of jewelry with unique shapes.
They were shrimp, olives, strips, condoms.
They published the image on social networks and Ana Rosa Quintana's program echoed it.
“Who wants that?” asked one collaborator.
“But above all: Who steals that?” responded the presenter, laughing.
“Who wants that?
Well, for example, Beyoncé, Miley Cyrus, Her Majesty Queen Letizia, Lady Gaga, Netflix
Elite
and, above all, our wonderful customers who make everything almost always sold out," they responded from their Instagram (where they have almost 48,000 followers).
That afternoon sales of his pieces skyrocketed again.
“We have created a recognizable design.
“Tous has the bear, we have the pussy,” they conclude.
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