TÍSCAR ESPADAS unveiled its new collection titled “Capítulo Abierto” (Open Chapter), in the MACBA (Barcelona Museum of Contemporary Art), during 080 Barcelona Fashion.
We spoke with the designer about her inspiration, about heroes and about art. This is what she told us:
Capítulo Abierto. Tell us a little about the new collection you are presenting at 080 Barcelona Fashion.
The OPEN CHAPTER collection has been the natural union of three collections that since their birth have always been in the process of completing and complementing each other.
The beginning of this creative journey stems from the creation of an ambitious imaginary where the real and the dreamed are intertwined and evade us from everyday life.
The collection is articulated around the concept of the Hero as an aspiration against the masses. The heroes are characters between divine and human, unrepeatable beings, models where we can project ourselves. The always fascinating narration of his exploits, his myths, is situated outside of a historical time (season) and frequently interprets the great dilemmas of humanity from their symbology. With this collection we turn street men into mythical, timeless beings outside of everyday life, “Heroes” from another world, that of creativity turned into carnal and human fabric (skin). Characters of an incessant narration where the ancestral and the contemporary overlap, the timeless and the flight of the imagination. The collection is a collection in perpetual creation.
What is missing for the “common” man to become a Hero?
He would tell you to wear one of our garments. But jokes aside, in a society as globalized and homogenizing, as pragmatic and virtual as ours, we need to differentiate ourselves, be unique, and return to what is most human in human beings, what makes us better. One of the necessary weapons is beauty. Through my garments I intend to make those who inhabit them feel a different, individual, and unique being, transcending it into a being differentiated from the mass, from everyday, that is, a human being who aspires to the loftiness of beauty. A hero is just that, a half-human, half-divine being, a role model.
How was the experience of recording the presentation video of your collection by the hand of 080 in such an iconic place in the city of Barcelona as the MACBA?
Being invited to 080 has been a gift for us for various reasons. On the one hand, it has offered us the possibility of presenting, for the first time, our work within the framework of Spanish fashion, since until now its projection was in Japan and the United Kingdom. Its format has also allowed us to show, more than a collection, the philosophy of the brand, and the identity of our work.
The video recording space has been very relevant for us. My work aspires much more to the art than to the commercial, it is not limited only to the creation of garments, but also tries to give them a symbolic, narrative, aesthetic charge… in short, like any other form of artistic expression, within a story much more interdisciplinary. In fact, I often involve other artistic languages in the creation of each collection. That part of this creative work ends up being shown in a museum like MACBA, beyond a catwalk, which has a very valuable symbolic and conceptual charge for our work philosophy.
In a way, digital presentations are here to stay. What is the good thing that you perceive about doing it this way and what do you miss?
There is no doubt that virtual space, as a means of work and communication, reaches more people and more distance. It is lucky to be able to enjoy the necessary time to see the presentation over and over again, pay attention to the details, etc… In fact, I find this hybrid format between Digital and Physical Fashion Show very interesting, because during the recording it was like a live show but always with the necessary margin of repetition, the possibility of inducing the viewer’s gaze to those details that you think are of interest. It also allows you to enjoy clothes and work in a more leisurely and unlimited way.
Even so, I will always defend the face-to-face, the tactile, the ephemeral of the moment, being, as an inalienable need for all creators. I need the physical space as a place to meet and exchange with the viewer, to find, feel, touch, and appreciate… Attending an opera through a screen is an exercise in taxidermy, we take away life, reality, the ephemeral. A collection that is not touched, that is not smelled, is just a showy shell, but poor in reality.
How does art influence your creations?
Art, the incessant search to meet beauty -or “anti-beauty”-, the search for the most appropriate expressive means to try to touch it has been a constant in my life since I was little, something that I have lived with the naturalness of obedience to a vocation. Being born, growing up, and living surrounded by a family environment where art and creativity are a regular constant surely marks us and endows us with a special sensitivity for the enjoyment of art. Art is not only found in museums but is present in our daily reality, as much as life offers us, if we are attentive and willing to perceive it.
Observing, integrating, and reinterpreting images, smells, sounds… accumulates in our memory a residue that helps shape our own imaginary, full of references, images, and eclectic inspirations, without much meaning but that through our sensitivity acquire coherence and a purpose.
I think I came to fashion as one more way of creating. Plastic arts are part of my usual language, but one day I found in fashion the way to build works that acquire life and movement, forming part of our environment and our lives, dispossessed of the -sometimes excessive- responsibility that we carry with us. art. But without ceasing to be one more form of creation, of aspiring to “beauty” and to narrate ourselves.
Any interesting project you want to tell us about?
We are currently starting one of the most personally dreamed projects. After working for years in London, we are currently in the middle of building our studio in Madrid. The Brand continues to have a clear international vocation but is committed to doing so from our natural environment, from our origins. It is a multidisciplinary workspace where, in addition to working on our collections and having a part of the Showroom, we would like it to be a meeting point for different languages, creatives, events, and projects in the future.
Take a look at the collection below:
