The Fashion School
Felicidad Duce organizes once in a while conferences around the themes of fashion. In December the turn was for
Josep Abril - Creation of a collection. I immediately assigned to the conference, but I have to admit that first I mixed Josep Abril with Josep Font, oops, my ignorance. The lecture was worth of visiting.
Josep Abril is a men's clothing designer who has his own brand and is already established in the Spanish and international men's clothing scene. He has a great appreciation to noble materials (wool, linen etc.) and textures. His style is; I would say, timeless and he has a thing for lines and squares. I did had heard of his name, but was not really familiar with his work.
It was such a pleasure to listen him explain his vision of textile industry and creation of a collection from a point of view of a visionary designer, almost like an artist, but not forgetting the end user and that the collection needs to sell. Clothes are not pieces of art. I was happy to here finally something that is not "fashion design for industry", fast fashion or directly copying.
All the time Josep Abril was speaking about clothing and not fashion. He is creating clothing instead of fashion as fashions come and go, but his vision stays. He as a designer of his own mark has his own preferences, path and the customers that are not in the great mass of "fashion victims". Thank you! In a country of such a high consumerism of fast fashion these kind of opinions are more than welcome.
As a designer and producer of his own line (the manufacturing is done here in Spain) he is also focusing to sustainability, a theme, that is not so often heard in the class rooms of Spanish fashion schools or in the street. Also he mentioned the luxury brand Hermès as one of the number one sustainable companies in the textile industry. The price is not just a vanity thing and more money to the pockets of the owners, but a salary to a crafter that is living and enjoying his life and work as any other worker is. Clothing work should not be done in the sweat shops at all.
The conference lasted about one and a half hours and I really enjoyed every minute of it. I hope there will be more designers like he is, following his path as a creator, but still focusing on the client and making that mixture a successful one.
Ah, and Josep Font is a Spanish designer of women's clothing and few years ago he was the only Spanish designer that was participating to the Paris Haute Couture shows with his own collection. Unfortunately he no longer creates Haute Couture, but I think one day I will write more about him.
