080 Barcelona Fashion Week
Having experienced the heights of fashion weeks in London, Milan, Paris and New York, it was a sheer joy to travel to Barcelona and to see some truly new fashion. This was an experience of designers never heard of before, all with a thirst to hit the international stage and to showcase the skill and capability of local talent.
The closure of fashion week saw awards presented to young designer Jaime Álvarez from the firm Mans Concept Menswear took the SEAT 080 Award to Emerging Design for the 23rd edition with the collection “Road to Goa”. Elsewhere, established designer Antonio Miro was awarded the Best Collection.
For The Rakish Gent, the real joy was the exposure to new designers and to see some of the work that they are doing. So many had real capacity of hitting the international stage hard. Here are just a few of our menswear highlights from our few days at Barcelona Fashion Week.
Mans Concept
So much of what we saw was monochrome and sporty, that it was a real joy to see Barcelona’s approach to modern tailoring. Suits were long and languid, and colours were jewel and bright. This collection presented the perfect marriage of casual day wear and statement clothes for the evening, cut really well and styled in a way that made it easy to imagine wearing it off the catwalk.
Pablo Erroz
Thinking of heading to LA anytime soon? You’ll need a fee pieces from Pablo Erroz’s latest collection, seemingly inspired by the young, rich kids of LA. A particularly strong look was of a model in striped pj style co-ords with a lumberjack style jacket thrown over the top. White sneakers are compulsory.
Ruben Galarreta
Sex, sex, sex. Galarreta may have been trying to push a fashion message, but the take away note for the fashion crowd was of thumping Ibiza dance floor hits, and sporty attire that was cutaway in all of the right places. It was a great demonstration of how elevated and sensual good sportswear can be.
Antonio Miro
One of the more established designers to be showing a new collection, Miro stuck to the familiar black and white colour palette.This was not a disappointment as the pieces were modern, wearable and easy to style from day to night.
Jnorig
The basic principles of this brand were all evident in the catwalk show - urban, chic and primarily monochrome with great attention to detail and fabric. Especially strong where splashes of red were brought in to add a new detail to catch the key amidst a sea of black and white.
Umit Benan
For us, the strongest menswear collection shown, hands down. Benan’s collection evoked early Casely-Hayford and A. Sauvage, a strong and powerful display of minorities all superb decked out in well made, tightly constructed and incredibly well styled attire. Jackets were cut well, trousers were the perfect length and we were especially fond of the tonal looks.