Believing in Barcelona again

I have just returned from New York with a notebook filled with scribbles, photographs, and shops I want to study at greater leisure. It happens to me whenever I travel. I step into establishments, peer through shop windows, watch the passers-by, and try to grasp why certain places draw us in even when we had not the slightest intention of crossing the threshold.

New York is particularly fascinating for anyone working in retail. A stroll through SoHo is all it takes. Across just a handful of streets you encounter historic establishments, major international brands, nascent companies, and concepts that in all likelihood will no longer be there in a matter of months. Some shops are conceived to sell. Others serve to trial an idea, unveil a product, or gauge the public’s response. The abiding impression is that something is always happening.

Yet on this trip, a curious thing occurred to me. The more I looked at New York, the more I thought of Barcelona. Not so much to weigh them against each other, but to reflect on everything we have right here – things that, perhaps because we see them day in, day out, no longer fill us with wonder.

Barcelona possesses an identity recognised virtually anywhere in the world.

Barcelona possesses an identity recognised virtually anywhere in the world. Architecture, the Mediterranean, gastronomy, markets, design, sport, culture, commerce, and street life. We live alongside all of this every day, but it takes only a few days away to be reminded that such a combination is extraordinarily rare.

Nor has it simply materialised out of thin air. The Barcelona we know is the handiwork of countless generations of shopkeepers, entrepreneurs, architects, artists, restaurateurs, innovators, and, naturally, the people who call it home.

New York operates on an economic scale with which it makes little sense to compare ourselves. Barcelona offers different virtues. Here, you can have breakfast in a century-old market, discover a fledgling independent label, step into a shop that has traded for decades, stroll past some of the world’s most celebrated buildings, and finish the day gazing out over the Mediterranean. It is so close at hand that we sometimes take its worth for granted.

For this reason, rather than asking what New York has that we lack, I believe we ought to be asking what Barcelona holds that is so hard to find anywhere else. And, above all, what we intend to do with it.

I believe we ought to be asking what Barcelona holds that is so hard to find anywhere else.

For years we have turned Barcelona into a destination millions of people yearn to visit. The next frontier might well be ensuring they also come to try new things. That a company based in Seoul, London, or New York thinks instinctively of Barcelona whenever it seeks to launch a fresh concept in Europe. And that a brand conceived in Gràcia, Poblenou, or the Born looks upon its own city as a springboard from which to venture out into the world. Making things happen.

Commerce plays an enormous role in this. An open shutter transforms a street. A single shop can lure you to a corner of town you would not normally frequent. A bookshop, a bakery, a restaurant, or a market gradually becomes woven into the fabric of the city and the way we experience it.

That is why the demise of a historic shop is always bad news. With it goes something we will probably never be able to replace. Yet we ought to be just as troubled whenever someone with a bright idea faces insurmountable hurdles trying to get it off the ground.

Barcelona needs to safeguard what is worth keeping, while still making room for the new.

Barcelona needs to safeguard what is worth keeping, while still making room for the new. I see no contradiction between century-old markets and novel retail formats, between traditional craft and cutting-edge technology, or between an independent neighbourhood boutique and a global flagship. All of these can belong to the very same city. What we truly need, to my mind, is a little more ambition.

And I am not talking about competing to see who comes out on top. I mean refusing to settle. Demanding more high-calibre commerce, more homegrown firms capable of scaling abroad, more talent eager to stay put, and more compelling initiatives choosing to set down roots in Barcelona. We have every reason to aim for this.

These thoughts turned over in my mind as I walked through SoHo. Naturally, we must continue to observe what New York, London, Paris, Tokyo, or Seoul are up to. I will go on doing so, as it remains one of the finest ways I know to learn. Yet perhaps we can return from these journeys carrying a different question. Instead of perpetually asking what we can import to Barcelona, why not consider what we can do so that others want to travel here to discover something new?

Believing in Barcelona that little bit more once again.

During the flight home I coined a name for this notion: Barcelona Believe. Whether it amounts to a fully fledged concept, an idle reflection, or simply a way of capturing what I felt after those days abroad, I cannot say. But I do know what it signifies for me: believing in Barcelona that little bit more once again.

This does not mean pretending everything works seamlessly. Far from it. Some things work; others demand clear improvement. Loving a city also means being exacting with it. But being discerning is one thing; failing to value what sits right before you is quite another.

I do not believe we need to resurrect any bygone Barcelona. I prefer to envision the one we can still build. I returned from New York with rolls of photos, notes on interesting shops, and fresh ideas about retail. Yet curiously, I also returned with a renewed appetite for Barcelona.

We must ensure that Barcelona remains Barcelona.

We do not need to be New York. Nor Paris, nor London. We must ensure that Barcelona remains Barcelona, without ever losing the drive to make it better. That, for me, is Barcelona Believe.