With clothes, it happens to me, maybe to you too, the same as with beauty or perhaps with music: I am not an expert, far from it, but I know what I like. Or, above all, I know what I don't like. Maybe I don't know how to dress, but I know, for sure, how not to dress. There are pieces that: "please, oh no, no, I don't see myself" (say it in a lady's voice) and pieces that; "Wow, yes!" (say it in a sexual climax voice).
With clothes called women's I always think of myself, egocentrically. Would I wear it? Would I buy it? Everything I see, I see in terms of myself. With clothes called men's it's different. I don't appreciate it as much, perhaps because it has fewer possibilities for madness. In this political debate, most men wear ties and not wearing one already means many things. In some restaurants around the world B.C. (Before Covid), like Cipriani, in Venice, they have ties and jackets for male diners who go without a jacket.
Why do I look at how Pere Aragonès dresses among all the men and women speaking in this cold room of the Parliament? I don't know. Why don't I see him disguised and instead, comfortable? He wears a narrow, maroon tie with very light stripes. White shirt (modern collar, not too wide, not too narrow) and blue jacket. Then, on the second day, I try to notice what he's wearing, on purpose. He has also put on a white shirt, but this time, the tie is dark blue and the jacket is the same tone, with an imperceptible grid. I search, in Catalan, "Pere Aragonès roba" (Pere Aragonès clothes) on Google, but what comes up first are articles referring to the phrase ---which he has never said--- "Spain robs us." But I also find an interview in El Punt Avui, by Òscar Palau, with Marta Pontnou, who (I didn't know) is his image consultant. I know her because she collaborates on TV3. She also writes in Núvol. I call her and we arrange to have an aperitif. I want her to tell me everything.
A lady would say of Marta Pontnou that "she is very extreme." But I would say it too. She has her hair shaved on the sides and a platinum blonde mohawk. She appears with yellow sneakers that "they lent her," and a jacket that makes me die of envy: it's black and full of holes. I console myself thinking that it must not be very warm.
"A party has to have a communication agency that is clear about the image it wants to project and a communication team," she tells me. "And with the profile they give me, I look at the wardrobe and improve it. I never change the style." I smile when I hear her: "But what if they don't care about the style?" Then she smiles: "I put them to the test. I tell them: Wear this and go out to communicate. And then everyone tells them, as happened to you, how good you looked today."
I take a sip of my sparkling wine (for me, that's the aperitif) and tell her: "Sometimes I see people in politics and I think they've bought clothes recently, but it's clothes that show they're not happy with their body, they've bought them without enthusiasm, to cover themselves up." Marta nods: "They tell you: Camouflage me. Put a scarf on me. Many politicians are not happy with their bodies. And I always tell them they have two options. Everyone has complexes. The thin person, for being thin, the fat person, for the fat... And I say: Either you accept it or you change it, but we can't hide, put scarves to cover the chest... Either you get breast surgery or you accept yourself... And in this I have no hang-ups: Women don't have to be condemned for getting touch-ups, we are free... I am pro Botox and pro hyaluronic and pro breast reduction. We can change things with surgery. The work I do, sometimes, with my clients is about acceptance. I will never tell anyone, Wear a long jacket to cover your butt. Because, you know what? If you are confident, they will see you as beautiful. Pere is a guy who walks through the world with his head held high."
Something happens to me. Most people seem beautiful to me. I find it difficult to find someone ugly.
"Clothes or accessories help ---Pontnou points out---, because they help with attitude. Keep in mind that when someone is not confident, they dress in black, notice, and it's because they say it slims and is elegant..." I look at her as if I had been given an appointment for a vaccine. "So it's not true that black slims and is elegant?" She shakes her head. "They are big lies." I feel a little guilty. Maybe I do wear black dresses to (and now I'm talking about a science fiction activity) go to dinner. "Maybe I don't know what it is to be elegant," I say in a small voice. "The image consultant has to find the piece you have in mind. And if they tell you how it combines, if they give you their approval, you will leave there confident."
The work I do, sometimes, with my clients, is about acceptance; if you are confident, they will see you as beautifulI meditate for a moment. "Let's look at Pere Aragonès. One day he has a debate, but another day he will have to offer condolences or bad news. I mean, he can't dress too cheerfully, right?" She sips her vermouth, nibbles a potato chip, and replies: "I always have the agenda of events and my clients' outfits have to be planned like a speechThe first thing I do with a client is ask them to tell me what they have in their closet.My job is to respect your style, but to polish it. There is always a style. He, when he met me, was already doing well. He knows very well the position he occupies, what he represents, he is very respectful. He knows I am there to help him."
Hearing this, I can't help but laugh: "I imagine your first meeting; Pere Aragonès scared to death that you would force him to shave his head." Marta, seeing me, also laughs: "When he saw me, I had my mohawk dyed pink and he said: You won't give me a mohawk, will you?. No, of course not, because the mohawk is my style. Everyone when they see me... No one throws themselves into my arms. The first image is one of fear. But there are also people who have told me Completely change my style, I'm tired of going like this, I want to be a cool chick, I don't want to look prim and proper."
I believe, however, that we are all many things and that we have all kinds of days. Crazy days and naive days. And when I tell her, she affirms: "Clothes are for dressing up. I do it at weddings, I think What are you going to be at this wedding? A merry widow, with a fascinator?". Then I ask her, of course, if she has a lot, a lot of clothes. "No, no, because I give them away. When I haven't worn a piece all season, I give it away, I make someone happy, energies are renewed... If one piece comes in, another goes out. Someone will feel like Beyoncé with something I don't want".
I always order suits from Señor, who are from Manresa, the fabrics are from here, the seamstresses are from here and they make them to measure for youAnd it's time for the confession: "I value advisors when we see them dressed we sayhow I like it, but if we had seen what they are wearing in the store, we would have never even looked at it. My comment doesn't surprise her: "The phrase all customers tell me is: I would have never bought this clothes. And now I feel...And this work is what satisfies you. Some people sayI go to the store and I don't like anything. Well, I like everything! And I always thinkthis would be for so-and-so, this for Pascual…. Andthe satisfaction of seeing them give a speech and knowing that they like themselves. Why did you notice Pere Aragonès's clothes? Because they were custom-made... Imagine a size 58 suit. Very good, but this man, who wears a 58, might have longer arms or more belly than chest, or a very thin waist... What men usually do is buy a jacket that buttons up. That's it. I tell them:Spend on the suit, it's your work tool. I always order them from Señor, which are from Manresa, the fabrics are from here, the seamstresses are from here, and they make it to measure. How much does it cost? Between 400 and 500 euros. And that can last two or three years."
I ask him about Pere Aragonès' suit in the first debate. What does it communicate? "It's more modern, more approachable, and has that executive and decisive touch. He wears a blue suit with a white shirt and a striped maroon tie. The choice of color is not random. Blue suits him well. But the color, for men, is very limited. There are many patterns, but the backgrounds are always blue, gray, black, and brown. Gray is dull, black is for evening events, parties, or funerals, and brown cannot be, because as the saying goes: Men in town don't wear brown (in the city, never brown, really)."
Note! If you want to know where the expression comes from, which talks about the city of London, you can read the story here, in The Guardian.
The first thing Marta does with clients, I see, is scan them. She asks them what they do for work and what they want. "Who are my clients? Very busy people. People who don't have time to think about what they're going to wear the next day and who prefer to look at their phone and say: La Pontnou says I should wear this. And since I have their wardrobe archived and I know what they have... This, making people feel secure, is what we have to do with young girls who go to the store and can't find sizes. There are severe cases of anorexia, and this is the fault of the fashion industry, the language we use... My mission is to be able to introduce new values through fashion, such as, for example, that this oppression of sizes does not exist, this psychological pressure that girls receive with sizing and with the separation of clothes by gender. I fight so that in stores there is no separation between boys and girls, but rather mixed clothing. A skirt should not have a gender. And that you can go to a Zara and in the window or on the website there is a mannequin with Down syndrome or a girl in a wheelchair. Because these children, when they look for clothes, don't have models. Why not a model with a veil, overweight, or in a wheelchair? From the nineties until now, the only nonsense we've achieved is that mannequins are a little, a little, a little less thin? Really?"