Shelves full of garments, fabric swatch displays sprinkled with textures and colors, racks with clothes and more clothes, fitting rooms, a pilot store and, yes, sewing machines. The headquarters of the Barcelona firm eseOese, in the heart of 22@, goes floor by floor through all the steps and ingredients for the creative process, manufacturing, and sale of the brand's garments that Eva García launched in 1988.
The desks with computers on the lower floor are combined with the pattern-making rooms, the fitting and design area on the second floor, and everything takes shape in the pilot store on the third. Thus, everything that the firm is born in this building in Poblenou, "the soul of eseOese", as its founder and CEO highlights. And it does so with a slow-cooking creative process, with garments designed and manufactured, paying attention to every detail, every fold, the drape, comfort, and enhancing what needs to be enhanced. Always seeking "timeless elegance, with garments that last in the wardrobe," García emphasizes.
The brand, with its characteristic bohemian air and the prominence of organic materials, now aims to continue growing, without rushing but firmly. This unhurried but determined pace, also characteristic of its creative process, seems to be the hallmark of the house —that's what paying attention to details entails—. This has been the case since it was born as a response to lycra, as García now recalls: faced with fashion trends that were tight and uncomfortable for her, she opted for a looser style more in line with what fashion was for her.
After invoicing 36 million euros in 2024, the growth it seeks in the coming months will be marked by the online store, and by a new opening about which García has declined to provide details. The store will join the 18 physical establishments the company has, and will also be located in Spain, like the rest of eseOese's stores. The brand has an international presence through the online channel and in multi-brand stores. "We continue making our way," García highlighted.
The company landed in the building a year ago from the nearby Llull street, where it operated from a single floor that housed all the company's departments. Now they have spread out over more than 2,300 square meters at number 112 on Àvila street, which they adapted with an investment of 12 million euros. More than 80 people currently work in its facilities, in a team that will expand as the firm continues to grow.
While García explains it, one of eseOese's seamstresses operates the sewing machine with the meticulousness, skill, and care of someone who has done it for years. The company has two seamstresses, who are responsible for making the proposals that come out of the design department for the first tests. When production is on a larger scale, eseOese relies on various suppliers and manufacturers, mainly in Portugal, Morocco, India, and China.
The trades of a lifetime
The atelieris one of the key pieces of the building and a source of pride for the brand, as García highlights. "Very few brands now have garment makers and pattern makers. We create the prototype here and study it," she explains, having just been interrupted from a meeting about the future summer collection. The new season is already starting to cook, in a process where "lifelong trades that are now being lost" are key, and which García champions:"They are essential and have a value and know-how that must be preserved."And it is that only hands through which hundreds of fabrics have passed, an infinity of needles have been threaded, and countless garments have been tried on, know before making a piece how it will fall on the body and how to redirect the fabric to the most appropriate channels.Every garment freshly made by the seamstresses moves to the next phase behind curtains: after going through design and tailoring, it's time to try it on. And it's not tried on by just one or two women: each piece goes through at least four or five, seeking diversity of shapes and sizes, and "it is tried on as many times as necessary," explain the team.
This involves making adjustments and re-tailoring the garment on several occasions, often more than five times, in a creative process that borders on the artisanal. Fortunately, they don't need to go far to find models: members of the company's own team try on the garments. Whether from the finance, marketing, or design department, anyone represents the real woman model the brand focuses on.
During fittings, not only is how the piece falls on the improvised model observed, but comfort is also prioritized. To check this, those responsible for the fitting have their own codes: Adopting the "holding the baby" and "getting on the motorcycle" postures are some of the tests performed to see if the sleeves or pant legs pull too much.
In addition to seeking comfort for daily life —looking at work life, but without forgetting personal life—, the brand also aims to compose "transgenerational collections," that can dress women of all ages, as is also evident in its new collection, Back to the office. The classic striped button-down shirt with a crossed and deconstructed closure reflects the brand's DNA: that timeless elegance with avant-garde touches, as explained by Design Director, Anna Giménez.
True to this essence, the firm continues to move forward and seek that sustained and firm growth. The online channel will play a prominent role in this path, as explained by the firm's Art Director, Anna García, who is set to be the successor of the brand her mother launched nearly four decades ago.
Boosting this online channel for a brand that is not digitally native will be a key point, as García highlights, who values penetration in international markets, and is committed to continuing to advance in this line. The new national opening will place its own stores in Spain close to twenty, with the intention of continuing to grow in the same way it designs its garments: slowly and with firm and studied steps.