"I must have been about seven or eight years old, and while my mother was trying on her haute couture dresses, I entertained myself by picking up the pins that had fallen in the fitting rooms with a horseshoe-shaped magnet...". This is one of the first memories Luis Sans keeps of Santa Eulalia. In any other, the children's game of attracting the luck of the needles would have served to foreshadow a life of success among seams, but in the case of the current owner and president of the Barcelona luxury fashion house, his professional career was already quite pre-designed. Belonging to the fourth generation of Sans to run the company, he took the reins of the business in 1988, at 22 years old. At the same age and for the same reason as his grandfather in his day: the disappearance of his progenitor. "I accepted the assignment out of responsibility, but over the years this family tradition work has become a passion," acknowledges the businessman.
It was Luis's great-grandfather, Lorenzo Sans Vidal, who in 1908 partnered with Domingo Taberner, grandson of the founder (Josep Taberner) of a textile goods store (1843) which, after settling on Calle de la Boqueria, 1 (the old portal, demolished in 1777, where legend places the martyrdom of the saint in Roman times), ended up becoming popular as Almacenes Santa Eulalia (1859). When Taberner died without descendants, the widow sold her shares to the Sans family and from there until today... A moment when the business celebrates its 175 years of life.
175 YEARS OF LUXURY
If in these times a company blows out 175 candles on its cake, no one can deny that the store is not the result of a passing fad and it is categorized as a classic. While emblematic shops in the city center closed their doors due to the crisis and changes in urban lease legislation, in 2009 Luis Sans decided to renovate the current headquarters located at Passeig de Gràcia, 93 and commissioned the project to New York architect William Sofield. The resulting 2,000 square meter space, decorated with part of the furniture from previous stores, currently houses the multi-brand prêt-à-porter section, selected by Sandra Domínguez, Sans' wife; its own bespoke tailoring and shirtmaking atelier; a pop-up store, and a café with a garden terrace. Once again, the luxury sector resisted the onslaught of the economic depression and boasted about it. However, despite (or perhaps because of) being a man who lives for and by luxury, he agrees that money does not buy happiness nor does it necessarily grant the sensitivity needed to appreciate beauty: "Money enhances everything, both good and bad taste."
In 1926, following the steps set by Paris, they held the first fashion show in the Catalan capital. A novel way of presenting trends that, due to the success of attendance in successive years, they were forced to restrict through personal invitation.From the beginning of the business, in addition to making exclusive custom-made garments for men and women, the establishment sold fabrics by the meter. The buyers were dressmakers from all over Spain who acquired them to make garments for their clients. In the mid-sixties, with a staff of more than 750 workers, more than a million meters were sold retail. At that time, imports were restricted, and Santa Eulalia came to have a quota of 20% of all cotton imports made in the country.
In 1926, following the steps set by Paris, they held the first fashion show in the Catalan capital. A novel way of presenting trends that, due to the success of attendance in successive years, they were forced to restrict through personal invitation. Once the Civil War broke out, the company (like so many others, such as Castañer) was collectivized by the republican forces, changing its name to Santeulalia (without the "a" of "santa", of course) and dedicating itself to the manufacture of military uniforms for officers of the republican army.
Two years after the end of the conflict, already under Franco's dictatorship, haute couture and the sale of fabrics and accessories for ladies moved to a 2,500 square meter building on Passeig de Gràcia, 60. The same happened later with tailoring and custom shirt making and the sale of men's accessories, which occupied the premises on Passeig de Gràcia, 93; the store on Boqueria street definitively closed after more than one hundred years of presence in the historic center of the city.
Adapting to the new trends of fashion democratization, in 1968 it launched its first women's prêt-à-porter collection and, in 1995, held its last haute couture show.
«We want to celebrate our anniversary with art. We have contacted Antoni Miralda, undoubtedly one of the most internationally known living Catalan artists, to do a performance in the street. He has devised a parade with two hundred musicians and artists that will start from the Boqueria plain, near Las Ramblas, where our first store was, and will arrive at Passeig de Gràcia, 93, where we have our current headquarters».BLOW OUT THE CANDLES
«We want to celebrate our anniversary with art. We have contacted Antoni Miralda, undoubtedly one of the most internationally renowned living Catalan artists, to do a performance in the street. He has devised a parade with two hundred musicians and artists that will start from the Boqueria plain, near Las Ramblas, where our first store was, and will arrive at Passeig de Gràcia, 93, where we have our current headquarters. There he will create an ephemeral work of art that will be placed on the entire facade. Everyone who wants to is invited to witness and enjoy it,» encourages Luis Sans himself.
While for the haute couture shows that took place in Santa Eulalia at the beginning of the 20th century a personal invitation was needed, for the commemoration of the business's 175 years through the streets of Barcelona no restriction or dress code is foreseen, nor is confirmation of attendance required. You know, an inclusive democratic luxury that, fortunately and for the moment, is not expected to go out of style either.