Although constant change is in fashion's DNA, we cannot always speak of profound movements that rethink everything from production to consumption. When the industry shifted from haute couture to prêt-à-porter, a true revolution occurred in all areas, and the same happened when the first fashion chains emerged, democratizing design while opening the door to the sustainability problems of fast fashion.
In recent years, we have seen how vintage has gone from being an experiment to another way of buying clothes, digital stores have made their way, Greta Thunberg has stirred consciences, and a global pandemic has made us critically review what we have in our closets. In this context, new fashion brands have appeared that question the criteria followed by the big names in fashion. They want to be at peace with the Planet, they avoid generating excessive stock by producing exorbitantly, they communicate with their followers through social networks because they are digital natives, they design pieces they are passionate about, sometimes timeless, and they seek sustainable materials. Some don't even make gender-differentiated clothing.
Are we facing a paradigm shift with a future? This week, as 080 Barcelona Fashion has broadcast the fashion show films of the 22 brands based in the city participating in its 28th edition ---they were filmed in Xavier Corberó's beautiful house-sculpture, in Esplugues de Llobregat---, we chose three of these brands that operate under these criteria ---with their variations and particularities--- to understand the keys to this new approach to dressing: LR3, Paloma Wool, and Eñaut.
LR3, THE GENDERLESS SLOW FASHION PROPOSAL
The designer Louis Rubí, born in Extremadura and residing in Barcelona for 15 years, worked for years in the corporate world of large fashion chains until he decided to change his life by creating his own brand. He did so at the end of 2019, just before the pandemic began, together with his partner Daniel Corrales, who handles management.
Their proposal is totally slow fashion, with quality fabrics, timeless and totally genderless garments. "At the beginning, we considered what the wardrobe basics were ---shirt, pants, coat…--- and that's what we did. Over time, we made them with new fabrics and colors, we also add other pieces, but the ones we have don't disappear," explains Rubí, who this year has incorporated pleated skirts into the collection.
It is striking that LR3 makes its garments in a single size and without gender, but they assure that this does not pose any problem for the client. "They are very well-studied patterns; before making them, we have tried them on many people with different proportions," explains the designer and adds that there are special cases in which they make custom pieces. For example, for a client who was two meters tall and weighed 130 kilos, it was necessary to make a much longer coat than usual so that it would have the drape the piece required.
The clothes of this brand, which are made in a workshop in L'Hospitalet de Llobregat where eight people work, are not conventional and are especially liked in developed markets, with fashion knowledge, such as Japan and the United States. When we talk to Louis, he has just sold a three-piece suit with a jacket, vest, and hakama pants (the one used by samurais) to a client, a nuclear physicist from Los Angeles.
LR3 takes care of the fabrics and the quality of its product, which is identified with an orange line on the backThey produce on demand, so they have no stock or waste. "Despite having been born almost when the pandemic began, we are not doing badly. We prefer to go slowly but steadily."They take care of the fabrics and the quality of their product, which is identified with an orange line on the back. They sell online, although they are thinking of opening ephemeral stores in the cities where they are most bought so that their followers can touch their clothes and try them on, "we want them to feel how it moves, how it spins with you when you put it on."
Louis confirms that his genderless clothing reaches younger people without any problem, "who have not been educated in blue for boys and pink for girls." A generation that has been proven to move in vintage stores with the same naturalness as if they were in a Zara.
PALOMA WOOL: THE BRAND OF CELEBRITIES WITH CONSCIENCE
In just seven years, Paloma Wool has become one of the brands that captivate celebrities with good taste, such as Kendall Jenner, Bella Hadid, Sophia Turner, or Cindy Crawford's daughter, Kaia Gerber, a true reference for Generation Z. Its founder, Paloma Lanna, lived immersed in the textile world from a young age, being the daughter of the creators of the fashion company Nice Things, Miquel Lanna and Paloma Santaolalla. She studied business management at Esade on the advice of her parents ---"they were self-taught and suffered a lot with financial management," she explains--- and began working in 2012 in the family company when her father passed away.
She learned the internal workings, immersed herself in design and the marketing area, and just two years later, she had already brought her own project to life. She did it together with her collaborator in the company Carlota Guerrero and the graphic artist Tana Latorre. From the very beginning, she was clear that her brand ---which she named Paloma Wool playing with her surname Lanna--- would embody her world, where fashion, sustainability, art, and new technologies all have a place. Everyone on her team is a digital native, although they also like to get closer to their customers by setting up pop-ups in selected stores.
For Lanna, her project is not so much a brand as "an online creative platform where people gather around the act of dressing." Instagram is a natural habitat ---"Tik Tok caught us too old," she says---, and it is also essential for them to collaborate with artists and create a community that speaks their same language.
In just seven years, Paloma Wool has become one of the brands that captivate celebrities with good tasteIn the Fashion show filmthat they have just presented at 080, inaugurating the event, show pieces from their Eternal Loop collection, with fractal prints and knitwear as the protagonist, under the mantra: "Everything is connected, the chain has never been broken."The silhouettes are inspired by the volumes of the female body and the chromatic palette "recalls the colors of the earth and space", they say from the brand, which supports local and sustainable production. In this edition, Paloma Wool has collaborated with the Dutch artist Fenna Schilling, an expert in the technique ofcollage, who has stamped some of the pieces.
At Paloma Wool, they understand production as a trickle of garments, without too much stock. They prefer to adjust production well and eliminate sales or discounts. They do not consider manufacturing in Eastern countries or making two large collections a year like conventional brands.
They have more impact in New York than in Barcelona, although the celebrities who have worn their designs ---for men, women, and also unisex--- have never done so out of commitment. Rosalía, for example, in 2019 chose some mottled cyclist leggings with a top, and in March of this year, a loving raw-colored sweater with a face inspired by Matisse's for a photo sitting in her studio, which she posted on Instagram. And Kendall Jenner was photographed with an orange printed top, and it boosted their sales.
EÑAUT, SUSTAINABLE URBAN MENSWEAR, AND NOW ALSO FOR WOMEN
Eñaut Barruetabeña, from Gipuzkoa, studied architecture ---just like other illustrious designers such as Jesús del Pozo (interior architecture) and Josep Font--- and this is reflected in the volumes of his minimalist and urban clothing, with an ethical and sustainable philosophy. Graduated in 2017 in fashion design at IED, in 2018 he won the REC.0/080 competition for the best collection and a year later the emerging design award at the Barcelona fashion week.
His clothes are designed for the modern man, although in the latest collection ---the fifth, the one filmed at Xavier Corberó's house--- there are also pieces for women. "I have started making women's clothes, there are only four looks," explains the creator who opted for menswear because he liked to try on everything he made and it fit better in men's clothing than in women's.
Eñaut's designs ---he gave the brand his own name---are very carefully crafted. He pampers the pattern making, the detail, and also the fabrics, which are always organic. The designer, born in Mutriku in 1993, is interested in connecting with nature and denouncing the exploitation that human beings carry out "of a place as beautiful as Earth." If in his penultimate fashion film he focused on deforestation, now he does so on the impressive beauty of the flysch, those rock formations of hard and soft sediment that run along the coast of the Basque Country where he spent his childhood. A landscape promoted worldwide by Game of Thrones and declared a global Geopark by Unesco, "where fossils and information about the extinction of dinosaurs have been found," he explains. "I want to reclaim the beauty of nature, what it is capable of creating," he says, and translates that interest into pieces for next summer made with natural, organic recycled fabrics, knits, vegan leather, fabric derived from pineapple cultivation...
Eñaut pampers the pattern making, the detail, and also the fabrics, which are always organicThe creator is delighted to show it in a place like Espai XC, with architecture very close to his tastes, in a fashion show filmwhich on this occasion gives a little more prominence to the parade, "so that the details of the clothes can be seen well."
Eñaut, who assures that he sold quite a lot during confinement, offers his production online and at two points of sale in Barcelona and in the Basque Country, although lately he notes that he is bought more from Germany, France and Italy. He makes his most coveted garments on demand, although he has a small stock of basic and accessible genderless pieces (t-shirts, sweatshirts…). The main problem he finds working with a slow food system is the hurry of young people to have their orders immediately. "If I have to make them, it can take me two weeks to have a pair of pants, or three days for a coat."
The designer, who worked at Inditex before starting his own project, sees it as complicated to compete against the speed and price of the chains, although his commitment will always be sustainable. "I know I work in one of the most polluting industries on the Planet so I try to make everything I do have the least possible impact."