Cibeles rocks, in Technicolor

THE SPRING–SUMMER 2012 edition of Cibeles could be one of the best. Fashion Week is not only about what the models are wearing, but the whole package. Fashion is a way of life: the flash bulbs, celebrities, models, glamorous parties and all that. And although Madrid isn’t known to be as fashion-forward as New York or Milano, this season proved it is on its way!

After seeing Madrid’s winter season and shows in February, I can say with no hesitation that Spanish designers are better at summer collections. They were more contemporary and fashionable.

The models were a highlight. First and foremost, there was the one and only Carmen Kass, looking better than ever, at 33. There was Spanish sweetheart Jon Kortajarena, from Tom Ford’s A Single Man. Also on the catwalks were Iris Strubegger, Alexander Johansson and Clement Chabunard, who is ranked fourth on models.com.

Digging in to the fashion, there was the queen of it all, Ágatha Ruiz de la Prada, presenting her collection on happy, smiling models to the rhythm of grand hits. David Delfin also did a great job. His collection in Technicolor was amazing, with futuristic and fun geometrical, asymmetrical shapes. Juanjo Oliva presented a marvellous range of silk dresses.

Ana Locking called her spring–summer collection Under Beauty. The collection is in wonderful fauna prints. Locking said, ‘We seek balance and the essence of beauty but, nowadays, these balances cannot be found, and for some time now there is more interest researching the reality of a meaningless, chaotic, fragmentary world which is maintained thanks to need for idealized beauty.’

This August, the great Spanish designer Jesús del Pozo passed away, so the show presented during September edition of Cibeles was a kind of tribute to him. Nineteen-seventies’ Manhattan inspired the collection (left and below).

Other designers that we noted: Amaya Arzuaga, Angel Schlesser, and Adolfo Domínguez and of course, Exteberria from Ego, the alternative part of Madrid Fashion Week. •

Joanna Mroczkowska is a correspondent for Lucire.

Jesús del Pozo

Amaya Arzuaga

Ágatha Ruiz de la Prada

David Delfin


Juanjo Oliva


Angel Schlesser

The colour of a Madrid winter
Joanna Mroczkowska reports from Cibeles Madrid Fashion Week, which can lay claim to being one of the biggest in the world. So why don’t we hear more from Iberian designers?
photographed by Victor Puig