Joaquín Trías’s definition of fashion

Continuing our series of designer interviews at New York Fashion Week, Lola Saab talks to Joaquín Trías as he shows his fall 2011 collection at Lincoln Center

TRIAS’S NEW SEASON’S COLLECTION was presented at the Box at Lincoln Center on February 15. It was a luxurious experience that would be indulged by a long line of impatient spectators.

Spanish-born Joaquín Trías revealed elegance and serenity for autumn–winter 2011–12. His designs were finely structured and formed to perfectly fit a woman from head to toe. There was an array of warm colours intended to fill a woman’s heart as she soaked in the refreshing materials. Trías showed class with beauty in all his designs. The material, colour and structure created such profound detail in his work of art to form a striking, elegant, womanly figure. Models had their hair tied up and the make-up gave off a natural effect. The collection was kept short, sweet and simple. He portrayed an image of a designer who seeks absolute perfection in his creations.

We spoke to Trías who explained to us his aim and the main theme of his new season’s collection.

Lucire: What was your main goal for this season?
Joaquín Trías: What Trías really stands for is luxury, so it’s like a combination of the wool with the silk, or the wool with the technological fabrics, that would develop in Japan. It is also the relationship [of] the woman with the fabric, how it wraps her body and how it adapts to her … and it is also about her being really loyal to our woman … to our ‘future’ woman …

We call her a ‘future woman’ because of her values and of her ethic and it is about respect.

What were the main materials that you used in this collection?
It is always about silk … Well, we have silk, we have all the season, we have our technologic[al] fabrics developed in Japan which contain certain characteristics. It is breathable, it avoids UVAs.

How long does it take you to create and design a new season’s collection?
It takes us six months. We always take six months to create a new season’s collection.

What is your favourite part about creating a new season’s collection?
The beginning of it [says with enthusiasm] because I have the control there … because, afterwards, there are too many patterns and too many people involved, so I really like when I am by myself designing … that is the best part of the collection for me.

Can you describe in one sentence your new season’s collection?
Well, it is about definition. The idea of definition is defining what we really want to do.

Can you briefly tell us how you would want women to feel like?
Feel modern, … secure and … respect[ed]. It is about ethic and respect for us. •

Lola Saab is Paris editor of Lucire.

The Binetti woman
Lola Saab talks to Diego Binetti, who has created a fall 2011 collection for women whom he calls ‘dominant, very powerful, elegant and sophisticated’
photographed by Henry Dziekan/Getty Images for Mercedes-Benz