Risk and survival: the two extremes on a scale which are balanced by fear as their happy medium. Between these two forces, fear emerges as a defense mechanism which pushes us to take risks, but also keeps us safe, like a lever for a double-sided life, fighting between danger and protection.
Fear is a part of life itself. In its instruction manual you can find an endless list of recipes on how to fight, beat and conquer fear. One common ingredient can be found in all of them, a main attribute: power. The use of fear as a political weapon has been constantly present throughout history in our towns. With varying intensities, the resulting impact is capable of changing the course of history and destiny itself, the same way hope can.
It is this latter idea on which I’ve chosen to build the concept of my collection. I’ve decided to do without the stereotypical idea of fear as a defect, an insecurity or a barrier. I prefer to think of fear as a power of awareness which propels you and obliges you to advance, to take risks and to try new artistic paths. Therefore, fear works as an element of emancipation and is key to discovery.
It is from this point on that I try to develop my creative proposal and abandon the concept of fear as a primitive and uncomfortable mechanism that blocks our willpower and life itself.
The motto would be: if you’re scared of taking risks, then take risks fearfully, always using fear in our favor and never against.
As I dove into Spinoza’s philosophy about passion and affection, I discovered a persevering intention of illuminating fear. His theory aspired to transform sad and dark beliefs into illuminated and transparent concepts.
Spinoza believed that negative passions are not bad in and of themselves, rather they connect us to the world. That’s why he defended a necessary understanding of fear as a stepping stone which leads to the freedom of individuals. What’s important is not to condemn passions that come from fear, but to transmute them so that they bring personal growth towards progress and creativity, towards personal salvation and happiness. Fear as a definite condition for freedom.
Just Fear It.
• SILHOUETTES, FABRICS AND COLORS •
True to my style and my tradition of telling stories through each of my collections, this season I want to transmit a specific emotion: darkness as a starting point for the risk and strength needed for creative development. FEAR is a feeling, an affection, and as such, I’ve tried to work on this idea and its relationship with perception and identity.
The color black as the beginning and the end, but also as a structural element for volumes starting with soft and other, more adventurous, looks with very light fabrics and other very precise and disciplined looks in the tailoring of the jackets, coats, tuxedo jackets for women and men at the end of the collection.
Tailoring always acquires relevance in all of my collections. In this case, detailing appears in the upper parts of the garments in regards to the shapes and pattern cuts. This transitions to an informality in the lower parts seen in the finishes – hems that are intentionally left raw-edged, offering a glimpse of the unfinished linings – falling away from the idea of perfect and predictable beauty.
A sober palette of colors takes off with intense black, continues with midnight blue, pomegranate red, vibrant orange and culminates to onyx black.
Light and quilted technological fabrics at the beginning, mixed with felted merino and alpaca wools, ecological cupro fabrics with wide check for dresses and blouses. Organza with brocade drawings of objects of the past as if they were still lifes from a baroque painting; iridescent orange sequins with twice the usual brightness giving them a wet effect; devoré raw-edged chiffons; silk jacquard with detailed thread work with raw fringes. The wavy moiré effect on the tuxedo jackets, chantilly lace embroidered with tinsel and sequins to create a very special tweed, as well as rhinestone work on some of the finishings of select garments.
