Manuel Pertegaz. He cut his teeth in the bleak years
after the Civil War, opening his first couture house in
Barcelona in 1942. He enjoyed immediate success
throughout Spain, before moving on to conquer North
America where Harvard University awarded him a
‘Fashion Oscar’ in 1954. When Christian Dior died in
1957, Pertegaz was mooted as a possible successor. He
turned the role down, focussing instead on his own line
of clothes and boutiques.Manolo Blahnik. It’s all
been about shoes with
Blahnik, a designer from
the Canaries. He opened
his first shop, Zapata, in
1973, in London, selling
glamorous women’s
footwear. Many of his
shoes have towering
stiletto heels. Bianca
Jagger, Princess Diana,
Madonna and Marge
Simpson have all been patrons.Adolfo Domínguez. Galician designer Domínguez
first caught the public’s attention in 1979 with a
collection of designs labelledLa arruga es bella(creases
are beautiful). He became the first Spanish designer to
open his own brand-name store in Madrid, creating
innovative but functional ready-to-wear designs that
appealed to Spain’s new middle classes. He presented
his first women’s collection in Paris in 1985.238- Identity: the
building blocks of
2. Literature
and philosophy
3. Art and
architecture
4. Performing
arts
5. Cinema
and fashion
6. Media and
communications
7. Food and drink 8. Living culture:
the details of
Madonna once praised
Manolo Blahnik’s shoes
as “better than sex”,
adding that they tended
to last longer too.
One small step
for Manolo...
Manolo Blahnik posed
with Angelica Huston
for the UK edition of
Voguein 1974, becoming
the first man to appear
on the magazine’s
front cover. In 2003,
he became the first
footwear designer to
have his work displayed
at London’s Design
Museum.
Spain is Europe’s fifth
largest producer of
clothes.
Democratising fashion
The opening of the first
Zara store in A Coruña
in 1975 marked a turning
point in the Spanish
fashion industry. It
introduced a new,
democratised approach
to clothing in which ever-
changing market tastes
were served at prices
the average José could
afford. Their success
continues, built on
blending an astute
appreciation of what
customers want with
the ability to design,
produce and distribute
a collection to anywhere
in the world within just
two weeks.