Luis Fernández’s workshop in Seville’s Old City is buzzing with customers who have come to try on his dazzling range of flamenco costumes, their vibrant fabrics full of eye-catching ruffles and polka dots. Flamenco fashion reaches its annual peak in the spring, when towns and cities in Spain’s southern Andalusia region hold their annual week-long ferias, when everyone gathers to go out and eat, drink and dance into the small hours. Makes his decorations for it.
One customer is Virginia Cuaresma. Under the designer’s watch, ready to make any necessary adjustments, she stands in front of the mirror in a traditional midnight blue gown, ruffles adorning the skirt and sleeves. Then she tries one in aquamarine, paired with an embroidered fringed shawl in the same colour. Then a more modern style red dress, which leaves a lot of skin on show.
“At the moment, everything is in chaos, we are relying on our eyes… these last few fittings before customers return to pick up their gowns and enjoy the feria,” Fernandez told AFP, referring to the southern city. Are.” The prestigious fair which attracts hundreds of thousands of visitors and runs from 14 to 20 April this year.
The most traditional design, dating back more than 100 years, is a floor-length dress that fits closely at the thigh, looking like a fish in a ruffled skirt and matching ruffles on the sleeves. To complement the outfit, women wear fringed shawls, earrings and bracelets over the shoulders, pull their hair into a bun and pin with a comb with a flower, which has become the image of Andalusia and even That is also used in foreign countries. As a symbol of Spain.
“Flamenco dresses bring out the most beautiful things in a woman,” explains Fernandez, pointing to the wide neckline and “hourglass silhouette,” which highlights the narrow waist and the difference between the hips and bust, creating a “When I choose a dress to go to the Feria, I look for something like that,” says Cuaresma, a 34-year-old geographer with a dark complexion and long dark hair. I was in something that would enhance my female figure.”
For her, dressing up for the feria is a way to “carry on Andalusian traditions” and connect with her late grandmother Virginia, who sewed flamenco clothes during her childhood.
a style evolution
A native of Seville who grew up loving the fair, Fernández began working as a designer with fellow fashion designer Manuel Jurado in 2012, and from the beginning he knew he wanted to create flamenco clothing. For him, it is a unique regional attire “that evolves with fashion and is the only attire that incorporates new trends,” he says proudly.
This costume has its roots in the so-called “majo” costumes “worn by working-class people” in Spain in the late 18th and early 19th centuries and are often captured in the paintings of the Spanish master Goya, as anthropologist Rosa Written by Maria Martínez Moreno. A book titled “El Traje de Flamenca (“The Flamenco Dress”).
With the beginning of the Seville Fairs in the mid-19th century, the style began to be adopted by the wealthier classes at a time when there was a backlash against all things French, including its aristocratic fashions. The mix included the costumes of gypsy women who sold donuts at fairs and who wore dresses and skirts decorated with ruffles.
By the 20th century, flamenco costume had evolved into its current form and became popular, largely due to the development of flamenco as an art form and the expansion of schools teaching this Andalusian dance style, which women often performed at fairs. Learn to do. Martínez Moreno said.
image of spain
During the 1960s, the dictatorship of General Francisco Franco planned to “sell Spain as a tourist attraction” and to do so used “popular stereotypes” such as flamenco costume which was perceived abroad as “an image of Spanishness”. Became recognized as”. adds up.
In recent years Andalusian dress has inspired big-name designers like Christian Dior, who showcased a new collection in Seville’s iconic Plaza de España in 2022. Fernández says the region of Seville has become more professional with designers who follow “the trends of Paris and Milan”, and who has organized an annual international flamenco fashion show in the city since 1995.
The price of a dress from an atelier run by Fernandez can range from several hundred euros to a thousand euros. But today in an age where fashion has become more accessible, cheaper options exist. That’s a relief for women like Cuaresma, who says she usually buys “at least” one flamenco dress every year because for the fair, or at least the opening day, “we don’t like to wear the same dress again.” Do” which he wore earlier. Year.
