It’s a big fashion month for Spanish-born designer Paula Canovas del Vas. The 2022 Vogue Spanish Fashion Fund winner packs her collection in her London studio and puts it Loaded up the truck with all her other possessions and drove to Paris to start a new chapter. When she presented her autumn outing at the gilded salon of the Cervantes Institute on Avenue Marceau, she found not only a residence but a studio, a carpentry studio borrowed by a friend’s father in Paris’s East End.
Paula Canovas del Vas Collection styling.
Photo: Courtesy of Matthew Tammaro / Paula Canovas del Vas
Exciting, yes, but also a bittersweet Brexit story for a small brand While working hard to develop, it is also working hard to get samples from customs. And so a new adventure begins. For fall, designers use slow-moving yarns to create high-quality pieces, such as a fitted sage, blue or gray and fuchsia striped sweater with oversized, rumpled lamb sleeves, or a full-coverage mohair hand-knitted in London Laclava hat. Bold shades of silk and Japanese denim were sourced in the same way, then given new life. A red shirt with a swirl of swirls around the shoulders looks striking. As part of the presentation, models were asked to use highlighter to scribble on clear easels and podiums, outlining the imprint of Del Vas’ signature two-toed shoes, a style handcrafted by eight artisans in her native Spain.
“It’s nerve-wracking because you don’t know what’s going to happen, but it brings a different perspective,” said the designer. “What excites me is seeing how the story evolves.” Now that she’s in Paris, we’re excited to see how the designer’s narrative evolves, too.
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