Designer Dolores Font Cortés, Creative Director of Dolores Cortés; Belén Larruy Creative Director of Guillermina Baeza; Lenita Burman and Luis Mentado, creative duo of the label Lenita&XTG, additionally to the President of ACME, Modesto Lomba in representation of the runway from the Canary’s Moda Cálida, gathered in another meeting “60 Minutes of Fashion with EFE Estilo.”
Backed by decades of experience, the Spanish swimwear industry aims to create quality garments. The industry claims the recovery of the traditional sewing trade and advocates Made in Spain. “We prefer to assume higher costs, but to manufacture closer to home. Therefore it is easier to control the entire process and react before any unforeseen issues” assures Lenita Burman, who produces in the Canary Islands and promotes this in her labels.
“To produce again in Spain has been a decision in favour of quality, furthermore we intend to help boost the Spanish economy,” said Belén Larruy, party to providing more quality without increasing the price to gain consumer loyalty “.
Although everyone agrees that the consumer is aware of the pricing, designer Dolores Font believes that quality and design is also sought. “There is an activation of the Spanish market, there is more movement in sales,” an economic boost that encourages brands to recover ateliers and crafts, such as classic tailoring.
Dolores Font continues the work begun by her mother, Dolores Cortés, a Valencian dressmaker, who manufactured her own swimsuit in the 50s with a stretch fabric designed by herself, founded one of the most acknowledged swimwear brands of Spain. Currently her company, which has dressed in recent years the Spanish Team of Synchronized Swimming, has over sixty employees, distributing her creations in her own shops, corners at the Corte Inglés and multibrand stores in Europe and Mexico, and holds fashion shows in the runways of Miami, Madrid and the Canary Islands.
Belén Larruy also learned the trade at home together with her mother, Guillermina Baeza; with whom she now shares the decisions of the company, who began in the decade of the 60s in Barcelona making swimwear and lingerie. Guillermina Baeza sells in multibrand stores, creates children’s wear designs for other brands such as Nanos, and duly creates capsule collections for labels such as Mango, allowing her entry into foreign markets.
Lenita Burman and Luis Mentado are self-taught. “I started sewing my own bikinis, then those of my friends and slowly but surely I made more garments which I then sold in markets,” accounts this Canarian in charge of women’s designs. Currently, they own eleven stores in the Canary Islands and two in the peninsula.
When these designers and entrepreneurs are asked what does the sector needs, they respond that “a higher level of professionalism; especially craft.” According to Modesto Lomba, “while design is the core of apprenticeship, the middle crafts have been lost due to the relocation of production.” The designer, and President of ACME, has participated as a member of the jury in multiple editions of the global runway Gran Canaria Moda Cálida, a week of swimwear, unique in Europe. “We have sun, beaches and tourism, sufficient pillars to sustain this important sector” concludes Lomba.
