The Oteyza brand has promoted for MADRID ES MODA, in the Lázaro Galdiano Museum, a new space to reflect on the past and, above all, the future of men’s clothing. They have titled it with all intention De fina estampa: vestir a la española / Of fine seal: Dressing the Spanish way. In it have participated Esperanza García Claver, Art historian and expert in the culture of fashion; Carlos G. Navarro, specialist in 19th century painting; Lucina Llorente, textile specialist at the CIPE Museo del Traje in Madrid, and Rafael Muñoz, RTVE fashion journalist. We interviewed Paul García de Oteyza, responsible for the brand together with Caterina Pañeda.
In your opinion, what is dressing a la española?
This phrase is part of our culture, almost of our genes! But it has been forgotten over the centuries … It is a way of thinking and an attitude towards life, which took us from the 16th century to be translated into apparel prompting our dreamy and visionary character, also practical and sometimes fatalistic.
Why do you think it is necessary to have a meeting like the one you organized at the Lázaro Galdiano Museum?
There are very few occasions when you can see, hear and talk about men’s fashion. Often this has been unexplored territory and initiatives like these are the ones that provide the vision and the analysis necessary to be able to understand the past and interpret the future.
What do you miss in men’s fashion in our country?
I believe that we are in a moment of change in men’s fashion and therefore I am optimistic, I believe in the coherence and the capacity of paused and balanced transgression, doubtless fundamental aspects for connecting with the public.
Men are more conservative when it comes to express ourselves with clothes, how can you change that way of being?
Man is capable of many things! You simply have to convey sincerity and turn on maximum masculinity. Everything else is just a matter of time.
What garment would you recover from our past?
We have recovered it … the Spanish cape! We presented it internationally two years ago at the most important men’s fashion trade show in the world, Pitti Uomo. We opened the official calendar with the presentation of our collection tracing it, cutting it on the floor … and then we danced with it!
How is the recovery of tailoring influencing in the men’s wardrobe?
It is the cornerstone of recovery; it is the foundation on which evolution is sustained.[:]
