The experts in fashion from RTVE, El País, Yo Dona, Elle and Glamour gathered together in a new breakfast "60 Minutes of Fashion with EFE Style” to debate the latest news in Spanish fashion and its relationship with the press.
The specialized fashion media claim from the various players in the sector – designers, entrepreneurs, institutions and government - the need to work together to create industrial structure and enhance the Spanish fashion shows. All coincided in agreeing that the "climax" of national fashion are the runways in Madrid and Barcelona, as well as the fashion shows by Spanish brands abroad. "These are headlines that are covered in the news reports", an area usually closed for design, explains the director of Yo Dona Marta Michel .
However, Rafa Muñoz, RTVE fashion expert, wonders if " it is really fashion that interests or what attracts are a few minutes of images of models in swimwear and lingerie that put the glamorous finishing touches to the news reports”.
Clearly outright was the director of Elle magazine, Benedetta Poletti, when she assured that "we must develop the culture and the system of fashion, because there are still those who see it as something frivolous. and yet it is a business that turns over cinsiderable economic benefits”.
From the point of view of a daily newspaper such as El País, Carmen Mañana explained that Spanish fashion news does interest "especially those with a polyhedral information spanning economical and/or cultural aspects ".
Meanwhile, the deputy director of Glamour, Carmen Garijo also acknowledges that " there is a great interest in fashion, " and in the case of her readers, mostly youth, this concern is primarily focused on those who " begin to emerge now ".
To this media interest we must add the way in which informing has changed. Social networks require immediacy and many designers are behind, some anchored in the fax. "The creators should start working differently to streamline information " suggests Muñoz, who at the same time regrets that in many occasions the urgency does not allow the journalist to "reflect and communicate the essence, becoming a mere bridge."
However, what responsibility has the media towards the fashion industry? On this question the journalists agreed that the media must promote a "fashion culture", but they also noted that they don’t have enough authority to impose criteria. "The runway proposes and the street disposes” says Poletti.
For Mañana, "it is not worth to support for supporting sake, one must value the excellence and creative discourse, the reader is not stupid” In this same track moves Michel, who also considered necessary that the designers "create a consistent brand image and defend it".
The responsibility for the launch of Spanish fashion lies not only in the creative talent of the designer and the media coverage, but in the management of government institutions, they should follow the example of the fashion week in Paris and especially that of London, a runway that has risen from the ashes thanks to the support and the shared work of designers, government, industry and media.
Shyness, inferiority complex and excessive criticism are not good travel companions, and if you want to export Spanish fashion one must learn to sell it, agree the experts.
Even since the days of Balenciaga this circumstance was established, Poletti points out : "A designer in Paris was highly acknowledged while in Spain they remained as yet another dressmaker."
Runways are a window open to the world for many designers but "Is this the path to be followed by those whose business is a small atelier in which they sow made-to-measure? Are fashion shows the only way? Wonders Mañana who together with the other journalists defended openly a change in the approach of the Madrid runway in accordance with current times.