Arturo Obegero debuted this Saturday at Paris Fashion Week ready to fight. This young Spanish designer, creator of a captivating line with flamenco influences, warns that he is coming to fight “the theater” in which the industry has become under the power of social networks.
“These giant, extreme bows show how something as beautiful as fashion can also paralyze you,” explains this 27-year-old Asturian to AFP, showing one of the creations of his new unisex collection, made from curtains of discarded theater.
Obegero launched his brand just a year ago from his studio on the outskirts of Paris with very clear ideas and an ecological conscience: he only works with fabrics that nobody wants anymore, especially those that he recovers from large firms, such as Fendi for silk shirts and Givenchy, for pants.
Hence, his work flirts with haute couture: “I like to produce limited and exclusive pieces: for example, from a roll, maybe I will only be able to create 10 shirts.”
His influences have their roots in classic flamenco, such as his high-waisted trousers “Antonio Gades”, in his compatriot Cristóbal Balenciaga, with whom he shares the obsession with black to give prominence to the silhouette, but also in his late grandfather, present in each collection with the “Pedro” shirt.
– “Sweep for home” –
“I like to sweep at home”, she admits, although her inspirations are also international, from Russian ballets to Pina Bausch, which denotes her passion for dance.
Born in the idyllic coastal town of Tapia de Casariego (north), Obegero remembers how at local fairs he would prepare dances with his friends. Later came the age of the internet when you could “die” if you missed the broadcast of one of the British Alexander McQueen shows. And at 14, with his mother they began to save so that he could study fashion. “We put the money in an envelope.”
He studied pattern making in La Coruña before jumping in 2018 to one of the temples of fashion, the Central Saint Martins in London, where “they squeeze your brain and push you daily to get what you are.” But feeling more comfortable with the most “classic and sensual” cut in Paris, he crossed the English Channel to work for a year at the historic Lanvin firm.
“What interests me is to recover fantasy and return the soul to the garments,” says the designer, prior to his debut at Men’s Fashion Week, 100% digital due to the pandemic.
– The value of a selfie –
With the curtains he recovered from London theaters, Sydney … he made a collection that reflects how “the world is a constant theater and how in fashion there is more than ever a hunger for applause”, due to social networks.
“Sometimes a selfie is worth more than all the work behind it,” he laments, also criticizing that on the internet “you can’t even give your opinion” for fear of being repudiated online, which is known as the “cancel culture.”
Thus, these velvet garments presented on video this Saturday are a reflection of “how it feels” landing in the major leagues of fashion.
It includes, for example, a four-meter purple scarf with integrated gloves, which covers up to the face and “prevents you from moving”, as well as a “strapless” trousers – with a waist up to the chest – which is completed with a piece A set that surrounds the head, giving the silhouette a rose shape.
“It is a reference to the end of the works, to when people threw roses. It has to do with that ambition that everything goes well, but that sometimes drowns you,” he explains.
Obegero admits that his collection “is not very day to day.” “But now that we are all in pajamas and tracksuits, what better time to bring a little fantasy,” he explains. Also, “in my debut I wanted to show what I am capable of”.
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