THESIS


“Oruga” is about questioning the effects of MOVING around cities as a young adult. Moving to another country raises questions of cultural identity and personal style. I believe that many people share this experience as people are constantly traveling and migrating in today’s GLOBALISED world.

However, TRAVELING and migration wasn’t so common in previous generations. It was considered a luxury, and in some cases an escamotage to escape local constrictions (e.g during the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) and the Franco regime (1939-1975). Thus, this collection starts from this context and presents an imaginative dislocation of my 20 year old grandmother who lived in Seville during the 1960s. Therefore, “Oruga” tells the story of a young WOMAN who moves from post Franco Seville into the swinging sixties in PARIS. Upon her arrival in Paris, she experiences the freedom of living alone for the first time, stepping out of her comfort zone, meeting new people from different cultures, and the parisian nightlife. As such, she questions whether her wardrobe matches her new fashion taste. Naturally, things have changed and she dreams of giving her typical, middle-class Spanish garments a TWIST. Instead of purchasing a new wardrobe, she alters her SUITCASE and transforms it into a sartorial Spanish SPACE craze.

In terms of ICONOGRAPHIC and garment research, my focus has been creating a dialogue between the traditional ANDALUSIAN wardrobe in the 60s with the Parisian futuristic fashion. The former has been developed via the exploration of personal family photos, designers that were popular at that time in Spain, magazines and archives. This SPANISH archive is then contrasted with the ‘Parisian archive of the 60s,’ made of  designers such as André Courrèges, Paco Rabanne, and Pierre Cardin, photos of celebrities, nightlife and hotspots in Paris at the time.

In terms of shape, I will be exploring RIGID structures, which resemble what the youth culture in Paris would wear during the 1960s. Mini dresses, A-line shapes, trench coats and knee-length boots will be present in my collection. By contrast, for the materiality of the collection, lace, POLKA dots, buttons from seville will ADAPT to Parisian fashion at the time, which was centered on synthetic materials (PVC, polyester, nylon). Nonetheless, elements of Spanish tradition will still be present in the collection to emphasize the idea that no matter where one moves, our cultural ROOTS will always be present. Bon VOYAGE.


















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