It's our favourite time of year with our new summer 2012/2013 collection Moda Barcelona poised to hit stores in August. Imogen Tunnicliffe, our senior designer, talks about what inspired our design team this season.
Barcelona is a wonderful mix of relaxed and energetic – it is full of vigour and personality and has a light heartedness that often comes with cities built next to the sea. Bustling urban life blends easily with the relaxed seaside vibe.
We were inspired by the way the Catalan people live their daily life. They are relaxed, open, social, warm and expressive - spirited, hard-working and passionate with a proud history.
Visually, Barcelona is a cornucopia of inspiration. The Modernist influence in the architecture – Gaudi’s whimsical structures permeate the city and parks –reflect the mood of the people and the character of the city.
Equally arresting though is the romantic gothic architecture in the old city, the unique graffiti around every corner – narrative and illustrative in style, the wonderful produce markets, the town squares and the vibrant street life.
The Catalonian modernist movement has heavily influenced Barcelona visually and atmospherically, and these ideals underlie much of our collection this season.
The modernist ideals are characterised by curved lines and organic shapes, botanical motifs, over the top ornamentation, bright colours, and a disregard of symmetry.
The overall effect is a dynamic, colourful and very human – which kind of sums up Barcelona..
As well as obviously being inspired by the city and the people, this season we invented two muses to be inspired by and to help further immerse ourselves in Barcelona daily life.
Elena and Katarina Moreno, native Catalans and mother and daughter. We created stories focussed around their daily life routines – loves, home style and sartorial style.
Elena’s style is casual, uncomplicated, modern bohemian while Katarina’s is classic, modern, elegant and effortless but with an ethnic twist.
Africa is a big influence in Spain, being in such close proximity, and we wanted to acknowledge this in our designs this season.
One thing that struck us about Barcelona was the way the live their daily life and how it differs to our daily life here. It is a city where you can cycle or walk easily around, they live much of their life focused around placas (town squares) where they eat, drink and socialise and often have festivals and celebrations, much of their life is focussed outdoors. They have a relaxed attitude towards food; eating is a very social experience. Barcelona is dotted with fantastic produce markets where locals shop daily.
The collection focusses on an average day living in Barcelona, specifically we chose four themes to illustrate – the influence of Modernisme as you stroll through the city, local Festivals – there is barely a day without one in Barcelona, the wonderful Markets of every kind and the unique Urban Street Art. The colour palette this season consists of warm, active colours that are slightly off beat, like Macaroon, Watermelon, Olive Oil and Bark, and fresh, confident colours such as Spring Green, Tomato and Lemongrass, along with hot Mediterranean hues like Paprika, Bougainvillea, Fuchsia and Pesto. We have used some unexpected and unusual colour combinations this season that we feel reflect the city’s personality.
Moda Barcelona is a fun, colourful, expressive collection – a little bit of Spanish sunshine for your home this summer!!
New collection online from 13th August 2012
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