It is stunned and optimistic. She is the designer who lowered the haute couture of the catwalks and turned her designs into works of art. She is the creator of her own style and the one who did not feature became commercial thanks to her soul as a saleswoman. She is the daughter of an avant -garde architect and Castilian aristocrat and a Catalan aristocrat, who left two noble titles: Marquesa de Castelldosríus and Baroness from Santa Pau. It is that of colors, stripes, hearts. She is the mother of Tristan and Cosima and Deva’s grandmother, Tristan’s daughter who is about to fulfill her first year. Is Ágatha Ruiz de la Pradabusinesswoman, designer and artist.
It spent more than 10 days in Buenos Aires, a city that knows well and loves for its social life, its museums, its films and its series, although it ensures that you have to continue returning. He went to the Colón Theater, to the countryside in the province of Buenos Aires, he learned to dance tango, enjoyed gastronomy and talks with designers, journalists and politicians. The Spanish presented at the Usina of art A sample composed of at least 100 of his most iconic dresses and designs, which reflect the multiplicity of expressions he has managed to develop in his career for more than 40 years of evolution and creative coherence, destined for a modern and contemporary woman. It has the curatorship of the Argentine designer Gino Bogani, with the direction of the exhibition project of Vicky Salías – director of the City Museum of the City of Buenos Aires – and the coordination and organization of Carminne Dodero.
“I was to the total runs, I got up every day at 6 or 7 in the morning, it has been a super intense program between exits, conferences and interviews,” he tells news shortly before returning to Madrid. “I had a great time, but I am exhausted.”
News: What enjoyed its passage through Buenos Aires?
Ágatha Ruiz de la Prada: The exhibition has loved it, I loved the Usina team, the assembly, I have enjoyed it very much.
News: And of social life?
Ruiz de la Prada: Amalita Amoedo made me a wonderful dinner, I loved the house, the art she has, and be there with so many interesting people.
News: Regarding the assembly of the sample, how was it to see their 40 years of career through the dresses? Many of the designs were from his personal collection.
Ruiz de la Prada: Seeing my closet costumes left me completely amazed. I have seen them from many points of view, it is not the same to see your things in a closet than in such a beautiful museum, with such light, suddenly you realize that the vision you have of your clothes has nothing to do with what it is, you analyze the colors, the stripes. It has been very exciting, it has been one of the most beautiful sites in which I exposed in my life. I have been making retrospective samples since 1999, I have always made many exhibitions in museums, in art galleries. More than 10 years ago I wanted to bring a retrospective sample to Buenos Aires, I was obsessed with doing it. I can’t think of a better place.
With its timeless, bold and colorful aesthetics, it has become one of the most internationally recognized Spanish artists. The inauguration of the sample included a large cocktail for 500 people, which was attended by celebrities, city government authorities and fans of his work. Art and fashion lovers can visit it until April 6. “The number of people who are going to the art of art that is never going to forget in my life is being so exciting. It is the greatest gift that Argentina can make me,” he said about the reception of the exhibition.
News: His life is closely linked to art, how do he combine art with fashion?
Ruiz de la Prada: My father was an architect and art collector, I have suckled it since childhood. Everyone has talent for one thing, I have no talent for cooking, but to combine colors and have a vision of personal and different fashion.
News: At some point he thought about devoting himself to art, but said he turned to fashion for his social seasoning …
Ruiz de la Prada: Art is very hard. Because you are very alone and you have no schedules. In fashion you are very accompanied. When you paint you are in a room alone, the best distressed if something does not come out ..
News: You have a very active social life, but is any moment dedicated to yourself?
Ruiz de la Prada: In my visit to Buenos Aires I have had very few moments for me. But usually yes. Now I am dreaming of Holy Week, which in Spain stops a week, and I’m going to the countryside.
News: Why does it move away from black and always choose to include a lot of color in your designs?
Ruiz de la Prada: Keep in mind that black in fashion has been very harmful. Everyone goes black. When you go to a party you see all the ladies in black, it’s like going to a funeral. There have been years and years.
News: Do you think it is possible to continue reinventing over time?
Ruiz de la Prada: I think so, thank God. Not alone, but with a team. In September I hired an artistic director for the first time, it is very nice because I add a vision of a person to whom I admire a lot, who respects my work a lot, but teaches me in a different way.
News: She has always been a woman very committed to ecology, what do you think of sustainable fashion? Do you think it is a facade of the industry?
Ruiz de la Prada: It is not a facade, but it is a very difficult issue. Fashion is from the industries that is more technologically backward. It continues almost as 500 years ago. I hope we will be able to invent a much more sustainable fashion. It is tremendous all the textile garbage that is generated, you have to stop it anyway. You have to stop it with a much more responsible consumption and you have to know how to reuse all those textiles. At the moment we are all eager, that this is very important, but we do not know how still. You could do a thousand things, it is a shame that throws the clothes that may have only four uses.
News: How do you see the role of public figures, for example in royalty, which tries to show how they repeat outfits?
Ruiz de la Prada: In Spain we have Letizia Ortiz that the truth in that can not be put even but because it repeats a lot and repeats on purpose, and does very well. You can’t be all day, you have to reuse.
News: How do you wear the Argentine woman?
Ruiz de la Prada: I see that it shows a lot. I know it is very difficult to buy clothes in Argentina, you have been complicated for many years. It is complicated and expensive. But the Argentine woman, which I find in general very pretty and very attractive, should be a bit more brave.
News: I see that she is a quite involved woman in politics, is she attentive? Do you interest her?
Ruiz de la Prada: I am attentive because it seems important to be informed and fun. I have been living with a journalist for 30 years and up to 20 different newspapers entered my house (NDD: He was married to the journalist Pedro J. Ramírez, founder of the newspaper El Mundo). These days I was in Argentina, I preferred to read the nation or Clarín than the ABC of Spain.
News: She is a very strong woman in fashion and once said that she is a feminist since she was very young because in her adolescence she had read Simone de Beauvoir, how do you see the current role of women?
Ruiz de la Prada: I think we have advanced a lot, in Spain there are women with power everywhere. Now what I would like is to continue advancing, but my energy at this time is put on the ecological issue, I see it very urgent. If I had to invest in feminism or ecology, I would invest in ecology, then when that was solved we will see what we can continue doing for feminism.
News: Do you worry about the passage of time in the personal?
Ruiz de la Prada: Imagine that I never thought that at my age I was going to be dancing tango at the nights of Buenos Aires. It seems like a joke. I remember my mother when I was my age, and I can’t believe it.
