The Queen of Spain’s favourite designer Felipe Varela made a stunning
comeback to his native Madrid this week with a daring collection that mixed
peekaboo and plunging necklines with metal and Swarovski — but in his
trademark impeccable style.
Varela first took part in the Madrid Fashion Week in 1996 but stayed away
from the city’s catwalks for 14 years and his return was the highlight of
the
event.
The intensely private designer is the preferred couturier of Queen Letizia,
a former journalist who has donned his suits and gowns several times — a
fact
painstakingly followed by glossies and newspapers the world over.
The British press noted this month that the 43-year-old perennially chic
royal sported a snazzy red Varela skirt suit for a fourth time recently.
She had first worn it on an official trip to New York in 2009.
The head turners from Varela’s latest showing included a white wool crepe
jacket with an eye-popping red fox fur collar and clingy decollete gowns
with
bold thigh-high slits that recreated the glamour of Hollywood’s golden era.
Peekaboo net jackets were embellished with metal and fur and lingerie-style
dresses with 1960s
hemlines with an aluminium look — harking back to Paco
Rabanne creations from that epoch.
The 2016-2017 autumn-winter “Crystal Army” collection also has an abundance
of glittering baubles — 185,000 of them and mostly Swarovski — but does
not
descend into bling.
That is one of the reasons why he is favoured by the intensely stylish
Spanish royal, whose wardrobe is keenly followed by fashionistas around the
world.
“It is very difficult to separate the classical and very chic” style of the
queen and Varela, said Laura Luceno, a professor at Madrid’s Higher School
of
Fashion Design.
The queen became a new royal fashion icon after her husband’s June 19, 2014
coronation, featuring in global glossies as a style idol and trendsetter.
She appears to champion mainly Spanish designers who base their houses in
the country rather than those who operate from abroad, like Balenciaga,
Manolo
Blahnik and Paco Rabanne.
“Letizia is also drawn to him because he is discreet,” said Luceno of the
designer who shuns smart parties and can slip incognito through the streets
of
Madrid.
Varela, who divides his time between Madrid and Paris — where he had
worked for Dior, Lanvin and Mugler — appeared at the end of his Madrid
show,
dressed in a black suit and sporting sunglasses.
(Anna Cuenca, AFP)