Movida madrileña con Agatha Ruiz de la Prada

The pioneer of the style worn during the Movida Madrileña, was the famous designer Agatha Ruiz de La Prada.
The word “Movida” is a word that the founder of ISEM, Covadonga O´Shea uses when talking about going out at night in Madrid. I wondered about the meaning of this word and decided to look it up.

The Movida Madrileña is the name of a countercultural movement that took place in the Spanish capital after Francisco Franco’s death in 1975. The movida is said to have represented the emergence of a new and different Spanish identity. The ways of being and actions that were seen as taboo during the Franquist regime were now acted out everywhere, and one would often hear things such as “ Esta noche todo el mundo a la calle” (Tonight everybody in the street) screamed by los Madrileños, or “Madrid nunca duerme” (Madrid never sleeps). This movement covered many music bands, photography, art and painting, graffiti and last but not least fashion movements.

The Spanish designer Agatha Ruiz de La Prada entered the fashion scene with her first collection in 1981. She was born in 1960 and experienced the Movida Movement up close as she was in her teens at the beginning of this period. She became a leading figure of the capital city´s sociocultural movement and the popularity of her bright-colored designs boomed. Today, the designer does not only make clothing, but also furniture, carpets, pens, notebooks, lip balms, scents, bed linen and many other things as well as clothes for children, men and women. She has outlets in Milan, Paris and New York, and her items can be purchased in many countries in the world. The colourful Madrileña continues to work and live in her native city in Spain. Agatha Ruiz de La Prada is a suprising and different designer. She has a very original, and what I would call “ happy “ collection, with joyful motives, bright colours and different shapes and forms.
She is famous for being an environmental friendly designer and is part of Spain’s Green Party, “The Confederation of the Greens”. She seems to be a designer that is true to her beliefs and responsibilities, and is against the use of animal materials such as leather or fur, so she therefore always uses faux-fur.

Last Friday, I was very fortunate to meet the designer at a lecture she gave at ISEM fashion and business school. She arrived in a charming and colourful (not suprising!) outfit, with a blue shirt and orange skirt.The lecture she held was very interesting, and her friend and design director Juan Carlos Mesa also accompanied her. The main focus of the class was “fashion and the fashion scene” where the relationship between fashion, art and theatre was explained and discussed, and the 60 alumni present were all very interested and attentive. During the International Theatre Festival of Almagro, Agatha Ruiz De la Prada collaborated on the presentation ofb a show. She was inspired by the comedy by "Lope de Vega" called “ La Dama Boba” (1613) and the design of the scene as well as the wardrobe was all created by Agatha. Pictures of the performances were shown on a slide show during the lecture, and she explained the motives and purpose of her collaboration. Agatha seems to be a breath of fresh air in the fashion world, where she is a unique designer with a very creative mind.

With her interesting, suprising and different talent, she is a designer that lets everyone get a taste of the colourful and fascinating movement of the Movida Madrileña – even in the sometimes grey XXI century.