“We’ve done a collaboration with a female wrestling club this season,” said Paula Canovas del Vas at her Paris presentation. Kitted out in her argyle-checkered mesh body-pieces, the combatants were tangling on a mat while “her referees” circled the game, sporting the rest of the fall collection.
The Spanish designer is known for her surrealistically-tweaked clothes and a talent for signature accessories, like horned ballerina slippers and Diabalo indented-toe trainers (the wrestlers were wearing these last). The impression that she might be staging some sort of quirky pre-Olympics fashion warm-up on the floor of the Cervantes Institute proved to be off-beam, though.
“Normally, I tend to go for fantasy and escapism,” she agreed. “But when I was thinking about this presentation, I really wanted to expose what the industry is going through. When I think of my conversations with my peers or myself, it really is a fight. I felt I had a duty, I had to put it out there. Whenever I speak to all my friends, [we talk] about the real-world harms that are happening. So I thought: let’s put up a fight.”
Canovas del Vas was frank when asked exactly what she’s wrestling with as an independent designer: “I mean, with shops not paying.” Payments, slow to arrive, even after she’s delivered her merchandise, inflict cash-flow agony. “Because I stilI have my team I must pay, and the artisans and suppliers I’m so fortunate to have.” Plus, for a young business woman, there’s another layer of difficulty. “We’re in an industry that is dominated by males, white males, unfortunately.”
Working with the wrestlers, she discovered more hidden sexism in that sport. “They said there’s only men’s wrestling clothes available. They have to cut them down to fit. I always make clothes that are comfortable for women’s bodies.” Her greeny-pinky multi-checked layerings of printed bodysuits, t-shirts, and shorts met with excellent reviews from the athletic audience. “They’re very stretchy and breathable,” and the Diabolo trainers, like sporty mary janes with their devilish toes, “are great for the wrestling mat, they told me.”
The referee outfits were more for wrestling with everyday street life. Faux-fur fronted jeans and fuzzy bonnets, puffy bombers, and multiple layers of interesting off-pastel knits came out, teamed up with stripy tights and this season’s version of her Carmen bag, surrounded by a softly bulbous air-brush painted bumper.
The designer, who lives in Paris, while producing in her native Spain, uses deadstock materials. “We visit factories all over, do our sourcing from them.” Somewhere, she’d found some red tulle to use as a flounced half-skirt which trailed over one side of a pink knee-length jersey argyle skirt. “I also wanted to create a sort of, a real violence, because that’s what we face,” she remarked. “So that’s the red tulle. But also there’s a real lightness as well. A feeling of protection, too.”