By Cecilia Casero
Yesterday morning everything smelled new on Jaramagos street. The newly opened La Mosca warehouse, decked out with a bubble gum pink carpet for the occasion, was preparing to host the first ready-to-wear fashion show by ABRA, the firm founded by Abraham Ortuño (Elche, 1987). The show was eagerly awaited, not only because face-to-face events have picked up relatively recently, but because the brand, despite its still brief history, has a fairly dedicated cohort of followers who were looking forward to finding out how the show declines. universe of the designer in the form of clothing.
But it doesn't matter how short or long his career at the head of his own brand is because Ortuño has the most valuable thing that someone who runs a firm can have, whatever its star product: his own, recognizable and desirable universe. That he started designing bags and shoes and then started making clothes or vice versa, it doesn't matter. The result would have been the same because they are complementary parts of a whole. The garments that make up his first collection are a compendium of pieces that pay homage to the pop culture of the first decade of the 2000s, from the studied color palette to the asymmetric cuts, going through the most two-thousander message in substance and shape that can be named: the word 'chic' written in girly typography in rhinestone crystals. But there was also room for reminiscences located a little further back in time, such as those intuited in the oversized rugby polo shirts with white collars that are inevitably reminiscent of the Lo-Lifes, the urban tribe that took over Brooklyn in the late 1990s. 80 and who had a garment –the polo shirt– and a brand –Ralph Lauren– as symbols of appropriation of the visual codes of the elite.
The collection of accessories revisits some of the firm's already classics: kitten heels, high boots -some with a card holder included-, mules and ankle boots dominate the footwear line, while the baguette silhouette, the handbags with spikes and tiny clutches do the same in the handbags section. Of course, although Ortuño is based in Paris, both are made in Ubrique. The designer has completed the look for the spring-summer 2022 collection with his first jewelery capsule developed in collaboration with Suot Studio, an experimental jewelery project that will be released on October 18.
The casting has been another of the discursive focuses of the show: women who dodge the norm with different origins, ages and silhouettes –with a broad representation of the trans community– who only consolidated the narrative that has maintained the brand from its origins, which is none other than making clothes and accessories for everyone. "I've always loved footwear and it seemed crazy to me that there were still limitations to finding shoes in larger sizes," explained the designer in an interview with Vogue Spain at the end of spring, referring to the extensive sizing of his shoes, also available in big numbers. “It's important that everyone feels comfortable when you sell a product like this. I think the most inclusive message is not to put more labels”, he argued convinced.
The front row has also been a fairly diverse representation of profiles: the actresses Ester Expósito and María León –barely a day after the premiere of Alizzz's video clip in which the interpreter plays with metafiction portraying the rise and fall from the fame suffered, mainly, by women–, but also professional colleagues such as Alejandro Gómez Palomo, María Escoté, Miguel Becer de Manémané or María Lemus and Víctor Alonso, from Maria Ke Fisherman. In ABRA there is room for everyone.
