Simorra does not design fashion collections, she weaves stories through her creations. A brand capable of making you forget the ephemeral value of the latest trends to enjoy the beauty of ancestral craftsmanship. For them, designing becomes a creative process that avoids mass production and highlights the virtue of the fabrics and the exclusivity of their products.
“The key to our collections are current, high-quality garments that you will not stop wearing even if the years go by,” says Victoria Mitjans, head of Design for the Catalan brand, minutes before its debut at Mercedes Benz Fashion Week Madrid (MBFW). last September. She does it accompanied by Eva Dimas, head of Brand and visible face of the brand. Both radiate that shine of genuine excitement in their eyes.
In 2023, 45 years have passed since Javier Simorra founded the firm. He learned the trade directly from his father, a Barcelona couturier who taught him sewing techniques to make custom-made garments. Javier transferred this sewing to ready-to-wear, at the end of the seventies, to bring fashion closer to everyone and not just to a few privileged people.
“We have continued with that legacy,” explains Dimas, who uses the term “transgenerational” to refer to one of the brand's main values. “We do not describe our client under any label, nor according to an age range. We look at the lifestyle she leads.”
This spirit is the same that is breathed in the firm's nerve center, where employees of very different ages collaborate and work side by side on the same project. “Age doesn't matter, we all have a voice, we can all have an opinion, we can all participate,” he emphasizes.
As the famous Jean de La Fontaine said in Le Vieillard et ses enfants (1668): “all power is weak unless it remains united”; and that same spirit of fraternity is the starting point of Ancestral Weaving, the spring-summer 2024 collection that debuted on the Madrid catwalk.
For its staging, Simorra wanted to surprise the public with three-dimensional braids and knots in the center of the catwalk. The models paraded through them, a metaphor between the construction of the fabric and the social fabric to dress a strong and supportive woman.
“The collection is born from the desire to interweave an increasingly individualized society and demonstrate that true strength lies in the community that weaves its social structure through collaboration,” reflects designer Victoria Mitjans. An allegory to the origin of weaving, where tribute is paid to collective wisdom, expressed through the different ways of braiding the thread.
Ocher, earthen brown, gypsum white or chlorite green. Ancestral colors that refer us to a minimal, sophisticated and, at the same time, contemporary style. Woven in jacquard, guipure, organza and raffia using manual techniques such as braiding, knotting or embroidery to enrich the architecture of each style.
All the work is artisanal, but with an updated point. An essential value in the modernization stage in which the new Simorra was immersed with the incorporation of the Dimas family in 2016. A turning point in the path that led the family group to look to the future and focus on innovate from the creation process, thus giving the main role to materials.
“For Simorra, the fabric is the blank canvas through which we create the collections and it is the most important element of each collection,” says Dimas, just before emphasizing the importance of the physical catwalk never disappearing. “For us, a live show makes much more sense where the public can feel and appreciate the fabric and textures. In the metaverse, the big challenge is how to get the weaves emphasized well. If not, we as a brand would cease to make sense,” she concludes.
