keep it going | 080 Barcelona Fashion in review

Brain & Beast

This year, we saw a different side of 080 Barcelona Fashion. While we’ve covered the week previously, limitations imposed by this year’s COVID-19 pandemic meant that the 080 Barcelona Fashion week we’ve come to know and love was forced to take a different form. Luckily, as we observed from watching the events unfold online this week, the spirit of the event was only enhanced through its new platform, allowing the designers featured to explore new avenues to showcase their works. Here are some of our picks from the week.

BRAIN & BEAST

To kick off our coverage, Brain & Beast gave us a truly joyous experience. Playful garments presented with admirable charm, the Barcelona label put its sense of humour on display as it showcased a series of pop culture-inspired works. This does not mean the label compromised on craft; contrasting textures with puzzle-like layering reminded us why we’ve been keeping an eye on the brand since our first introduction several 080 Barcelona Fashion Weeks ago.

JÚLIA G ESCRIBÀ

Júlia G Escribà displayed a deceivingly technical collection; its designs were made using a technology that was developed for NASA, meaning it each piece legally features the stamp of: Certified Space Technology” from the US Space Foundation. Despite this space-age tech, the collection itself felt very homegrown, utilising a monochromatic palette to experiment with form.

LEBOR GABALA

Lebor Gabala is a label helmed by Maite Muñoz. For this season’s collection, the label traditional techniques, represented by the geometrically shaped jacquard present throughout the works on display. The collection also featured a series of camo works, deprived of their traditionally aggressive context to create a laidback yet empowered collection.

LERA MAMBA

One sustainable label that presented this week was Lera Mamba. In the spirit of rethinking collections for a digital presentation, the label opted to use their time as a sort of, in their description, “catalogue” — each piece is a mould through which new pieces can be imagined, with many works on display featuring embroidered details about the garment itself.

MANS

Building off the work of American photographer Slim Aarons, MANS injected the characters spotlighted by Aarons’ photography into the literal fabric of its works. Rich in pastel hues, the resultant collection crafts an idea of a sort of ‘ideal society’, blending human forms with the natural splendour of nature.

ONRUSH W23FH

For its show, ONRUSHW23FH explored its fascination with celebrity. The collection stressed both big ideas and immediacy, putting in considerable labour to create pieces that seemed simultaneously haphazard and well-considered. Taking touches from the worlds of streetwear and formal attire, the result was a beautifully chaotic mix of works.

THE LABEL EDITION

As a label that describes themselves as having “100% digital DNA”, The Label Edition was well prepared for an online-version of their normal fashion week fare. The initial impetus to create the brand was to “create a concept around ethical, timeless, and exclusive fashion”, and in this display, the label returned to its roots, creating an ethically-sourced womenswear collection with timelessness, resilience, and elegance in mind.

TXELL MIRAS

To close out our coverage, we turn to Txell Miras. Weeks of lockdown were particularly formative for Txell Miras. The resultant period of respite from endless mental stimulation caused the label to search back into its archives, inspiring not a return to classics but a reinvention of the old into something new. With this collection, the label hoped to search through its history to create a vision of the future, something they accomplished through the works on display during this show.