In a rare combination of literature and fashion, 12 Spanish designers have created outfits for characters from famous Latin American and Spanish novels. The resulting work is currently on display until April 6 at the Cervantes Institute in Beijing, in a show called 12 Dresses for China: Spanish Designers in Dialogue with Literature.
Twelve leading Spanish fashion designers were contacted and asked to read the novels, then "dress" them for the show.
"The idea of fusing literature and fashion is new. We were very careful about selecting award-winning authors who write prose, essays and poetry, and also about including writers from Argentina, Colombia, Mexico and Cuba," says Concha Hernndez, the curator of the show.
Agatha Ruiz de la Prada, Ailanto, Alma Aguilar, Amaya Arzuaga and David Delfn are some of the designers who created dresses based on the work of Gabriel Garca Mrquez, Miguel Delibes and Carmen Martn Gaite, among others.
Modesto Lomba, who was asked to design an outfit for Gabriel Garca Mrquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude, said the project helped him express his own "fascination for that old clockwork mechanism" that runs throughout the Colombian masterpiece.
Among the selected characters, there was a preference for "powerful women" such as Laura Daz, from Carlos Fuentes' The Years with Laura Daz, who was dressed by Ailanto, or Carmen from Miguel Delibes' Five Hours with Mario, who was dressed by Alma Aguilar.
Other designers were asked to "dress" an entire novel or a poetic text. This was the case of Juan Duyos, who created an outfit for Carmen Martn Gaite's The Snow Queen. David Delfn wrote verses by Antonio Gamoneda on his dress and Miriam Ocriz designed an outfit for Dulce Mara Loynaz's Garden.
At Instituto Cervantes. A1 Gongti Nanlu, opposite Workers' Stadium south gate, Tel: 5879-9666
By Chen Nan
Editor: Feng Hui
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