Everything is set for Mallorca Design Day 2019. Its Director, Raquel Arañón, has revealed to us two of the best kept secrets of this edition: who will host it and the tops that will walk down the catwalk on May 24th at Puerto Portals.
Raquel Arañón was born in Asturias, but she has been living in Majorca for 25 years now. “I have never lived anywhere for so many years” she says. She is graduated in fashion design and works for different national companies. She is also a professor and teaches courses on fashion consulting and formation. She is the creator of the platform Majorca Design Day.
Raquel, why did you decide creating MDD?
I decided it after returning from New York three years ago. I lived there for some time. Before, I’d been a teacher for 12 years, teaching new designers at the Design College of Balearic Islands and I realized that I had to do something. I had the expertise and tools to help promote people who are just starting, not only in Majorca but also nationally and internationally. What I was most interested in, was helping all those Majorcan designers who needed an impulse, and also, in making of Majorca an open window to the rest of Spain, proving the great existing talent there is here, and which is unknown.
What is the aim of MDD?
The aim is to help give visibility to new talents, specially within the islands and then creating a sort of feedback, forming synergies and interactions with the rest of the country and the rest of Europe. This year we are more ambitious and we have opened a door and a window to new international talents.
What is the aim of MDD?
The aim is to help give visibility to new talents, specially within the islands and then creating a sort of feedback, forming synergies and interactions with the rest of the country and the rest of Europe. This year we are more ambitious and we have opened a door and a window to new international talents.
Majorca Design Day is the only fashion contest that awards a prize to curvy designers, why did you make this commitment to curvy fashion?
We are still pioneers in this type of award. There are lots of curvy catwalks and multinational companies that are starting to produce plus sizes, but at a national level, we are pioneers and we are still the only ones.
We support curvy fashion, really because I am a real woman, among my closest friends and everywhere in society, the majority of women are true women, real women.
Do you think Balearic fashion is in good shape?
I believe that the Balearic Islands are in the waiting room. There are few chances for these students to access internship contracts, to be promoted, to count with the necessary facilities to start an atelier or a shop. It’s a shame. There is a fantastic creative level. Well prepared people with great potential. This is why it is so important that platforms such as MDD exist, it’s our contribution to help these people stand out and come to life professionally.
Just a few days left for the event, how do you appraise the collections of the Balearic finalists?
There are only a few days left for the event, and during this final sprint, the designers are finishing their collections and preparing everything down to the smallest detail, shortly we will go ahead with the fitting (Thursday 16th) and the standard is extraordinarily high. It’s hard for me to choose a favorite collection, I perceive that this year they are all very different one from another, the standard is amazing. I believe that the level is rising in every edition.
Amongst the national and international curvy winners, do you think we might find a designer who will be very successful in the near future?
Undoubtedly, I am totally convinced that any of these three winners has the appeal, youth, talent and tools to do whatever they wish with their careers from now on.
Why did you make a clear commitment with Puerto Portals as scenery?
It was clear that I had to get together with people who believed in the project, who saw it the same way as I did, and who put their hearts in the MDD and everything that the MDD means. Choosing Puerto Portals as the scenery and as the main partner has been a great choice, as they entail two very important factors, one is their privileged location in the Baleric islands, being a landmark port in the Mediterranean, not only for their quality and service, but also for the standard and image that they are offering all along the years.
The culmination of this year will be Modesto Lomba’s fashion show and role as president of the jury.
I feel so grateful for the generosity of Modesto Lomba, for making his first show here and being the crown jewel in the second edition of the MDD. To us, it is a privilege and an honor. Modesto Lomba is synonym of exquisiteness, fashion, prestige, quality and sensitivity, and so many other adjectives that have defined him and his brand for more than two decades. Having Modesto here with us is very powerful, not only for his expertise and for what his brand Devota & Lomba means, but also because he is the president of ACME (fashion association of Spanish designers) and he is really involved in what is going on in the rest of Spain: contests, shows, fashion weeks… He has a broad criteria which very few designers have, so it is an enormous honour to have him as president of the jury.