Shot in A Coruña for Monocle magazine in August 2016 and featured as a 14 pages Expo on the October 2016 issue.
A Coruña is home to retail giant Inditex (owner of Zara) and its alumni designers and manufacturers, who are busy reviving the region’s textile and craft credentials.
Perched on a peninsula that scratches the edge of the north Atlantic, A Coruña has given rise to stories of giants for eons.
The new titan is a glistening complex of concrete and glass on the city’s outskirts. More than 4.400 people, many of them dressed in fresh off-the-production-line designs, bustle down its long luminescent corridors.
Inside, pictures by anyone outside its team of 10 full-time fashion photographers are strictly prohibited.
The onward expansion has made A Coruña an increasingly attractive destination for design graduates who are actively recruited from the world’s best schools.
Massimo Dutti taylor
But beyond the obvious pull of the fast-fashion giant, a secondary body of designers and dressmakers is being nourished by the creatuve influx.
— Knitbrary
Yolanda Estévez started Knitbrary with Pedro Castellanos in 2011. The brand came off the back of a career at Zara Home and galician fashion brand Adolfo Domínguez.
The knitwear venture is building an archive of different wool types and collaborates with artisans and seamstresses in Peru to create long-lasting clothes.
Knitbrary’s bespoke model allows clients to choose wool from a catalogue and assign it to a particular design.
— Sansoeurs
Following 18 months as an accesory designer at Zara, Cristina Sánchez branched out on her own fine-jewellery brand Sansoeurs. Her success continues to astound the region’s dwindling sector of jewellery setters.
Sansoeurs’ jewels are for sale at Multibrand shop Mixing, designed by architect Carlos Quintáns.
— Poe
Leticia Garnelo’s brand was born in 2009 after her mother and grandmother encouraged her to try her hand at fashion. Now Poe is sold in seven countries including Japan, France and the US.
Poe’s home. A repurposed stone cottage in the outlying town of Guísamo
Poe founder and designer Leticia Garnelo
— Costa Comunicación
Daniel Bembibre and David Silvosa are the owners of Costa, a design studio that does work for Inditex.
Press kit for Zara Home online shop opening in Japan
Armchair by Isaac Díaz Pardo, galician design pioneer and founder of Sargadelos ceramic industry
— Woodfeelings
Adriana Pardo López left Pull&Bear to focus on a furniture project with Yago Méndez.
Woodfeelings uses responsibly forested galician woods for their collection of tables and cabinets.
Emboldened by a secure position on Spain’s fashion map and united by their newfound confidence, A Coruña’s stream of young fashionistas are rejuvenating their region’s industrial fabric, one stitch at a time.
Please click here to read the whole story in Monocle´s site.