Four standout designers putting Barcelona on the map

If you thought fashion month starts with New York and ends with Paris, think again. 080 Barcelona Fashion Week began in 2007 and has been rising the ranks since, joining the likes of Shanghai, Copenhagen and Berlin Fashion week as one of the new unmissable spots on our ever-inflating schedule. The four-day event showcases emerging and established designers working in and around Spain, placing onus on local craft – it’s not just lip service, believe us – firmly pin-dropping the city and northeastern Spain on the cultural map.

This season marked 080 Barcelona’s 34^th fashion week, and saw the Art Nouveau landmark, Modernista Recinte de Sant Pau, transformed into a beacon of style from 14^th to 17^th October. Designed by Catalan starchitect Lluís Domènech i Montaner in the early 20^th century, the UNESCO site brought out the best in Spanish-based talents, showcasing everyone from Madrid’s Fatima Miñana, Reparto and Barca native, Zoe Oms.

It was refreshing to see such a spectacular yet homegrown affair unfold – especially given the costs involved with staging a fashion show. To do it abroad in Paris or London just isn’t an option for some.

Still, SS25 in la ciudad condal delivered, offering all the catwalk drama and energy, plus press and buyers in their droves – including our very own roving reporter, Snake Denton.

Here are four designers whose talent caught our eyes.

According to David Méndez Alonso, founder of the technicolour dream brand, Outsiders Division, growing up is overrated. ​“I’ve always been inspired by the world of children seen by someone older,” says David of his designs, which span crocheted tops – dotted with daisies, spiderwebs and sunflowers – and cutesy cow-print knitted polos with oversized Bo Peep collars.

With a palette recalling a regional trampoline park, the fine arts and art direction graduate of Elisava School of Design and Engineering presented his first collection at Madrid Fashion Week in 2016. The label, however, began in an art gallery in Barcelona in 2012.

The designer’s references span graffiti and comics, or failing that, anything with a youth-led skew. For him, it’s about ​“that grandfather who still dresses like a child – the tension between two worlds that don’t usually touch.”

As a teen, David tagged Outsiders Division wherever he went, and today balances those same enfant terrible antics with an eye for fauvism. That explains his pantone. So, who’s in his reference pool? The American filmmaker and photographer Gus Van Sant, for one.

But there’s also a broader nostalgia at play fuelling his work. At a time when runways are increasingly defined by their commercial appeal and muted hues, David’s scribbled and scrapbooked approach is overdue. ​“Even if it is not done on purpose, producing clothes with so many colours in a world of greys and beiges is a revolutionary act,” he affirms.

The Central Saint Martins and Istituto Europeo di Design graduate, Carlota Barrera, pushes sartorial traditions into new forms, reinventing household staples with a cool, cut-out and intricate touch. Her eponymous brand leans into deconstruction, all while honing cut and shape so that the garms never look anything less than deliberate and finished. Indeed, she uses only the most painstaking production methods.

Treating the male body as her creative springboard, the designer concocts luxurious, crisp shirting reconfigured to reveal peeks of skin. Adiós, starchy dress shirts. Hola, silky, ivory or mercurial grey numbers that literally float and dance as the wearer walks. Sticking to an understated colour wheel, she treats garments with restraint, relying on the time-tested appeal of menswear favourites. Double-breasted blazers come with a woodgrain finish, while easygoing, drop-shoulder blouses arrive in deadstock reworks.

Throughout, the designer’s soft, queer gaze adds something unique to the otherwise gentile templates. These subtleties – an insert here, an apron buckle there – become all the more powerful when held in relief to her skills as a craftswoman. Since conceiving her brand in 2018, the designer has gone on to receive Vogue Spain​’s 2019 Fashion Fund and the Madrid Capital de Moda award in 2022. Well deserved, if you ask us.

Dominnico was founded in 2016 by Domingo Rodríguez Lázaro, treading the line between early noughts’ sass and an André Courrèges-esque space age appeal. ​“Collections always have a theme, a trend, a common thread that responds to a global feeling,” says the Alicante-born designer. ​“But above all, I believe at Dominnico, we create a space where like-minded peoples’ voices are amplified and appreciated, creating a community of individuals who can express themselves freely.” To Lázaro’s point, the brand has fallen seamlessly into queer nightlife scenes and it-girl techno parties, becoming the ventilated uniform of choice.

Domingo had dreamed of being a designer since they were young – ​“looking back, I’ve achieved what I was striving for,” they share – but it took serious graft. No handouts. And yes, despite their designs having appeared on the likes of Mia Khalifa and Beyoncé during her Renaissance World Tour, the designer is still humble enough to shout out their team.

One thing is clear: their crossover of meticulous pattern-cutting, sexy, shredded denims and flurries of white lace and puffball boots – think anime girl meets biker – is giving attitude with a capital‑A. As for the apple-bottom jeans and neon PVCs laced along the flanks? These are a must for any trance-revival raver.

Made in Spain, Habey Club is all about the details. Conceived by Javier Zunzunegui and David Salvador Rupérez, the label applies directional twists to everyday fare, turning, say, a classic peplum, into demi-couture. Here, hems are ruched – reminiscent of florets – or stiffened for a sculptural bent. Camisoles come as beds of roses, teamed with mohair panties. Cute!

This season isn’t the first time Habey Club has shown at 080 Barcelona Fashion. Since their debut at the event for SS23, they’ve blown up, catching co-signs from names like Rosalía. Did we mention the pair were finalists for Vogue Spain​’s 2023 Fashion Fund?

Habey Club’s complex garments often come in subdued hues of beige, white and grey, charged with the odd pop of colour. But this is only because it’s in their creative treatment that the pair shine. Hugging maxi dresses knot ever so slightly across the collarbone, sinuous overcoats are darted on the ribs and the most adorable micro-bags are constructed in Cantabria for that artisanal finesse.

Cinema is also a motif in the collections – implicit or otherwise. For AW24, the dark comedy Sick of Myself, which tells the tale of a neurotic wife, served as a fil rouge, giving crimson revenge dresses an added air of vitriol. Very main-character energy! SS25? More where that came from.