MADRID, Feb 25, (APP/AFP) – The Queen of
Spain’s favourite designer Felipe Varela made a stunning comeback
to his native Madrid this week with a daring collection that
mixed peekaboo and plunging necklines with metal and
Swarovski — but in his trademark impeccable style.
Varela first took part in the Madrid Fashion Week in 1996
but stayed away from the city’s catwalks for 14 years and his
return was the highlight of the event.
The intensely private designer is the preferred couturier
of Queen Letizia, a former journalist who has donned his suits
and gowns several times — a fact painstakingly followed by
glossies and newspapers the world over.
The British press noted this month that the
43-year-old perennially chic royal sported a snazzy red Varela
skirt suit for a fourth time recently.
She had first worn it on an official trip to New York
in 2009. The head turners from Varela’s latest showing
included a white wool crepe jacket with an eye-popping red fox
fur collar and clingy decollete gowns with bold thigh-high
slits that recreated the glamour of Hollywood’s golden era.
Peekaboo net jackets were embellished with metal and
fur and lingerie-style dresses with 1960s hemlines with an
aluminium look — harking back to Paco Rabanne creations from
that epoch.
The 2016-2017 autumn-winter “Crystal Army” collection also
has an abundance of glittering baubles — 185,000 of them
and mostly Swarovski — but does not descend into bling.
That is one of the reasons why he is favoured by
the intensely stylish Spanish royal, whose wardrobe is keenly
followed by fashionistas around the world.
“It is very difficult to separate the classical and very
chic” style of the queen and Varela, said Laura Luceno, a
professor at Madrid’s Higher School of Fashion Design.
The queen became a new royal fashion icon after her
husband’s June 19, 2014 coronation, featuring in global glossies as
a style idol and trendsetter.
She appears to champion mainly Spanish designers who
base their houses in the country rather than those who operate
from abroad, like Balenciaga, Manolo Blahnik and Paco Rabanne.
“Letizia is also drawn to him because he is discreet,” said
Luceno of the designer who shuns smart parties and can
slip incognito through the streets of Madrid.
Varela, who divides his time between Madrid and Paris — where
he had worked for Dior, Lanvin and Mugler — appeared at the end
of his Madrid show, dressed in a black suit and sporting sunglasses.