Empordaguia

She shows her collections every year at Cibeles. Now she has teamed up with Suárez to present her new collection of jewellery, romantic compositions with a trace of Victorian spirit, yet as feminine and delicate as her clothes. Lydia is a woman with ingenuity, and is often inspired by the Empordà, where she has her refuge.

Lydia Delgado is an artist who likes to dream yet has both feet firmly on the ground. Her collections are among the most personal, delicate and sensual in the world of Spanish fashion. Her distinctive designs are full of contrasts; they are cinematically Mediterranean, sophisticated, elegant, and straightforward. The designer transmits her sense of humour to her creations; she smiles widely when speaking of things she is passionate about. Her large oval eyes shine when she remembers her childhood summers in Tamariu, the beach bars made of cane, the barely developed promenade with coloured lamps where you could dine on fish and build bonfires, and where you drank cremat as the band Los huecos played the guitar.

What did those summers in Tamariu mean to you?
I remember the atmosphere of the sea as paradise, the smell signified happiness to me. To wake up to the chugging noise of the motorboats was to enter a paradise full of novelties and emotions. I would go about as if discovering a desert isle. I remember the nights, the stars, and the candles: this is a world that is ever present. The beautiful girls wore coloured bikinis that fascinated me, and the young men, also very attractive, would come down to the beach in Bermuda shorts and woollen jerseys, just as in films of the Riviera. I never thought I’d become a designer, yet I believe that today I strive to bring to life the feelings of those days.

You create new collections quickly. What other things inspire you?
Film, photography, art; I like nearly everything and enjoy life a lot. I get into a great mood when I go to a bar alone for a cup of tea. I love the customs of villagers, and I can dive into a book about Mexico and let it permeate me for hours. I could spend the rest of my life travelling, happily drawing and taking photos. In any case, the world of fashion is difficult, and the speed with which collections are presented is crazy. You can lose your essence or your freedom because too much is happening. So now I’m trying to create smaller collections, like I did in the early days. That gives me peace, and the time to enjoy each piece I create, as well as to do other things.

Which are your favourite places in the Empordà?

I think the Empordà has developed badly, and politicians disgust me. I can understand that we spoil things a little, because that’s the way the world is and because humans are brainless and lack sensitivity. Yet we could progress with more respect for our environment. I have been here all my life, yet often I don’t recognize the place I am at. They are obsessed here with new roads and bypasses. Where a bypass is built becomes a fundamental question. And at each bypass they’ve placed the biggest signs I’ve ever seen with the biggest writing, as if we were blind. Simply everything is signposted. I don’t understand politicians: all they do is talk about identity, yet they systematically destroy the ground we stand on, our basic element of identity. Only those rocky places they can’t reach and destroy remain for us to dream in; they are remains of a dream with limpid waters. I only hope those last marvellous places survive. Measure is important in everything: we have too many clothes, too many roads, and too many houses. Perhaps the present crisis will bring things back to a more human level.// TERESA CASANOVAS