Francis Montesinos He has just been released after being arrested for alleged abuse of a minor. The lights and shadows of one of our most international designers, who in recent years has been persecuted by these accusations. The teenager who made his own shirts to go to the disco was later the young man who dressed and went to party with the stars of La Movida and is still today the designer who fills the Spanish catwalk with color and madness. Recently, Francis Montesinos was turning 50 in fashion breaking schemes, as he likes. Floral prints, Scottish checks, pinstripes that stand out on chiffon and cloth fabrics. The accessories, how could it be otherwise, are retro-style travel suitcases and ankle boots with a sheepskin interior. Prints that ‘predicted’ the Olympic Barcelona, of the Fallas, of paintings by Salvador Dalí or of religious relics. Women’s bullfighter dresses or sayas for men. His ‘Saragüells’. Tributes to García Lorca or Miguel Hernández. Montesinos has always led the way. His madness is his creativity.
“I discovered Ibiza in the 60s when I went to see my brother, who had set up a school there. I discovered that there was another Spain. Sex, drugs and rock and roll. I discovered that there was color, another way of being, of living, even the same fashion”, explained Francis Montesinos in his exhibition to celebrate the 50 years of his career. The adolescent who made his own shirts to go to the disco was later the young man who dressed and went to party with the stars of the Movida and continues to be today the designer who fills the Spanish catwalk with color and madness and who In an interview in 2008, he said that he liked undressing more than dressing.
With that perspective, Francis Montesinos began to make people talk from his shop with some unexpected allies: the Valencian ladies. “They went to weddings in Barcelona and Madrid and they were my ambassadors. From the most Catholic to the least Catholic,” she laughs. Among all, there was one: the former Minister of Culture Carmen Alborch. “It was a joy to meet her,” she assures as she seems to see her with every design she made for her. But you had to go where modernity was brewing and Montesinos moved to go out into the world. “Barcelona made me international, I owe it a lot. There I discovered textiles and I was lucky to make friends with the best weavers. Europe entered through there, it was the cosmopolitan city, the most modern in Spain”.
Paola Dominguín was his muse, and with that the vision of fashion that Francis Montesinos has is understood a little more.. She celebrated her 40 years in Spanish fashion at the then Cibeles Catwalk. Her spring-summer 2012 collection tried to merge her origins and her icons and featured some of her muses on the catwalk, such as Paola Dominguín, María Pineda, Estefanía Luyck and Helena Barquillo. A memory of what Spanish fashion was like back then.
