The Spanish firm, which received the Honour Award at the 1st edition of the Spanish Fashion Academy Awards, will inaugurate an exhibition at the Lázaro Galdiano Museum next September, and will once again hold a fashion show in the heart of the city where its founder was born.
The Spanish fashion brand Pedro del Hierro, founded in Madrid in 1974, celebrates its 50th anniversary with a programme of activities that will highlight the cultural agenda this autumn 2024. Managed by Tendam -a leading company in the fashion sector- and present in 42 countries with around 300 points of sale, Pedro del Hierro is embarking on a journey that, starting next September, will inaugurate the cultural season with a retrospective exhibition and a fashion show that will take its creations back to the streets of Madrid, where its founder first presented his creations 50 years ago.
“The costume is nothing without the person who wears it. Fashion, clothing, is a language. A way of expressing oneself. Undoubtedly, what it reflects is the way of being of the person who wears it”. These words by Pedro del Hierro (1948-2015) reveal the essence of an exhibition that will be held at the Museo Lázaro Galdiano in Madrid from 10 September, inaugurating the exhibition season and coinciding with the cultural event Apertura Madrid Gallery Weekend. Curated by art historian Laura Cerrato and in collaboration with La Fábrica, the exhibition Pedro del Hierro: del maestro a la marca will explore the exciting career of a creator who burst onto the national industry in the mid-1970s, crowning himself as the youngest designer to join the Spanish Fashion Chamber at the age of 28. Far from limiting himself to designing haute couture with unaffordable patterns or prices, del Hierro championed made-to-measure collections combined with ready-to-wear aimed at a radically broad audience of women. As the years progressed, his garments – marked by an astute understanding of the female body, colour architecture and an unpredictable choice of fabrics – were a statement of intent to a country frantically entering a social transition to freedom.
The exhibition starts with his beginnings as a designer and moves on to his pioneering vision of linking up with commercial partners to take his garments to all of Spain. He would do so by associating with different business groups until he found in Tendam -then Grupo Cortefiel- a definitive ally in 1999, when he sold his eponymous firm. Since then, the theatricality of his catwalk designs – marked by an exquisite use of asymmetries and constant references to art – has coexisted with a conscious and rational adaptation of the garments that ended up in his multiple sales spaces. This alliance has been transformed into a subsequent legacy that, after the designer’s death in 2015, has been kept alive by successors such as the firm’s current creative directors, Nacho Aguayo and Álex Miralles. The exhibition, which will show garments and documents from the different creative stages of Pedro del Hierro, from his first creations to his consecration as a brand, will also be a retrospective look at an exciting creator and a celebration of the current relevance of the firm that bears his name. Proof of this is the recognition that the Spanish Fashion Academy gave to the firm on Thursday 13 June, presenting it with the Award of Honour as part of the 1st edition of the Spanish Fashion Academy Awards, whose gala was broadcast live on RTVE.
For the same reason, as part of Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Madrid, Pedro del Hierro will once again show in the heart of Madrid at a still-secret location in the capital. Both creators have sewn their contemporary references to winks of those cultural obsessions – from cinema to music, to the plastic arts – that populated the imaginary of Del Hierro. The result will be a collection that will see the light of day on Thursday 12 September.
