Merino wool will be the protagonist of the arts and fashion in Madrid with ‘Merino: El Oro Español’, a dance and fashion show created and organized by Oteyza. The prestigious Madrid-based fashion company presented last Thursday at the Eduardo Úrculo Auditorium in Madrid its next artistic and cultural project with a primary objective: to put Merino wool on center stage, and never better said.
The event was also attended by various representatives of the Ministry of Agriculture and the delegate of the Government Area of Economy, Innovation and Employment, Miguel Ángel Redondo. As it could not be less, also in attendance were representatives of the National Association of Merino Cattle Breeders, Fernando Soto Martorell, president of the association, and Antonio Granero, Executive Secretary. After the presentation of the show, there was also a wine tasting and an exquisite selection of Merino sheep cheese.
Oteyza, awarded with the Madrid Fashion Capital Award 2021, honoring its essence and raison d’être, wants to extol Spanish roots and tradition once again. honoring its essence and raison d’être, wants to extol the Spanish roots and tradition once again, preparing for it a show by Antonio Najarro, choreographer and former director of the National Ballet of Spain. Since breaking the mold with the historic runway show at Mercedes Benz Fashion Week Madrid, the firm returns to the stage with a unique proposal that combines modernity with avant-garde designs and contemporary dance, with traditional elements of Spanish clothing and classical dance. All this being the Merino element on which this show is woven, figuratively and literally speaking.
Merino wool, a seal of quality and tradition
The
Merino is and always will be one of the raw materials
100% Spanish raw materials, not only at a productive level, but also at a historical and cultural level. Oteyza wants to make this clear in this new project in which he has counted on the presence of the National Association of Merino Cattle Breeders, collaborator and precursor of the hallmark of this new work. In the words of association director Fernando de Soto Martorell, “Merino wool has always been Spanish gold. It has financed art, wars and other enterprises for a long time. Between the 12th and 13th centuries it was like oil”. The task now is to recover this sometimes forgotten value, and to give Merino wool the prominence it deserves. Especially at a time when questionable quality and synthetic fibers are replacing the value and tradition of such a unique product as Merino wool.
For this reason, projects such as those of Paul García de Oteyza and Caterina Pañeda ‘s firm become necessary in the recovery of an ancestral breed such as the Merino. Merino: Spanish Gold’ is an innovative concept that combines tradition and culture with the new times. This concept connects generations, sectors and mentalities to progress without ever forgetting where we come from. The show, which aims to return to those roots, to the shepherding, to the countryside, is a perfect bridge to bring to all such a unique Spanish tradition through the aesthetics and splendor of fashion, always reflected in a firm that takes care of quality and style, and makes the perfect symbiosis of before and now.
Dance and Merino wool, united by fashion
At the event held last week, an appetizer of the show that will take place next year was enjoyed. Choreographer Antonio Najarro celebrated his collaboration with Oteyza as an interesting and unseen challenge, in which the parade becomes a dance full of tradition, elegance and many modernist touches. Its objective is to represent the Spanish regional dance in its maximum avant-garde, going through the creation of the fabric of the material through the most refined dances and counting on the best dancers of Spain. Unfolding of Oteyza’s characteristic layers of wool, the sound of castanets, symmetrical movements, flamenco and electronic music, are part of the bewitching scenography that could be seen last week and that will be seen in the show next year.
Najarro’s proposal is a journey to the origins and roots of Spain, to pastoralism, to folkloric dance. “Creating a complete show for stage based on Spanish fashion and Merino wool for me was a very striking challenge,” says the choreographer, who is already underway with the staging, which will be a passage through many characteristics that accompany Spanish dance, such as origin, tradition, roots, folklore, animals or shepherding.