Shirt&Shoes - The Fashion Community

Below is the tale of my interview with Cortana designer Rosa Esteva. I interviewed Rosa and styled a fantastic Cortana shoot with the poignat art/ documentary photographer Jordi Pizzaro/ Pizzaro studio and a Barcelonian muse, the lovely Clara Munoz. We shot at Raim , a vintage cuban bar open since 1886 in the Gracia district of Barcelona. The next time Buena Vista Social Club is in town you will be sure to find them at Raim. If you make it to Barcelona you MUST go to Raim. Its as real as it gets.

CANDID ROSA: A Fashion Story in Pictures AND Words

Traveling through Barcelona I had the great pleasure of interviewing one of Spain’s most talented and aesthically fluid designers, Rosa Esteva of the label Cortana. Rosa, a spiritual gift of the gods to the fashion/industry, is originally from Mallorca, Spain’s largest autonomous island. The freedom, peace and love into which her island socialized her is immediately apparent in Rosa’s stunning pieces and also shines through to the environment created in her three stores in Mallorca,Barcelona and Madrid. Of herself Rosa says, “I am a country girl in the big city of Barcelona. I miss Mallorca very much but Mallorca is inside me. I carry it with me everywhere. Mallorca is always a foundational inspiration for my designs.”

When I ask Rosa what Cortana, her label represents to her; she tells me that Cortana is her way to send ideas that stem from her roots out to the universe and to its people. “Cortana is my dream of beauty, a representation of my state of my mind. Cortana is where I fly and create an elegant beauty. It is sharing the world in my head with the rest of the world. It is very honest.”

Rosa’s deep connection to her roots has fueled an unabashed desire within her to conserve artisanal methods in creating her pieces. Cortana does not outsource any of its production. All of the fabric used for the label except for the cashmere, come from Spain. The cashmere Rosa is now forced to get from Italy. Rosa places much importance in the Spanish artisanal way of creating clothes. She does not want to compromise on this principle despite the reality that a large part of the Spanish garment industry has moved out of Spain to countries like China and Bangladesh, countries that globalization has crowned with the comparative advantage throne.

Rosa however, continues to fight tooth and nail to retain her standards and to continue to use fabrics from Spain in order to attain and present the quality of clothes she is most comfortable with putting out there, the best quality. When I ask Rosa how she would adapt to the possibility of all the factories leaving Spain or unbearable comparative marginal costs of continuing to produce in Spain, she outlines her philanthropic desire to open a school for women who have been marginalized by the rapid outsourcing that has taken place in the Spanish garment industry. “I want to create an haute couture school to reintegrate these women back into society, give them a chance to use their skills again.” According to Rosa, most former female Spanish garment industry workers have been forced to take up menial domestic jobs in the new world economy. Specialized garment industry workers in Spain, most of whom never had any formal education apart from the apprenticeships that gave them a particular skill, have been robbed of their livelihoods because of the global bottom lines of companies. In the olden days when one apprenticed, the idea was that one would work that particular job for life and be the best at it. Hence the high quality of the final product made by a set of specialized hands as opposed to an outsourced product. The pride was there.

At this exact moment in her professional trajectory however, Rosa has expansion in mind. She has recently added an E –commerce component to her business model. When it comes to Internet shopping Rosa’s face lights up. “I love shopping online. It’s so nice to get a sort of present in the mail. A box with something in it that you have never touched. A big surprise!” Rosa does admit however that her Spanish clientele has been tepid vis a vis online shopping. They just haven’t quite caught on yet. “I understand the beauty of trying things on and feeling the fabric on the skin, “ says Rosa. However she does encourage buying her basics online. Her tulle basics (cardigans, shirts, dresses) can be tailored to the shopper. Most come in 50 different colors and are made to fit.

Expansion of her label is integral to its survival. Ms Esteva also has her eyes on the New York market but is undecided about what road to take in the Big Apple. She is wrestling with whether to have her line sold in a department store or whether to open her own autonomous space. Not having her own store would mean giving up the environmental control of how her pieces are sold. To Rosa, environment is very key since it is the medium through which she can present herself honestly even if remotely.

I mention to her that department stores usually also have their own store labels which tend to lift ideas from other designers that they sell on their floors. In response to this Rosa says: “That is not a problem for me. It is actually a form of flattery. I am not worried because the ideas will always come. Only I am in my head. It is impossible to control such a thing.” Rosa’s confidence and generosity are the qualities that made me just want to stand up and ask her hand to dance around her ethereal store. I felt like I was in my favorite fairy tale that I always knew existed somewhere but was finally articulated and structurally created for me. Truly sublime. Thank you for a wonderful afternoon Rosa.