The Haute Couture shows closed at the beginning of July in Paris, but, if you're travelling to Spain for your holidays and you’re heading towards Getaria, you will be able to enjoy a wonderful high fashion exhibition.
"Josep Font. Belleza e Inquietud" (Josep Font. Beauty and Restlessness) at Cristóbal Balenciaga Museum (until January 7th, 2024 – take a note as you could also organise your visit around Christmas), marks the return of the Spanish couturier on the fashion designer since leaving Delpozo.
Featuring 54 designs from 1987 to 2011 (among the others coats, daywear and cocktail, evening and bridal gowns, plus accessories and perfumes), the exhibition traces the trajectory of the fashion designer, from his early beginnings to his career at Delpozo.
The title of the exhibition comes from Font's personal motto, "Behind beauty, there is always restlessness". Indeed, beauty, in all its splendour, often produces restlessness, even uneasiness, a feeling that has been driving Font's ceaseless quest to achieve it.
Font first studied architecture at the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya to please his father, but secretly nurtured his passion for fashion, teaching and using the income to finance his studies at the Escola de Disseny i Moda Felicidad Duce in Barcelona.
In 1987, he began showcasing his collections with Luz Díaz with whom he co-founded the brand Mapamundi. Eventually, the two departed and Font embarked on a solo career.
Font's career flourished in Barcelona, Madrid, and Paris, where he presented both ready-to-wear and Haute Couture collections.
The designer also returned to architecture for a one-off collaboration: in 1998, he co-designed the Cliper Sofa for Enrico Astori's Italian brand Driade with architect Òscar Tusquets.
However, in 2011, disagreements emerged between Font and his fashion company, resulting in his departure from his eponymous label. The following year Font took up the legacy of Jesús del Pozo at the house he had established in Madrid.
Glorious years followed with a strong presence in New York. Yet, in 2018, Font left the brand and disappeared.
Leaving behind the frenetic pace of Madrid, escaped to Canary Island where he kept on quietly working and collaborating anonymously with various companies, living in seclusion and enjoying not being in the spotlight.
Reluctant at first about an exhibition about himself as he claims not to have enough ego for such a thing, Font was eventually convinced by the determination and admiration of Josep Casamartina i Parassols and the possibility of exhibiting at the Cristóbal Balenciaga Museum.
As a child Font would hear his mother talk about Cristóbal Balenciaga and Pedro Rodríguez, with whom he later took a draping course, so, exhibiting at the museum also held a symbolic meaning for him.
A historian and critic of art, fashion, and architecture, Casamartina is also the director and vice-president of the Antoni de Montapalau Foundation, an entity created in 2004 for the study and promotion of historical fashion that preserves over 17,500 items of clothing and is considered one of the most important collections of this type in Spain.
Casamartina is also an avid fashion collector and has nearly 200 pieces designed by Font. While his passion convinced Font, the designer also made it clear that if they were going to proceed with the exhibition, it had to be meticulously organized.
Putting together this exhibition wasn't easy, but for Font it was a bit like opening a box of memories.
Working at Delpozo, he would create one collection after another and quickly forget about them. Going through the designs while preparing this event meant that he could go through them again, rediscovering the creations.
The exhibition is organized into three narrative axes, each introduced by a photograph. The first room, with a photograph by Joseph Hunwick, showcases Font's beginnings when he started with designer Luz Díaz creating a sober aesthetic in subdued colours, and leads to the room where the pieces Josep Font created for his own label, both ready-to-wear and haute couture, are mixed together.
Designs from the ’90s show a minimalist austerity, but also a passion for luxurious materials. Architecture remains the foundation of his work, after all if you don't have a strong foundation everything else collapses and Font knows it very well. That is why he first mastered this part, then worked on the embellishments.
Gradually Font moved to more complex designs that also incorporated embroidered elements conceived by the designer as brushstrokes. By the end of the decade, Font took a new direction, including in his designs lace, exquisite three-dimensional and beaded embroideries and lavish, and sophisticated fabrics.
A photograph by Javier Biosca introduces visitors to Font's Delpozo years, when he engaged in a dialogue with fashion from the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries, while creating a personal and poetic universe.
In this period he combined his passion for Balenciaga and his volumes with a variety of inspirations, from Paul Poiret to the close companion of Gustav Klimt, Emilie Flöge, from Russian painter Andrey Remnev (a coat from the A/W 2015-16 collection was inspired by his work – Remnev was so happy about the collection that wanted to give Font one of his paintings) to German artist Josef Albers.
Many merely copied Balenciaga, but Font went beyond the Spanish couturier, using him as the starting point to develop his own personal interpretation based on the study of volume, architectural construction, and fabric ornamentation.
The third photograph by Ernesto Artillo leads visitors to the conclusion with carefully selected dresses and coats going from a superb black-on-black coat to an almost ethereal dress made of green and gold tulle that appeared in Bergdorf Goodman's shop window in New York during Christmas 2015.
The exhibition proves that Font embodied Balenciaga's famous saying that "a couturier must be an architect for design, a sculptor for shape, a painter for colour, a musician for harmony, and a philosopher for temperance."
Lots of people have seen Delpozo clothing in fashion shows or on celebrities, but the event allows to see the designs close-up and discover how they are constructed, how the colours and fabrics are combined and how they fall on the body. Besides, one of the point that visitors are invited to consider is the fact that creativity comes from hard work, but also from the absence of undue pressures too often imposed on contemporary designers.
Speculations about Font's potential comeback circulate, but their veracity remains uncertain. In the past he declined offers to head prominent fashion houses, believing he wasn't prepared for such a role. Now, equipped with the necessary readiness, the industry has shifted its attention towards star designers and celebrities, potentially leaving Font unsure if he would fit into this new landscape that prioritizes rapid success over the cultivation of a unique creative language at one's own pace.
Time will tell if Font will return on the fashion scene. In the meantime, for the museum, the event inaugurates a series of exhibitions that will take visitors to discover Cristóbal Balenciaga's legacy in contemporary fashion creation.
Hopefully this new line of exhibition content will not only allow us to explore the work of international designers who have drawn inspiration from Balenciaga to develop their own styles, but also shed light on innovative techniques they may have introduced.
Image credits for this post
1 – 3. A/W 2015, Vibrant paintings by Rhys Lee and Andrey Remnev combined with Pre-Raphaelite works inspired this collection, New York. Private collection
4 – 5. S/S 2017, Soo Sunny Park, New York. Private collection
11 – 13. A/W 2013, Arquitectura Orgánica, New York. Private collection
14. S/S 2009, Mirando al mar, Haute Couture, Paris. Fundació Antoni de Montpalau
15 – 17. S/S 2015, Josef Albers, New York. Fundació Antoni de Montpalau
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