Jamie Beck and Kevin Burg, Photography, Video, Cinemagraphs, New York City
DELPOZO: feminine, organic & fresh
There are two currents of inspiration to creative director Josh Font’s DELPOZO fall / winter 2014 collection: Italian artist Duilio Barnabé and the novel “Logan’s Run” with its retro-futuristic esthetic. Always cognizant of fluidity and movement he finds a way to bring volume and couture quality into the contrasts of his collections. Last season we started this romance and once again, I am but swept away…
Being that the DELPOZO show images were among the most popular from all of my NYFW coverage (and I got such an intimate look at what it took to produce their show), I wanted to dig deeper into the collection, see these exquisite details and discover more behind the brand’s creative director Josep Font’s inspiration.
The saying “the devil’s in the details” may not hold true anymore…what is there now is Font. “At the end of the day, it’s the base and the foundation of this company,” he said. “Everything is high-quality, done by hand…not anything that’s cheap looking or thrown together. It’s all very thought out and strategic.”
It is easy to understand that when you consider Font’s background. Here is a man who went to school for architecture before going into fashion design, and despite his claims that it does not come into his work, you would be hard-pressed to find anyone who can’t see his former studies in his current collection. The flowing, billowing skirts of this collection, inspired by the Corot painting Gypsy Woman with a Tambourine, have an inner structure that took three times as long to make as their decorated outer shells. His other source of inspiration, the stained glass windows of Gothic cathedrals, also call to mind both structure and precise attention to detail. Though the sources of inspiration are quite different, they come together to make a stunning spring collection of bright colors, intricate details, and classic feminine shapes.
It comes as no surprise to us that Font is inspired by such beautiful art. With every piece pored over by hand, structured inside and out, they truly have become artistic masterpieces themselves.
“It’s not about the woman, or her age, or her body type. It’s about her attitude. It’s about the way she carries herself.”
– Josep Font
DELPOZO this season makes me thrilled to be a woman. Josep’s muses hold themselves with a certain elegance, an air of je ne sais quoi, while wearing some of the most perfectly crafted clothes I have ever seen in modern day. The seamless corsets that support airy, weightless-looking feminine tops blend perfectly into incredible volumed skirts that make me fantasize about laying in fields in the south of France.
While the clothes at times change the silhouette of a woman’s body, they also celebrate our lines and curves in a way we haven’t seen so often in recent times. I love how the high-waisted pants emphasize the small of a woman’s back, or how one can revel in their décolletage with an off-the-shoulder top.
Not only would I wear everything from this collection, I would love to live in the painterly world Josep Font has created, the masterpiece that is DELPOZO.
His journey began, as with many of us, with his mother. “She was high society, extremely elegant,” says creative director Josep Font. “So I was always around that type of dressing, style, and garments.”
However, when he told his father of his love of fashion, he replied, “What? That’s not a profession!” Font then chose to study architecture to appease his father. Near the end of his studies, he began designing on the side, sketching for his own enjoyment.
From there, things happened quite quickly – first sketches, then learning how to work with fabrics, winning awards and moving to Paris, followed by debuting his first collection as the head of the Spanish fashion house DELPOZO in Madrid three seasons ago with his New York Fashion Week debut just this past February.
DELPOZO began as the atelier of designer Jesús del Pozo in 1974 Madrid – built in the midst of “Movida”, both an economic upturn and the emergence of a new Spanish identity. While del Pozo was a driving force of this movement, his collections continue to thrive due to his dedication to luxury, creativity, and quality craftsmanship.
Now up for their second Fashion Week go-round, the DELPOZO team is more than prepared to live up to their founder’s values. Presenting Font’s second collection, one that is completely handcrafted and beautifully detailed, there’s no doubt that it will be a remarkable milestone on the journey of DELPOZO.
So much work goes into the production of a fashion show, here’s a peek at DELPOZO preparing for their day tomorrow at New York Fashion week…through hair and makeup tests, crews setting up the environment, and PR girls tweaking the seating charts, we know it will be a great show…
…and you know how much we love DELPOZO here at Ann Street Studio!
For a beautiful moment, a young muse was transformed, developing a sense of mysterious calm.
This clothing captured my imagination when I first saw the Spanish brand at NYFW. It was elegant and romantic while being ever so avant-garde. Delpozo’s history is as rich in story telling and fantasy as the clothing is today. The house has designed award-winning costumes for ballet and opera, tableware, and jewelry. The original designer Jesús del Pozo’s appreciation for all things beautiful was apparent in every venture he pursued.
You can see why I became so inspired to bring to life this character, this beauty and visually tell a story of a young princess tied to duty with every storm in life ahead of her but with the innocence that can only come from youth, a character I saw within the silhouettes of these pieces, through the eyes of our stunning model and the regal Chopard jewels.
Now creative director Josep Font is reinvigorating this well-known Spanish brand under the name DELPOZO and relaunching with more of a focus on high-end women’s clothing. I’m looking forward to photographing the new collection in just a few weeks when a fleet of models will glide down the runway in a whole new fantasy. While Font draws inspiration from many varied places, he is absolutely centered on connecting with women. As he said in an interview with ELLE:
“Women, like art, have no age.”
