Fashion is an indispensable phenomenon to know society. Fundamental historical data transcend clothing, as revealed by the History of fashion in Spain. From the Mantilla to the Bikini (Waterfall), by the historian Ana Velasco Molpeceres, who maintains that "dressing is defining an identity", individual and collective. From the splendor of Spanish fashion with the Habsburgs to the Zara phenomenon, passing through the figures of the chulapos or Eugenia de Montijo, the evolution of national dress permeates (and is permeated by) the country's social, political and cultural changes.

Graduated in Journalism, graduated in Art History and in Geography and History and PhD in Spanish, the author is specialized in studies on fashion, social change, contemporary history and media. In this essay, she explains the particularities of Spanish fashions and how they are useful to understand the changes in mentality.

What garments has left the history of Spanish fashion?

The Iberian Peninsula has a rich clothing tradition. Some garments that have marked the appearance for centuries in the West originate from it. The executioner, a skirt armed with hoops that emerged at the end of the 15th century, is key, because until the 19th century, and even in the 20th, it defined the appearance of women. The blanket is also very important.

In men's fashion, the black Spanish suit was fundamental in Europe with the Habsburgs, and it is likely that there is something in these ways in the current men's suit. Finely worked Spanish leather, esparto grass, embroidery and lace are also very famous.

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At what time and how have politics and fashion been most closely related?

Their relationship is constant. They cannot be separated because fashion speaks of identity, of how we recognize ourselves and are recognized. By connecting with luxury, it is related to social class, mobility or statism and the representation of power. In the Old Regime this relationship was stronger.

Now, the influence of the counterculture and of democratization and industrialization allow us to dress, to a certain extent, outside of those issues. National and class boundaries have been erased, because tastes that are not elitist (T-shirts, jeans, tattoos) have become popular. At the same time, the influence of politics on fashion is also very high today, since it affects questions of gender and class. From this point of view, perhaps the politicization is greater than ever, since everything is read in a political key.

Modern fashion arose around the 14th or 15th centuries. With the bourgeoisie, being fashionable becomes important

To what extent has fashion been synonymous with status and class difference? When did this circumstance end?

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By being related to the demonstration of power, fashion was very soon linked to the elites and the dynamics of social ascension. Many experts consider that it is in the Age of Metals when this process takes shape, as some proto-states with elites that control luxury goods and interact throughout Europe emerge. On the other hand, modern fashion arose around the 14th or 15th centuries. With the bourgeoisie and the emergence of novelties, being fashionable becomes important.

Today it is still a form of class differentiation, although, due to the influence of social movements, democratization and counterculture, it is really impossible to know what social class someone is. You can have millions and be tattooed from head to toe, in Adidas, ripped jeans and a T-shirt, or be the last in line.

The liberal revolutions of the early 19th century marked a break for men that, in the case of women, lasted until the Great War or even World War II. But probably the big break will come with the age of plastic and the Cold War.

Pieces such as false hips were cause for excommunication. What has been the relationship of the Church with fashion?

The Church and political power have interfered in fashion. But no one paid attention to the sumptuary laws. In fact, to find out what was taken, it is generally enough to see what was prohibited, since those laws were systematically disobeyed. The Church tried to ensure decency, against waste and sensuality, which it continues to do.

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Those majos/chulapos today are seen as part of Madrid's popular culture. You maintain that your draft was deeper.

Although normally one seeks to imitate the elites, at various times popular tastes have been in fashion. In the eighteenth century, majismo was a crucial phenomenon. The court liked to imitate the Madrid majos. His influence was such that the bullfighter's suit and even the bullfighting that we know today come from that time. Another moment, more linked to the chulapas, would come at the end of the 19th century due to the influence of the zarzuela.

What does the mantilla mean in Spanish fashion?

It is an icon of the Spanish. It is a rich cloak that became fashionable around the 17th century, as opposed to the coat that women wore on the street (cloaks that covered them entirely, revealing only one eye and hands). This fostered disorders and was condemned, in various laws, promoting the mantilla.

On the other hand, the mantilla is associated with bullfights and Holy Week, since from the 19th century it lost influence over hats, and its use was reduced to those contexts, let's say traditional. That is why today it is also seen as "typical Spanish", although its history is much more interesting. However, it is true that it is a symbol of women and the Spain of before. As in all stereotypes, there is something true in this association with black Spain. But also a lot of myth.

The Franco regime paralyzed the future of fashion. Eva Perón's visit in 1947 marked a turning point. Because?

The dictatorship was extremely pernicious for the economy. Franco, as much as there is talk of the "Spanish economic miracle" in the sixties, it did not mean prosperity. The forties were very hard, the industry was destroyed. The Second World War prevented that, if there had been production, it could have been exported, and there was no internal market in the country either.

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What did the sixties mean for Spanish fashion?

Internationally, a modernization of the appearance. In Spain, a relaxation of national-Catholic morality and an openness to international trends, the new sociability and the youthful culture typical of the Cold War. The bikini is a symbol of modernization, although without forgetting that this was the interested discourse of the dictatorship.

How can we not be a first class country if people dress like in foreign movies? Fashion was ambivalent on that. The Spanish seemed modern, but they were not. The dictatorship was enormously repressive. That is why in the eighties there was another display of modernity in clothing and manners, against the sociological Francoism that was relatively comfortable or compromised with bikinis and jeans.

Which Spanish fashion figure is your favourite?

I admire Eugenia de Montijo. He understood that fashion was political, and made of itself a form of promotion for the Second Empire. Mantillas became fashionable in France, which curiously in Spain were seen as not very modern, since French was preferred.

His figure is undervalued, despite the fact that he did many things. The fashion industry as we understand it today was built around it, and it was an Englishman, Worth, who extended that model. In 2020 the centenary of her death was celebrated, and I think it is necessary to remember her, insisting on her notion of political fashion.