Cristina Pedroche's dress in the chimes recreates a dragonfly (and is a piece from the Manuel Piña Museum)
For this new edition of the most commented dress every January 1 in our country, Cristina Pedroche and Josie, in charge of the creative direction of styling, have not only chosen an impressive dress: they have chosen a museum piece. The dress that the presenter has worn to ring the bells on Antena 3 and start 2022 is a piece from the spring-summer 1991 collection of Manuel Piña, the late designer who marked the Movida Madrileña and whose figure is honored at the Manuel Piña Museum of Manzanares (Ciudad Real). However, first we must talk about the obvious: the styling is reminiscent of a dragonfly and even a beetle, a symbol of the disappeared brand of La Mancha.
"This is a look that revolves around a museum piece," Josie tells Yo Dona exclusively. "This dress from the past (Manuel Piña spring-summer 1991) seeks to return to the present and train you in a contemporary look typical of 2022, and for this it dialogues with a winged cape by BUJ Studio and the steel accessories by Manuel Albarrán . It is a look tribute to Manuel Piña, an honorary prime-time tribute to one of the most powerful fashion creators of the eighties generation, whose work we have seen hidden behind many designs created by more contemporary brands that have made him appealing again, although without crediting him ", keep going.
In this sense, the Museum carries out unavoidable conservation and dissemination work, which is now enhanced thanks to this event. "For the Manuel Piña de Manzanares Museum it is a very exciting project and a very important boost for the dissemination of the figure of Manuel Piña, which is what we work for," Dona Julián Nieva, Mayor of Manzanares, tells Yo. "It is obvious that an event like this, with such an incredible audience, is the best showcase and loudspeaker that we could have to make it known to the general public, for whom Manuel Piña, who died 27 years ago, is a great unknown. Although not It is no longer a festive moment, Cristina Pedroche has ensured that her broadcast of the chimes, through fashion, always has a message. This year, moreover, it has become a tribute to one of the greats of Spanish fashion" .
"There is a very personal component in all this due to the origins that link me to the self-taught genius from La Mancha, whom I had the honor of meeting when I was a child..." explains Josie. "It has been an immense luck to be able to claim her figure in an event with a maximum audience whose exposure has been growing during six years of work with Cristina Pedroche. I could not miss the opportunity to spread fashion for this maximum audience, which surely has not been aware of the importance of this creator in general and in 2022 in particular; since designers from all over the planet are beginning to review silhouettes very similar to those that Manuel Piña cultivated during his career".
The choice of this piece and the theme that forms the backbone, which is none other than the metamorphosis of insects, represents a qualitative leap for Pedroche and his team, who stand not only as a metaphor for a long-awaited general transformation, but also with disseminators of a fashion far from the big urban centers. Culture happens on the margins.
"All of us responsible for this action have updated the inspiration in the metamorphosis of insects and we have followed his original sketch [by Manuel Piña] so that a kind of post-pandemic firefly brings us light and hope through Cristina Pedroche, with her energy unique," develops Josie. "There is past, present and future in a look that I am convinced will not leave anyone indifferent." And precisely for this reason, these are all the details of Cristina Pedroche's look.
Cristina Pedroche's dress
"The Manuel Piña was made in 1990 and belongs to its Manzanares Museum, where it will return to be exhibited during 2022 with this New Year's trouseau that invites you to visit museums like this one, those that escape the cultural circuit of the big capitals," says Josie for Yo Dona. The technical coordinates are as exceptional as the fact that in an "event with maximum audience and fanciful characteristics" a "tourist-cultural call" is made (as Josie comments). The first thing to consider? The material.
The dress is piece I.0116 from the La Mancha museum, a transparent design made of openwork and metallic taffeta; a choice made by the designer in 1990 to illustrate the metamorphosis of insects, their rebirth after leaving their chrysalis. Additionally, the garment is finished with metal rivets that create a beetle shell, the logo of a now-defunct brand. An image that symbolizes the necessary transformation in these uncertain times and that, in addition, is finished off by the cape made by BUJ Studio and the accessories by Manuel Albarrán.
The cape of Cristina Pedroche's look
The second most outstanding piece of the night was carried out by BUJ Studio, a brand specializing in experimental fashion and 3D designs launched by the fashion designer and architect Raquel Buj. The theme was clear: metamorphosis. The challenge, too: that the layer dialogue with the piece by Manuel Piña and sublimate it.
"Manuel Piña's works are fascinating and I find them very contemporary," Buj tells Yo Dona. "We have dialogued with the work of Manuel Piña in many aspects, both material and conceptual. Experimentation with new materials and Manuel Piña's artistic vision of fashion are fascinating to me and are the basis of our work. In my studio we experiment with all kinds of of materials, in many cases rescued from other disciplines, we work with artisanal and technological techniques to generate new materials that are more sensitive to others and to the environment", comments the designer.
"The Manuel Piña dress that Cristina wears in the chimes is made with a very interesting material, a kind of transparent mesh with metallic and iridescent tones whose volumes are inspired by the skin of an insect," she continues. "For the design of the cape that covers the dress, we reused some materials from our studio that dialogued with the iridescent material of the dress. We mixed it with various techniques and materials to confer an organic and changing texture inspired by the reference of the insect on the dress of Manuel Piña We have learned a lot from the work of Manuel Piña, working in turn, along the same lines as the studio, building new, more sensitive skin for the cape." Once the conceptual requirements have been completed, it is time to attend to the technicians. 580 hours of work through (250 hours for 3D pencil, 150 hours of handling heat, 150 hours of handling materials, manufacturing and 30 hours of laser cutting).
"The structure to attach the wings to each other and to the body of the cape was an interesting challenge," says Buj. "On the one hand, the wings couldn't be too heavy so they wouldn't collapse under their own weight, but they also had to be self-supporting. We looked at the interesting design of the dragonfly and butterfly wings, light and strong. We digitally drew its shape and its internal structure of veins that we laser cut in various materials. Even with the optimized wing design, attaching them to the layer was not easy. Through intense work with the 3d printing pen and various filaments we were able to generate a very strong bonding structure to each other and to the cape. In addition, this technique helped us give the cape a very organic, shifting texture that looks like it was made directly by an insect."
Among the materials used are transparent PETG and PLA and TPU 3D printing filaments in different shades, as well as water-soluble sheets.
Cristina Pedroche's look accessories
One of the great novelties of this year has been to be able to see the presenter with a helmet that completely covered her hair. "We have seen a different Cristina Pedroche: hairless, with a steel helmet, with a silhouette that she had never worn, a futuristic shoe with a front peak that she had never worn," Josie comments for Yo Dona regarding the styling. Some accessories that, as you know, have been made by Manuel Albarrán , a designer who has collaborated with many international fashion and entertainment names.
"Being part of a project with Manuel Piña is something I never would have imagined, since he was one of my references when I was studying fashion design," Albarrán told Yo Dona. "I perfectly remember that dress on the Cibeles catwalk, those images that So when I saw it again it was a flashback, so integrating my metal accessories into the project and in particular with Manuel Piña's dress has been very satisfying and fluid, as I feel a bond with him in my apprenticeship and my first years in the world of fashion".
The helmet, one of the most striking accessories, is made from brass, a design that has been worked by hand with a hammer on a flat metal plate until the shape that adapts perfectly to Pedroche's head is achieved. Subsequently, the piece has been polished and finished with chrome to obtain a smooth finish that follows the theme line set for the night.
However, the main challenge for Albarrán has been the shoes since, as the designer confesses, he does not have much experience with them. "The first prototype I made fit perfectly with the concept of the project; the complication was the execution of it, which took me a little longer, to make it as comfortable as possible, within the complication of the design when wearing such a long tip at the front and taking into account the weight of the metal itself".
To bring them to life, the structure of the design was built through a stainless steel sheet, cut and polished to obtain the flattest surfaces, in a process similar to that used in the hull. Once the structure was finished, the pieces that make up the design were assembled through a riveting system, always joining them from the inside out so as not to compromise the aesthetics of the result.
"They are very futuristic metal accessories," says Albarrán, who maintains that his projection in Spain has been "quite slight" since, unlike other markets, his product "does not have much outlet here." But precisely for that reason "participating in this wonderful project for me means great recognition at a national level and a gateway to new projects now that, due to current globalization, you can reach the whole world with the same image".
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