Raquel Bollo will debut in flamenco fashion with a parade at SIMOF 2022
One of the surprises that SIMOF 2022 brings us is the arrival of new designers to renew the flamenco fashion sector. One of them is Sevillian Raquel Bollo, the renowned television collaborator launched in 2020 with her own women's fashion firm (RB, Raquel Bollo) that sells her designs through the online shop after years of experience managing a store multibrand.
Raquel Bollo has decided to take a further step in her career as a designer, betting on flamenco fashion. Something that, as the Sevillian explains, is in her "DNA" of her and that she has had around her head for years. Bulevar Sur has interviewed the new flamenco fashion designer before her imminent premiere on the catwalk. Her parade will be held next Saturday, February 5 at 4:00 p.m. and tickets are already on sale.
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How was your approach to the world of fashion design?
«My mother was a dressmaker and it was a very demanding job and not well paid. She taught me the basics and I put on after school. I learned how to put on a zipper, a hem, sew on a button... but she never let me touch the sewing machine. I signed up for classes before the pandemic and by the second day I was already using the machine. In a short time I made my first skirt, pants... When they confined us I bought a sewing machine and started making things for myself and my granddaughter».
And your memories with the flamenco dress?
«I have always dressed as a flamenco since I was very little, I have experienced it at home. My mother worked in my brothers' room and I remember the threads and patterns, the fabrics everywhere... Not only day to day, at night when we all slept there was the noise of the sewing machine. And the dance costumes when I started at my aunt's academy, when I went with José Moreno, José Galván… I remember a white organdy dress with black trim, another with lace, chariots, strawberry trees, those when I was little with cambric and plumeti… A thousand memories."
Raquel Bollo and flamenco fashion
«I have always been closely linked to the world of flamenco, my children too and I have identified myself with flamenco fashion. Although I did not design, I have always been a reference when I arrived at the fair and dressed. I started with Aurora Gaviño, I have also been dressed by Sergio Vidal, Pepe Sevillanía and also in recent years by José Hidalgo, Mónica Méndez and Consolación Ayala. Many people have asked for it in this type, but for one thing or another, out of fear, lack of time... That moment had not come.
It all came about at a meal with my friends Charo, Paco Cerrato and Pedro González. I was asking and asking for advice from Pedro, who is a professor in this, about some questions for my brand and Charo told me that I had to launch myself with the flamenco and I told him that I had always wanted to but that I saw it as daring. Then Pedro asked me if I really wanted to, I told him my story and he told me that he could do it, that he didn't see me as an intruder, that he saw that I wore flamenco fashion on television, that I wore it and that I had my own stamp. He thought it was a good moment, after two years without a fair, people who want to… The most important thing and that I agreed with was that he recommended that I make a small collection, start from the bottom like everyone else. Recognizing that I have my name, but doing it humbly because this is the beginning.
What has been the inspiration for your first collection and how have you experienced the process?
«Pedro accompanied me to choose to design fabrics and translate what he had in mind into designs, always respecting what I wanted to convey. Everything has come from there and I am very grateful for his help and experience. It has been a very beautiful and laborious road, but I am enjoying it very much.
The collection does not have a name, it is my signature, because I want to start simply. If everything goes well and I continue in flamenco fashion, I've started so as not to leave, and the next one will take it. It is based on the language of fashion and the cuts of the 70s and in these designs I want to expose my memories of the flamenco of the time. Memories of Isabel Pantoja, of flamenco tablaos, Las Brujas and where I have seen my companions dancing, Triana, geraniums, flamenco...
I wanted to make a collection with elegance and very flamenco elements that you can take out of context and take to a party with a dress or jeans. It has been done with a color palette that goes from purple to mint green, the usual colors, large and small polka dots, some flowers in details...».
What is special about the flamenco dress that inspires inside and outside our borders?
«My idea of flamenco is elegant and sensual. The charm of the flamenco dress, in addition to the culture itself, is that it defines the figure of the woman. Although I can wear it and there is a higher waist in my collection, almost all of them are stylized and tailored because I love the figure that reminds me of the curves of a guitar. It is very feminine and I did not want to lose that line.
What is this new fashion sector teaching you?
"It's teaching me that you don't stop learning. Every day something new, it has many stitches, it requires a lot of work, but it is a very beautiful and very wide world. I have references like Pepe Sevillanía and Cañavate. I really like all those who have been dressing me ».
You premiere at SIMOF, the pioneer catwalk…
"It came about like that. From Doble, Erre Raquel Revuelta offered me this opportunity. I humbly go, it is a collective parade with two other colleagues, with a collection of 10 suits. They have helped me in everything that I did not know about this world.
Is this your first runway show as a designer?
“I did one once with clothes from my store, but it has nothing to do with this. I am living it with great enthusiasm, nerves, fears and respect. I am not here to compete with anyone, nor to innovate. I think that in flamenco fashion everything is done, in the end they are always mixtures of things and ideas and we all drink from the greats of many decades ago. What I do is contribute my philosophy on flamenco women. I have been given several awards and recognitions within flamenco fashion, not because I am a designer, but because throughout my life I have always selflessly collaborated in parades, I have spoken as much as I could about flamenco fashion in the media, dressing my companions in flamenco during the fair, wearing designers… More than coming to interfere, which I don't feel sorry for doing, I see it as a help. If I can take advantage of it to fulfill my dream and also reach more people through my name, welcome."
