The famous English writer Virginia Woolf said that clothes change our vision of the world and the vision that the world has of us. For her part, the great Coco Chanel used to comment that fashion has to do with ideas, the way we live and what is happening.
These two ideas underlie the López – Trabado Collection, which was born in Barcelona in 1996, and did not take hold until 10 years later, since in 2016 it was officially formed in order to preserve and disseminate the rich and extensive tradition of Spanish Haute Couture.
The López – Trabado Collection is made up of an inventory of 845 pieces, which make up its textile archive in which you can find suits, dresses, swimsuits, hats, bags or costume jewelery. Among these garments you can find great names in Spanish design such as Balenciaga or Pertegaz, but also models of unknown seamstresses, dressmakers and designers, what the collection calls “Anonymous Sewing”.
At the same time, the collection also has an archive made up of 4,000 documents that includes press publications, magazines, programs, cards and invitations to fashion shows, as well as bibliography and original documentation, essential for studying the fashion of the time.
This private collection, headed by Lydia García, is a compilation of 20th-century Spanish fashion pieces whose primary purpose is research and dissemination. The germ of the collection arises through family transmission, since its creator declares that the taste for learning and searching acquired during her childhood formed her as a collector.
Lydia García, creator of the López-Trabado Collection, has a long professional experience with more than fifteen years in Management of Premium Ready-to-Wear Fashion Brands, and is currently dedicated to expanding her collection, a task that she combines with work as a fashion disseminator in conferences, documentaries and presentations for institutions such as the Museo del Traje or the University of Navarra, in addition to being a professor in the course ‘Spanish Fashion and the 20th Century’ at La Tecnocreativa, or visiting professor at ‘Master de Comunicación de Moda ‘at ESCO.
In addition, Lydia García has a fundamental role as provider, so that the López – Trabado Collection has donated different pieces for exhibitions such as ‘Balenciaga and Spanish painting’ held at the Thyssen Museum, or ‘The Invented Body’. Both cinema and television have featured models belonging to the collection, and they have been seen in immensely successful series such as ‘Arde Madrid’ in the actress Debi Mazar, she wore some of her pieces to get into the skin of the spectacular Ava Gardner or the award-winning ‘Pain and Glory’ by Pedro Almódovar, which featured several popular clothing items.
