Rising Spanish designer takes haute couture to village home

Montenegro plans to promote his collection in Madrid as well as online, a medium which has more scope than traditional fashion shows which ‘are over very quickly’

Trained in Milan, up-and-coming Spanish designer Nicolas Montenegro has dressed Beyonce and Kylie Minogue, but with the pandemic, he’s gone back home to his village to launch his own brand.

Thanks to the internet and air links “there is no need to live in a big city,” the lean 31-year-old said at his atelier in Lantejuela, a village of some 3,800 residents about an hour’s drive from the southern city of Seville. Sketches and fabric samples cover one table while wedding dresses are piled high on another in a room decorated with family photos. His three employees, all local residents, are busy cutting fabric.

Going back to his village, which is surrounded by asparagus farms, is part of a global trend.