Agatha Ruiz de la Prada Just Popped up at the Caleido Fashion Lab – Here’s Why You Need to Know About It
Welcome to The Director’s Cut, an interactive column featuring fashion, beauty and career advice from RGNN Director and Founder, @isabelevabohrer.
My memories of Agatha Ruiz de la Prada go all the way back to my childhood. Summer after summer, I would come to Madrid to learn Spanish. Of course, it’s always easier to learn a new language as a kid, but still, it’s never an effortless endeavor. I remember the days when I wanted to play with the other kids, but was too shy to even say “hola,” fearing that I would not pronounce it correctly.
But there was one thing that always kept me going. My brightly colored Agatha Ruiz de la Prada soft-ring notebooks, sometimes adorned with vibrant flowers, other times with eye-catching hearts or stars on the cover. Inside, the squared paper was divided into sections; green, blue, pink, etc. All of my middle school girlfriends in Germany would plea for me to bring one back for them. We were all #agathizadas (or #agathized, like mesmerized) back then, to quote the hashtag the brand now uses on their Instagram.
Flashforward to 2024. Agatha Ruiz de la Prada has become one of Spain’s most famous fashion designers (and I learned Spanish). It is with cariño and nostalgia that I stopped by the opening of Agatha Ruiz de la Prada’s pop-up store at Madrid’s newest fashion space, the Caleido Fashion Lab.
I don’t usually write a whole article about a fashion pop-up; there are so many, some less spectacular than others, and an Instagram post is normally enough to share some quick pics. However, the reason I’m sitting down to pen a column on this one today is not only Agatha Ruiz de la Prada, but the Caleido Fashion Lab as a whole.
Inaugurated just over a month ago in one of the Cuatro Torres, the four towers that dominate Madrid’s entire city landscape, the Caleido Fashion Lab is set out to provide emerging fashion designers with a space to showcase their talent. Many of them cannot afford to set up a permanent shop on one of Madrid’s main streets.
That’s where the Caleido multi-brand pop-up comes in, giving various up-and-coming Spanish designers visibility at the same time. Add to that runway shows, “hot talks” to debate the future of Spanish fashion, and a shared space for photoshoots. It’s an initiative supported by the Asociación Creadores de Moda de España (ACME, the Association of Fashion Creators of Spain), Madrid es Moda, IE University and Pasarela Latinoamericana. The Director of it all? Tristán Ramírez Ruiz de la Prada, CEO of Agatha Ruiz de la Prada, and her son.
For the launch of her pop-up, Agatha herself was as youthful as always, wearing one of her quintessential designs, an oversize azure blue dress with a giant magenta pink heart, red tights and baby blue heels adorned with another pair of azure blue hearts. The attending crowd was colorful, too, and by that, I mean that many of the attending ladies were sporting Agatha’s vibrant designs with flamboyance.
I couldn’t resist trying on this skirt – isn’t it fabulous? The fitted green waistband, the geometric shapes of all colors, the voluminous flare, and all of it in a soft teddy material. Having just come back from Paris from the Fondation Louis Vuitton, I thought, wouldn’t a collaboration Mark Rothko x Agatha Ruiz de la Prada have been wonderful? In either case, there are exciting months ahead for her brand; she will be opening a store on Calle Villanueva, in Madrid’s barrio de Salamanca, which will also house her atelier and headquarters in general. I bet it will be the most colorful office on the block, if not in all of Madrid.
Meanwhile, Agatha Ruiz de la Prada is definitely the most established brand at the Caleido pop-up. Her big name will help emerging designers gain visibility; on the bottom floor of the pop-up, you can find a selection of items by Daniel Chong, Javier de la Fuente, Maya Hansen, and Angel Schlesser, amongst others. They’re all part of ACME, the aforementioned Association of Fashion Creators of Spain, which is taking significant strides to make Spanish auteur fashion known nationally and internationally. Just a few weeks ago, the association announced that Spain would be the guest country at Fashion Trust Arabia, an award ceremony in Marrakech later this year, and another unique opportunity for Spanish fashion designers to present their collections to a wider audience.
It takes money to create a collection. And in today’s day and age, it takes money to create content to sell that collection. If you don’t know how to do either, it takes money to get educated about all of it in the first place. Spanish fashion needs financial support, and all the exposure these designers can get is welcome.
When you enter the Caleido Fashion Lab, it’s fun and fashionable. But it also covers a necessity; to give a voice to otherwise silent talents and to grant them access to a commercial space they could otherwise quite simply not afford. Spanish fashion far transcends Mango, Zara, and all the other Inditex brands. It is only by showcasing these lesser-known talents that consumers, national and international, may eventually become aware of that – and shop accordingly, too.
Plan your visit
Caleido Fashion Lab.
- Paseo de la Castellana 295E. 28046 Madrid (Cuatro Torres Business Area).
- The pop-up store is currently open to the public from 12.00 noon to 9.00 p.m. from Monday through Sunday.
- More information: caleidofashionlab.com.
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