Welcome to The Director’s Cut, an interactive column featuring fashion, beauty and career advice from RGNN Director and Founder, @isabelevabohrer.
He’s one of the most talented couturiers of our time. In Spain, if not in the world as a whole. Lorenzo Caprile, who has designed dresses for the likes of Queen Letizia of Spain to Margot Robbie, is now the subject of the most sought-after fashion exhibition this winter in Madrid.
Eponymously titled “Caprile Lorenzo,” the exhibition is housed in the Sala Canal de Isabel II, a former water deposit owned by the Community of Madrid. The location, which has been home to fashion exhibitions such as one dedicated to photographers Joana Biarnés, as well as numerous editions of Spain’s most important photography festival PhotoEspaña, is well worth a visit itself.
Start at the bottom and work your way up the water tower, the ascent up an artistic mountain (if you have vertigo, I do recommend taking the elevator). The dimly lit dresses, which chronicle Caprile’s wide-spanning trajectory from royalty to movie stars, will enthrall you one after the other.
As you wander from sections titled “Baroque,”- perhaps the most fitting word to describe Caprile’s designs,- to “Romanticism,” you’ll see the influence of national and international designers such as Madame Grès, Chanel, Givenchy, Flora Villareal, Pedro Rodríguez, Valentino or Thierry Mugler. Not to mention that the exhibition also includes paintings from masters such as Francisco de Zurbarán, juxtaposed alongside the dresses so you can see their historic origins.
It’s an exhibition that, for the first time, I have seen credit the seamstresses, not all but the most important ones, who made Caprile’s designs come to life. In a world where credit is rarely given to those who work so hard behind the scenes, what a wonderful way to render homage to the fact that fashion is so often a team effort. A big name wouldn’t be anything without the group of people that work for him or her.
My own personal favorites? Without a doubt, the chaquetas goyescas toreras, perhaps best explained in English as cropped jackets, inspired by the Spanish bullfighting tradition. I remembered this black and white one in particular, which was already on view earlier this year at the “Fashion in the House of Alba” exhibition at the Liria Palace, an exhibition curated by none other than Lorenzo Caprile himself, alongside Eloy Martínez de la Pera (read my full review here if you are interested in how one of the world’s most important dynasties dresses). The attention to detail is unparalleled.
And my favorite room? The very top of the water deposit tower, in stark white, with a vivid yellow gown, almost garish gold, worn by Marta Díaz to the 76th Cannes Film Festival, right smack in the middle. You can’t reach this red carpet moment by elevator and have to climb all the way up yourself. Granted, that’s just the architecture of the water deposit, but it’s also a closing statement that is true for so much of couture.
Haute couture – so beautiful, so expensive, and so out of reach of the majority. It really is only with exhibitions like these that high fashion is accessible to the general public. And the “ooohhhing” and “ahhhing” of visitors, many of them women and some who had brought along their husbands, was clearly to be heard. Caprile Lorenzo, Lorenzo Caprile. What a fantastic universe we get to step into.
Plan your visit
Sala Canal de Isabel II.
- “Caprile Lorenzo.” Until March 30, 2025.
- Calle de Santa Engracia 125, 28003 Madrid.
- Tuesday through Saturday: 11.00 a.m. to 8.30 p.m. Sundays from 11.00 a.m. to 2.00 p.m.
- Closed on Mondays as well as the following days: December 24, 25, 31, 2024 and January 1 and 6, 2025.
- Entrance is free.
- Reserve tickets online here.
Thank you to the Sala Canal de Isabel II and the Community of Madrid for inviting us.
Questions or comments? Follow me on IG @isabelevabohrer or TikTok and say hi! See you soon!
