Agatha Ruiz de la Prada: My love of colour bred
success
BBC
You'd be hard
put if you entered a Spanish home not to find at least one item designed by
Agatha Ruiz de la Prada.
The fashion
designer, who has no connection to Italian fashion label Prada, is known for
her colourful and funky designs. She may have started out with clothing but her
sprawling design empire now stretches from notepads to tiles, security doors
and even gravestones.
Yet she started
out wanting to be an artist, not a designer. The daughter of an aristocrat and
an architect, Ms de la Prada was inspired by her father's extensive
contemporary art collection.
She spent her
childhood drawing, but eventually felt that as a profession it could be
frustrating and slow. In contrast, fashion offered "immediate
satisfaction".
She was drawn to
it because of the teamwork involved and because she saw it as a "high
energy", "quick" environment, and her artistic flair helped to
inspire the unusual designs for which she is now renowned.
Distinctive image
Ms de la Prada
secured her first job in the industry aged 19, in the midst of the cultural
movement known as La Movida that emerged after the death of dictator General
Franco in 1975 and saw Spain push boundaries in the arts.
Ms de la Prada's
boss Pepe Rubio was a fashion designer central to La Movida, and she credits
him with inspiring her. "I learned with him that you can do what you
want."
Helped by
contacts she made in this first job, Ms de la Prada held her first solo fashion
show in Madrid in 1981 at the height of the artistic and cultural revolution.
It showcased the
vibrant colours and shapes that were to become her trademark. "Colour is
important, and has [always] been important for me. It's part of my
personality," she says.
With such a
distinctive image and through further fashion shows over the next decade she
managed to achieve more and more recognition.
'Like a miracle'
But she was also
struggling financially, with some of the stores she sold her collections to not
paying her.
She realised she
could not build the world famous brand she was aiming for without the backing
of a big company.
Her big
breakthrough came when she secured a deal to design her own-label women's
clothing collection for Spanish department store chain El Corte Ingles, 11
years after her first show.
The deal
catapulted her from selling in small quantities to having several best-selling
collections.
"One year
we were selling 100, the next year 500, the next year 12,000," she says.
"It was like a miracle."
Collaborative efforts
She also
branched out beyond women's fashion, expanding her line to include men's and
children's fashion as well as ceramics, toys, linens and towels, make-up and
more.
Ms de la Prada
says partnering with well-known brands worked for her because it meant she did
not have to invest financially, and could simply focus on the design.
She has since
teamed up with partners on more than 300 collaborations, including designing a
series of watches for Swiss watch company Swatch, as well as for more unusual
things such as a collection of gravestones for a French show, and a range of
security doors for an Italian firm.
While initially
her deal with El Corte Ingles accounted for 90% of her revenues, it now
accounts for only 2% to 5%.
She has also
gradually built up a small chain of her own standalone stores.
Life lesson
She credits her
early difficulties with getting paid by her customers for her current prudence.
"It was the
best lesson in my life... because it's that which has helped me to not do silly
things - for the rest of my life."
She says the
experience taught her to keep a close eye on the numbers, and says the first
thing she now does each morning is look at the figures for the business.
"I spend what I have, not more than I have."
She recommends
this type of slow and steady expansion to other would-be entrepreneurs,
advising both patience and persistence, as well as self-belief: "Because
if you don't believe in yourself who is going to believe?"