MARIA ESCOTE INTERVIEW (LOGO.EC 07.06.13)

Creating pieces dripping in acid-bright colours, hardware spikes and retina-burning prints, Maria Escote’s creations look nothing short of dangerous. Even if you’re not 100% clued-up on Spanish designers, this is one you should definitely take note of. We caught up with the Spanish designer to talk crack, Cannibal Boys and what’s coming up for Spring/Summer 2014 – and also got a few rare sketches from her latest collection, ‘Poison’.

LOGO: Your A/W13 collection ‘Poison’ was inspired by venomous frogs, right? I loved acid the armour kinda vibe. Why choose that concept in particular?

MARIA: Besides the amazing prints that those poisonous animals carry over their bodies, what really attracted me was the use they give to them. Goddess nature is the most clever thing… these colours not only scream BE AWARE DANGER, at the same time they’re used to attract the victims and to seduce them…

LOGO: I heard LSD had a part to play with the psychedelic feel of the collection. Can you tell us about any personal experiences…?

MARIA: Well there is in fact a print in the collection that we dared to call ‘Crack’. As you know crack is a poison… but [the print] literally looks like a crack itself. I printed it in leather with vivid colours and suddenly the pieces became alive, like a real trip. About my personal experiences… if you’re asking me about me taking drugs… I never did, It’s not my thing I guess. I am too busy right now.

LOGO: It feels like you enjoy going for themes with a tough edge with your collections (Sweet Cannibal, Shock etc) – why is that?

MARIA: Is not something I do in purpose, I guess it all goes with your personal tastes. Let’s say those Ideas feel attractive because of the visceral factor behind them.

LOGO: You sold the ‘Poison’ collection exclusively in China for a while – what kind of reception do your designs have in the Asian market? And do you have any plans to break places like the UK and US?

MARIA: We sell around the world thanks to our online store, but it happens that some shops have special designs that you can’t find anywhere else. Asia is a new market for us, we’ve been selling over there for two years and it’s going down well. They like our style – which is good, because I love theirs!

LOGO: You now create clothes for both men and women – do you find it more challenging designing for men, as a rule? What’s your concept of the ideal Maria Escote man and woman when you’re putting collections together?

MARIAL I enjoy doing menswear a lot, and they actually work very well on the online store. There are Cannibal Boys among the crowd, and they love to be dressed with style and psicodelia – I design for them. The Jungle Girls are the girls whom wakeup every day ready to put up a fight; working independent women who aren’t afraid of being sexy and feminine. On the other hand, in September we’re launching the ‘Alabama Kids’ collection – all the team is very excited to be designing for kids.

LOGO: What’s your own personal style like?

MARIA: I guess I always end up putting on up a grungy cool-yet-sophisticated look on. On the other hand, little by little I’m realising I am a girl from the ‘90s; it shows a lot when I stand in front of my closet ready to get dressed.

LOGO: If you had to only wear pieces by one other designer for the rest of your life, who would it be?

MARIA: I absolutely love Jean Paul Gaultier. It would be wonderful a world where everybody will wear his designs all the time.

LOGO: How do you find working in the Spanish fashion scene? We don’t know that much about it here in the UK – what other Spanish designers should we be looking out for and why?

MARIA: Right now, Spain, like the rest of Europe, is going through very hard times. Fashion resents the situation a lot. Some of the brands have disappeared, and lot of designers aren’t present at fashion week anymore. Yet the country is full of talent, such as Marcela Mansergas. Her handmade designs are simply art. She is a rocker girl and yet her designs are the most chic pieces I’ve ever seen. There’s also the young Juan Vidal – the press likes to call him the new Balenciaga. His designs (very different from mine) breathe elegance and an incredible sense of femininity. You can’t help feeling beautiful wearing his clothes. And then there’s Carlos Diez Diez. He’s long been the l’enfant terrible trend designer of Madrid Fashion Week, and the coolest person I got to know in the last years; cultivated, funny and clever.

LOGO: You’ve been creating collections for a few years now – how do you think your style has evolved, since you first started out? Has your aesthetic changed at all?

MARIA: I think by now my style is very defined. Season after season it’s getting more recognisable. I love to keep an identity and to play inside it. One can’t help who he is in the end. I did learn what the market needs and what my clients like to wear; I do think about that a lot when I’m making new designs.

LOGO: Do you have any pre/post show rituals?

MARIA: I just like to keep it family; even when there are a lot of people involved in a show, I always manage to have my closest friends around. They’re the ones backstage helping me to put together the collection, and the models. It has been like this for years, it doesn’t matter how big the team I work with is – they have to be there.

LOGO: Tell us a bit about your upcoming S/S14 collection – what kind of ideas/concepts/looks are going into it?

MARIA: I will be working a lot with leather this year. My new collection will be talking about the night divas, the dancers, the star that every girl has inside and about letting it show up. Can’t let you know the title yet 🙂

LOGO: And finally… some quick-fire questions!

Favourite piece of clothing: The leather biker.
The last text message you sent: “Who the fck are u?”
The best + worst thing about living in London: The weather was something I could not cope with. I love the rhythm of the city, and the way you can have things done so quickly.
Best party jam: Primavera Sound Festival.
Ideal night out: I love those nights when you walk out the door without knowing where will the night end and then… never ends.

www.mariaescote.com

Interview: Charlotte McManus