Lorenzo Caprile: "My concern is to give meaning to all this somewhat exquisite Diogenes"

• Incredible collectors: Carlos Areces: "Where there is an unpublished drawing by Ibáñez, my desire is to get it"

• Mur, from a position in El Rastro to gather one of the best collections on photography and cinema

• Cristina Ortega: "I have between 3,000 and 4,000 garments from 1900 to the 50s. From the 60s to the 80s, about 50,000"

• Luis González: "My cassette factory has surpassed the record label"

• Diego Dámaso, the largest Scalextric collector in Europe

• Carlos Martín Ballester: "I have already exceeded 100,000 78 rpm records and 2,000 phonograph cylinders"

• The 9,000 old posters of the guardian of advertising in Spain

You are at a stage in your life where you want to let go of things.

"I'm beginning to have a bit of everything left over," he says with

that arouses so much sympathy among his thousands of followers.

Caprile began "

spontaneously acquiring a taste for fashion through the eyes of her mother, grandmother, or grandmother's sisters.

Many years later, he has a haute couture collection that has served as inspiration and as a tribute to the great designers of history.

"It's mostly my

like

...", while claiming national fashion figures that have gone too unnoticed because "

's shadow is very long". Dresses, belts, shawls, scarves or what the designer calls "ephemeral" -boxes, wrappers, labels, tissue paper, invitations - populate this dreamy collection "

sometimes go hand in hand," he sarcastically emphasizes several times throughout the interview.

QUESTION.- Lorenzo, tell us a little about this Sybilla dress that is part of your haute couture collection

ANSWER.-

It is a very special piece, because it is from his very first collections, and if my memory serves me correctly I think it appears in one of

who unfortunately has just passed away.

Those photos that were like nymphs in the woods.

And I seem to remember that it was one of the emblematic suits

And then this whole idea of ​​stones and organic materials, which is something that she developed in some costumes that she made for

which were dresses that made very, very curious sounds when they moved.

It is part of

and that it is capable of transforming some poor and apparently worthless elements into a wonderful thing.

It's a trick suit, moreover, because in normal position you can't guess and walking is when the whole surprise is discovered.

Q.- Do you remember when you acquired it?

A.-

I acquired this a year and a half ago.

A client of

, moreover, that she had been very cool, very protagonist of

, in the shadows, because she is not a media character, but that she had known them all.

Through common friends, empty closets and he told me: -I know you appreciate him and he will be in good hands, and

who was another protagonist of those years.

Q.- Do the garments in your collection always have a sentimental value, as in this case?

A.-

Sometimes yes, sometimes no, it depends, because the origin is very varied.

There are very nice stories behind it to tell and others not.

There's a little bit of everything.

Q.- When do you start with your collection?

A.-

Well, very young, very young.

In a family, moreover, of Italian origin, with

I don't want to seem snobbish, but in the best workshops and in the best firms.

With my

She was born spontaneously and

It's not like now with the use and throw away, especially when they were good garments and from important firms, because they were kept, and that's how it was born little by little.

Q.- Where did you live?

A.-

I was born in Madrid.

I have lived in Italy for years of training and my first jobs were there.

More or less from 88 to 92.

Lorenzo Caprile, in the office of his atelier.

Q:- And why did you start saving dresses to form your own haute couture collection?

A.-

Well, that's what I ask myself, because it's a very heavy hobby, because

It makes you very excited when an important lot comes into your hands with wonderful pieces, but of course, then it comes the after.

Save them, keep them... Anyway, I'm now rethinking everything a bit, because

.

There is a wonderful project in sight that I don't want to give too many clues about in case it goes flat, but

Having it stored in trunks and suitcases does not make any sense.

Q.- You have brought us a sample to your atelier, but how many dresses do you have saved?

A.-

Well, I think that between suits, accessories, since we are talking about a lot of belts, some bags... I am not much into bags, but I am

because I also

, and from there he always came with suitcases full of samples, discards... handkerchiefs and scarves and shawls from

, or

... those firms from the 80s. Among garments, accessories, a lot of shoes too, and

which are sometimes the most curious things, because that is rarely preserved... I'm talking about

I think we must be talking

, which is already a lot.

Q.- And do you have it catalogued?

A.-

No, no, I have it more or less organized within my Diogenes.

And that is why I tell you that the time has come to stop, reflect and see a little where it is going, because collecting is one thing and pathology is another.

I already told you that I think sometimes they are very close.

Q.- All collectors tend to be people who value the past, who learn from history...

A.-

Man, in my case, of course, I quote that famous phrase by

, which the mediocre copy and the geniuses destroy.

that is how it is, and it

We have learned many tricks in the workshop that otherwise would have been unthinkable, especially from a generation of dressmakers that unfortunately most of them are dying, and

, and this type of detail and this type of finishes.

Q.- In the last edition of Masters of Sewing you brought some garments from your collection for the students to try to replicate...

A.-

This was one of them.

And

has often worn things by

, by

, I don't know if some

, by

, by

... Many things from the collection, very many.

and it is becoming less and less difficult for me to let go and become attached to things.

In that part of ephemerals there is a true collector's part,

because I know that suits, and especially evening dresses, like the ones I have selected for you,

because

That usually never comes and is very curious.

Q.- If you had to define in two or three words what your collection means, what it has given you...

A.-

On the one hand, a lot of satisfaction, but right now the word is restlessness.

The word is restlessness because

Years go by, every year you have your ailments, you are tired, you have less energy and I know that this is something that must be organized and that it must be given meaning and a future, above all, so that it can be enjoyed, that it can be accessible. and that all this effort, even economic, of all these years, will be of some use.

So, at this moment

Q.- Can you tell us any anecdote related to any of the dresses?

A.-

The funniest anecdotes are caroms that you get in Humana.

With the vendors, a little those who prepare the batches there, well, man, a

may ring a bell, a

may ring a bell, a

arrives

and they don't even know who it is, or a

they don't even know who he is.

Or a

, surely nobody here in Spain knows who he was.

And then those are some of the most curious anecdotes, which is a bit of a

he makes your day and you go home with the high.

Q.- And you have been a lot of El Rastro, the Paris Flea Market...?

A.-

I have been more national, because it is increasingly difficult for me to travel, so I do notice the age.

The airport thing, it's getting heavier, the controls... I'm more national, and

.

The history of El Rastro is

, with

, who is a great friend, and there I also meet many fellow dressmakers, who are looking for the same thing as me, to be inspired, or garments to dismantle and use some material... And many fellow stylists and movie costume designers who buy authentic clothes, now that so many

are being made from the 60s, from the 70s... And Rosa always solves your life.

Q.- And do you collectors become friends?

A.-

Yes, yes.

We are very few in Spain.

Now there is a new generation that I know less about, but the greats...

, who has just fulfilled his dream, because he has opened a museum in Villanueva de la Serena, in Extremadura, a wonderful collection.

in Barcelona,

, here in Madrid,

... Yes, we know each other and there is a very good relationship.

Q.- Do you prefer to be with your clothes or with people?

A.-

No, no.

In my case no.

In my house no, no, and less at this time.

I repeat that I am at a point in my life,

I want to lighten the baggage a bit and I'm telling you, at this moment my concern,

because if it's not accumulating for the sake of accumulating and that, I'm telling you, it's closer to the pathology than collecting.

I repeat that I think it is very close.

Q.- Well, I think you have controlled the doses... Can you show us any more clothes?

A.-

Well, look,

my universe a shortly after I started in this...

...and then especially Spanish fashion, Spanish couture, the golden age of Spanish couture, with the exception of

.

Balenciaga there are already many people who collect, there is the foundation, and when they have offered me something I have not wanted, because there are already many people who dedicate themselves to Balenciaga, with all my respect and admiration, but I prefer to collect... Balenciaga's shadow is very long, and all the other colleagues that were there, and very good ones, have been left a bit in the shadow.

So, in that sense I am going to highlight these two

spectacular

This is from the last stage of her career, at the end of the 90s. It is a spectacular

, in natural silk taffeta, with a large bow, and this one is a little more eighties, these

with organza, carved silk ...

Q.- Where did you get them?

A.-

These two in Barcelona.

These are antique.

This other dress here is restored.

In fact I have used it in many photo shoots.

It is a velvet bodice, all embroidered in jet, from a great dressmaker unjustly forgotten, who was

,

.

's wedding dress

... Really, Fabiola, whose client she was, was Flora Villarreal's because they lived across the street.

What is now the Hotel Santo Mauro was two streets beyond Flora's workshop, which was Castellana number 9. But later, due to political issues and such, they referred her to the Balenciaga workshop.

It is a legend

but to explain a little

Q.- And where did you buy the Flora one?

A.-

Flora's in El Rastro.

This body is from the Trail.

I'm telling you, the whole skirt is highly restored.

More or less I understood where the shots were going... And it is also a suit that I have used in photos for myself, for my workshop, but the body, which is a jewel, because these materials are not even found, it is made of a lot in El Rastro.

Q.- And did you realize before you bought it that it was from Villarreal or was it later?

A.-

No, no, then.

The batch you know... then comes the surprise.

Usually for the better, sometimes they stick it in you,

Q.- Shall we move on to the next dress in your collection?

A.-

This pink is a magnificent example of haute couture from Paris, from the stage that

spent as creative director of

, at the end of the 90s, and you see, an image is worth a thousand words.

It is a delicacy of dress and is almost 30 years old and completely current.

Q.- This was the one you took to the Masters of Sewing final, right?

A.-

Yes, the final was dedicated to Óscar de la Renta, a tribute, and it was one of the costumes that they had to reproduce, with greater or lesser success.

Q.- Who got this one?

A.-

I think it was

.

Q.- And this other dress?

A.-

This is a spectacular anonymous that I bought in New York.

It's a suit from

'30s

starring the famous Halston, who's become so well known from the series.

All those bias cuts and those sinuous silhouettes, and well, it looks like a beautiful dress, and it's an embroidery, which I tell you without any complex, we have copied and shot a thousand times in the workshop.

Q.- And it's anonymous...

A.-

Anonymous.

because the ladies, let's say, really, most of the time they removed the labels or demanded that they not be put on, because they rub against, or you can see, the movement... So there are very good suits that you can imagine whose it is, who they may be, but of course, they are anonymous because they are not labeled.

Conforms to The Trust Project criteria

Know more