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It must be recognized that writing

Wilhelmina García

is not entirely easy: if you get lost, you eat one of the letters or change other places.

It even happens to

Rocío Canals

, and that it was she who chose this name as an

"artistic pseudonym"

when she set out to make a jewelry brand.

"I was going to do it with

a Swedish friend and her grandmother's name was Wilhelmina

and my middle name is Garcia, so we put it together," she recalls.

"Here it seems very exotic, but

in Sweden, being called Wilhelmina is like being called Ana"

.

Canals believes that this exoticism is part

of the success of the firm that, despite being produced in workshops in Córdoba, carries the prejudice of being foreign

.

To sell abroad, too: its main markets are in the United States, Korea and the United Kingdom, although now "they finally know us here; it's something they wanted to change," explains the founder and designer.

This growing community has made them reconsider even the language in their communications, starting to combine English and Spanish so that more and more people can delve into this fantasy universe created by the Catalan woman more than ten years ago.

DR

As if it were a Disney

story

(Canals adores the factory's

"classic, classic"

films ; a hobby she shares with her six-year-old son and her three-year-old daughter), Rocío

had to return to Barcelona

for personal reasons. after living in cities like

New York and Paris.

There she dedicated herself to putting her creativity at the service of clients such as Lancomê, Möet & Chandon or Jil Sander, among others.

Coming back, she says,

"was a shock, although since I'm very familiar, she was happy

. "

In Barcelona, ​​she found a job in an advertising agency and, following this narrative of changing her life, to fill hours and find an escape route,

He began to train in a jewelry workshop in the afternoon

.

"There, in addition,

I met other foreign girls and I liked that

, because when I came back I knew everyone, but this allowed me to do other things with people from other parts of the world.

I need people who contribute to me, who have other ideas and other thoughts

."

DR

It was in that workshop, welding and learning to shape jewelry, that she visualized that she would create a brand.

"It was all very organic; I'm quite fanciful and naïve,"

she admits.

"It's not that I said, 'I'm going to make a brand with a business plan', but simply

envisioned that I was going to dedicate myself to this and that I could make a living from the brand, but I didn't know when that would happen

."

She acknowledges that perhaps it would do better with a little more of that business organization, but the world of Canals, or Wilhelmina, if you prefer, works like this: pure and simple romanticism.

So much so that they have even had

"people with a more business profile who have not caught on with the brand and with the way of working that we have."

In this way of doing things, creativity rules;

Canals affirms emphatically that he is part of it.

But of course, that does not mean that he does not have his feet on the ground.

"I would love to create my own things without further ado, like an artist, but I have to see that the collection is liked and that it is going to be sold,"

she admits.

Although there is some freedom in the fact that it is a self-financed project: "Nobody gave me money, there were no financing rounds or bank loans. I didn't do it because

I already have enough stress to add the financial

one and it would cause me too much stress to create because I wouldn't be comfortable."

DR

What she really feels comfortable with are hearts, one of the most demanded symbols, with colored crystals, one of the latest collections they have launched, and with messages of self-love.

Not just because the 'I Love Me' necklace is one of her best sellers, but because one of the ways to practice self-care is to understand that things take time.

"Inspiration comes from many things, from meeting people, from research... And that takes time,"

he says.

"You can be very creative but creativity comes from inspiration and that is a process that takes time and a good state of mind.

If you are not well or they are putting pressure on you, they are clipping your wings so you don't fly"

.

He acknowledges that this is common in advertising agencies:

"It seems that by being creative you can be required to do magic, and not"

.

Alessandro Michele would agree.

DR

Despite all this, Canals, like any other person who has been

a mother

, has to

juggle in order to carry out that myth called conciliation

.

He admits that being a freelance, in this sense, has advantages such as being able to spend a whole week focused on his children, but the hidden side is reflected in an anecdote that he shares, now, with laughter and a bit of surprise for remembering himself like this: "My daughter Sofia was born by caesarean section at 8 pm The next day, a girl from Wilhelmina came to the hospital and we both started working on the computer, because we had a big mess, while Sofia was in the crib next to the bed . It is what it is".

Luckily, Canals has known how to make his children part of his world.

"I explain to them what I do, what I do, and I try to get them involved,"

he says.

"For example, there are times when they want to make necklaces, and that's when I take the opportunity to work."

Then, probably, they all sit together to watch

Robin Hood

, the latest crush of her sons, or

Peter Pan

, a movie that the designer adores.

It is not strange: there is fairy dust, fantasy and a dream that seemed impossible and that, nevertheless, ends up being fulfilled.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

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