Inés Martín Alcalde, the designer who dresses high society brides: "I make the dresses when I know who the bride is"

• Carmen de la Puerta, the Andalusian behind Vogana, the guest dress brand that Queen Letizia has gone viral: "I reinvent many Lady Di patterns"

• Isabel Moralejo, the pharmacist behind the Adeba dancers: "Going straight to a party is leaving the stiletto herd"

• Sonia Grande, Woody Allen's favorite costume designer: "The 'hello, undress' moment is hard"

She is the

of the moment and is beginning to be as well known as those who choose her to make their wedding dress -most of the influencers in our country and a good part of high society brides- or those who wear their designs as guests of event to event, among others,

or

Also

, for the moment his most illustrious client, who wore one of his famous jacket suits to the opening of Arco in 2022, the only edition that he has opened alone, without the King, due to the war in Ukraine.

A beautiful suit with a pinstripe jacket, pronounced shoulders and a crossed pattern that Doña Letizia has repeated just a few weeks ago, in Asturias;

specifically, in Avilés, during the

.

Along with the bridal gowns, this

house brand

the garment that many brands have tried to replicate without

.

What is the secret so that everyone wants to copy it and no one has succeeded?, we asked him.

"That they are made by hand, there is a part that is sewn like this", she replies surrounded by the exquisite old fabrics and delicate lace that fill her

, where he receives us making a hole in his busy schedule;

The wedding season is just around the corner and the 15 people who work with her, "all hired", she says, and

with a lot of trade, are fully employed.

"It is very difficult to have such a large workshop, but I do not delegate to anyone, you come to make a dress with me and from the beginning to the end I am in any of the tests,

she says.

That is why she does not embark on all the dresses that are asked of her: "Only the ones that I can really enjoy and when I know who the

is , that she is not one more. I also get involved in the hair, the nails, the makeup... in everything that is around it. That's why I don't feel like counting one more just to add numbers and money, that doesn't suit me. By doing everything here, you really enjoy the process; nobody takes

the

they don't leave the atelier , and that allows me to design by really listening to both the bride's body and her personality."

The question is obligatory, so, do you choose the girlfriends that you do?

"No, the brides choose me. I see if there is

or not. And if there is not, I tell them. Today, and that is a change compared to the beginning, thanks to social networks who comes to my

has a more Inés profile".

Miguel Garcia de Heras

But how is that 'Inés profile'?

If I had to define it with a single word it would be passion.

"Since I was a child, my mother told me: 'Look Inés, whatever you do, do it with passion'. I felt it for two things, fashion

horses

I couldn't do anything with these, because I didn't want to study veterinary medicine, so that all I had left was fashion", he explains.

Her family had always been dedicated to her, as businessmen, and her relationship with her sewing was a natural thing, what she had seen at home.

That's why when her father suggested that she study business first, Inés was clear about it.

"I refused and threw myself into design. I trained in England, in London, at

and at

.

There I already stood out designing prints, I was very good at it.

I have liked fabrics since I was little, because I used to see my grandparents looking for fabrics in antique shops, and I specialized in them.

I love designing prints, to this day I still do it for my guest collection.

This is how my passion began, more for fabrics

for fashion.

And from there he derived the brides.

I started

and when I returned to Spain I worked in a well-known bridal house, where I discovered sewing.

I merged the two things and set up my company."

Success

came suddenly, in just six months

"I started at my single house. I made suits for two friends and that led me to a girlfriend and she to another and this to another ... At first it was all word of mouth," she says.

In one month she had sold eight.

"I had no

," she recalls, "I rented a place in

and my roommate helped me with all the numbers, because I wasn't good at that. In fact, I lost money on the first dress because I miscalculated the price of the fabric. She was

and when I started to sell so much, three months later, she came to work with me, we rented a place and that's when the Inés Martín Alcalde brand started strong."

At the age of two they were doing so well that it was her sister who left her job to go with her and set up

"We changed workshops and we came to Claudio Coello. Everything was very fast, because I connected very well with the brides, perhaps because they were the same age. The first year I made 60 dresses. After that I haven't accepted so many again, I don't care life. I started with nothing and without asking anyone for

. To this day I don't do it either, I just expand

as I grow, and I go very slowly. It's something that many people don't understand, why don't I go faster, but I like to have my feet on the ground and I have never wanted to live beyond my means; the basis of my success is effort

perseverance".

Miguel Garcia de Heras

They say that you are the most elegant bridal designer of the moment, do you identify yourself?

Yes, that's what I always try.

Each person has their internal elegance, so it's about knowing how to highlight it.

It is not a question of choosing a fabric, however beautiful it may be, you have to look for the essence of each one, aesthetics, femininity.

That's the first thing I do, then I wrap it up.

But first, a bride has to look beautiful and elegant. So, do your dresses follow the trends or are they something else? There are trends in the details, but from my point of view the essence of a dress is always the same: flattering.

This year, the layers that come from the shoulders, the three-quarter sleeves and the puffed ones are very popular, but the most important thing for a bride is that time passes and she continues to be seen.

I would now marry another dress,

and most people too, but the goal is that you continue to like yours, that over time you don't think when you see it 'how horrible!'.

What I like most about a design is that it is timeless. Which of your dresses are you most proud of? This is very difficult to answer... Making my sister's was very special for me.

I really enjoyed it. And which one was the riskiest? Mariana Calderón, one of my first girlfriends, who asked me to marry a monkey.

I chose a fabric from Ibiza, I am very Ibizan and I bring a lot from there, and I made her a body with pants and a full open back with a vest so that she would not be seen so much and would look like a dress.

At the time it was very risky. If there is something that defines your designs, it is the fabrics, where do they come from? It is the difference.

Most of them are made by me or dyed, bleached...

I'm always playing with dyes.

And I have a lot of old fabrics, I love them.

I design many and also lace.

Each fabric that I put on a bride, whether it has lace or embroidery, is unique.

There are never two alike.

I buy a lot in Paris, in London, at El Rastro... Does playing with dyes mean that white has gone out of style? Yes, white, never white;

better broken tones... What are the three things that a good wedding dress should have? There are three basic ones: it has to be feminine, flattering and always elegant. And the other three that we should avoid yes or yes? The first, that does not highlight your figure, it is something that does not go with me.

And this does not mean that it has to be adjusted, but that it should make you slimmer and more stylized than you are, always.

Nor should we wear rare cuts, because they are not elegant.

And the third, be careful with the seam:

a poorly sewn dress loses everything. Why does it take so long to make a wedding dress?

How many hours does it take?

Phew!

My sister's took a hundred hours;

well, those were the ones that were counted... A wedding dress is a very long process.

Of course it can be done in one or two weeks, but it is not convenient, because they are designs that have to rest.

If you do it so fast, the bride can't think about it.

On average, it is best to have six months, to calm down and things go well, without regrets.Who have been the three most elegant brides of the past year?Dressed by me, Marta Moreno (Buganvilia businesswoman) and Laura Medina, who got married in Mexico with two ideal dresses.

And for other designers, I prefer Jennifer Lopez. The big wedding of the year is Tamara Falcó's, how would you dress her? I would put a ruffle on her dress.

AND,

if not, I would make her a model that shows her clavicle and shoulders.Once you have dressed the Queen, who else would you like to see in your suits?I would love for Caroline of Monaco to wear them, she looks very elegant to me .And if we are not the bride, but the guests, how do we get the model right? There are three keys to not being wrong: feeling yourself, which is the same as not going dressed up;

less is more and choose some pretty accessories.

A well-made dress and good accessories do not fail.

How do we get the model right? There are three keys to not being wrong: feeling yourself, which is the same as not going in disguise;

less is more and choose some pretty accessories.

A well-made dress and good accessories do not fail.

How do we get the model right? There are three keys to not being wrong: feeling yourself, which is the same as not going in disguise;

less is more and choose some pretty accessories.

A well-made dress and good accessories do not fail.

Miguel Garcia de Heras

The hashtag

with which brides label their photos is, like her very personal and flattering jackets, the other brand of the house, because it is social networks that have placed the designer where she is.

"They are responsible for 80% of my success, if not 95%," she says.

"Managing them well and making yourself known is essential. Everyone has

; even mothers who don't know it sign up when their daughters are getting married."

Because when Inés makes a dress for one, she wants it, of course, it's for the world to know.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

Know more

• Fashion trends

• Trends