In this issue of YO DONA (the most dreamlike in its history), we pay tribute to the muse, but also to the woman who has made us dream, with a portfolio dedicated to surrealism to commemorate the
120th anniversary of the birth of Dalí,
the artist Spaniard passionate about fashion and the most universal luxury.
Already sitting in the elegant location chosen to interview Nieves Álvarez, I receive a message from his representative that prepares me for the worst:
"Nieves is a little late."
Then the most evil clichés about top models come to mind: that they are despotic, that they are lazy and, above all, that they are very unpunctual. I prepare myself for a long wait, but a few minutes later, she appears, profusely apologizing.
Serpenti ring in rose gold and diamonds, from Bulgari. Shirt and pants in mohair wool, leather belt, socks and shoes in brushed leather, from Prada. Headdress, by Maison Vivascarrión. In the space, chair by Rainer Deumiller reissued by Gubi (available at Espacio Betty) and antique cane, by Judith San Quintín. Beauty note: maximizing the volume of Nieves' updo was possible thanks to L'Oréal Professionnel's TECNI.ART Full Volume Extra Mousse, a foam ideal for fine hair with super strong hold.
She has a somewhat deep voice and is dressed impeccably, elegantly and bourgeoisly: dark jacket and sweater, sunglasses, and a good coat. She is carrying a large bag with a laptop and cables protruding from it. It is common for models to give interviews dressed in gigantic sweatshirts, ripped jeans and destroyed sneakers. "No, no, not me," Nieves tells me. And she also just turned 50. "I never thought at 18 that at 50 she would still be here," she says. Another commonplace, yes, but not so common for a model.
There are few that last more than 5 years
at the top and even fewer that manage to remain at the top for three decades.
Proud of her profession
It is clear to Nieves Álvarez that she is used to talking to journalists, that some of them have taken a risk and that she knows perfectly well that her appearance and, above all,
her disarming good manners,
are imposing. His apologies for her miniscule delay don't seem sincere: they are. Also the pride with which she defends her profession, something not very common among so many models who what she really wants to be is an actress, designer or simply famous. Nieves has been an actress anecdotally (in the series Girls' Night), a children's clothing designer and famous since the time of Ragazza, the publication that also promoted the careers of Eugenia Silva and Vanesa Lorenzo. But, above all, Nieves Álvarez is a model.
«The other day a classmate of mine said 'I'm a postmodel now.' Postmodel? I
am a model and I will always be,
I have been before, I am and I will be. My career has many edges that open throughout life. I have made children's clothing, now I have my skincare line... But above all I am a model. "It bothers me when our profession is belittled, because it is extremely important to our fashion industry."
Divas' Dream necklace in rose gold with mother-of-pearl and diamond rubellites, and Allegra earrings in rose gold with amethysts, rubellites and diamonds, from Bulgari. Dress with ruffled maxi skirt, by Redondo Brand. In space: esparto basket, by Coco. 100% linen tablecloth, from Elitis. Textile from the Laglio collection, by Casamance. Vase, from Kave Home. Botijo, from La Real Fábrica Española. Beauty note: so that our surreal look remained intact during the photo shoot, we applied Infinium, L'Oréal Professionnel's ultra-fine, high-hold hairspray.
-Hopefully, when I reach 40, I can continue parading like you.
-Dear, I'm 49.
The person and the top
This dialogue took place last July in Paris, at a Haute Couture week show, between a twenty-something model and Nieves. She remembers him putting on a superstar voice: "Daaarling, I'm 49." This is how the top must speak, the character that she separates from Nieves, the person. The top is very top, but she knows how to laugh at herself.
“Call me goddess,”
she tells her great friend Juan (Avellaneda, designer).
Serpenti Tubogas watches with two and five turns in rose gold with diamonds set, by Bulgari. Moschino dress. Feather headdress, by Maison Vivascarrión. Antique carved and gilded wooden frame from Galería Marita Segovia.
He has others who take advantage of his fame to get a table in packed restaurants. That embarrasses her:
What if they don't know who she is?
What if, like at the Zaragoza train station, the top's magic doesn't work and she can't change her train ticket for literally being Nieves Álvarez? In the end she and Fran Marto, stylist for Flash moda, the TVE program that Nieves has presented for 12 years, could not anticipate their return to Madrid that day. She remembers it between laughs. No laughter, because there is not so much confidence.
Decades on the catwalk
Nieves Álvarez has never gone out of fashion. In return, she has never been the shooting star. Her moment has lasted
32 years, during which she has been dedicating herself to that profession
that she passionately defends. She cannot, therefore, star in the headline 'Nieves Álvarez returns to the catwalk', because, unlike many of her generation colleagues, she never left.
Serpenti earrings in white gold and diamonds, from Bulgari. Two-tone jacket and shoes, from Louis Vuitton. Black stockings, by Emilio Cavallini. Beauty note: If you're looking for that wild, unfinished effect, apply L'Oréal Professionnel Tecni.ART Savage Panache all over your hair, a texturizing spray perfect for adding hold to any hairstyle.
She lived with the supermodels of the 90s and had to adapt to everything that came later: the new mannequins with androgynous aesthetics, social networks or digital photography. "The first one was made for me by David Bailey for English Vogue," she recalls. When he pronounces the names of the fashion legends with whom he has worked (Bailey, Stéphane Rolland, Rifat Ozbek...) it is hard to believe that
"all the languages I know I learned on the street."
be less pretty
English actress Saffron Burrows was kicked out of a movie for being too classy. "You're not vulgar enough," the director told her before dismissing her. Nieves Álvarez has also been flattered and rejected at the same time. For a time,
Ella "too pretty"
was what she heard when she lost some jobs.
Tubogas necklace in rose gold with amethyst, peridot, rubellite, citrine and diamonds, and Serpenti ring in rose gold with onyx and diamonds, from Bulgari. Top and skirt as a headdress, from N21 by Alessandro Dell'Acqua.
"I shaved my head to make myself look ugly," he says. Then, the prestigious French magazine that had been titillating her for months with the possibility of placing her on its cover, finally did so. Nieves had once again shown that, if she wants something, she ends up getting it. Although she wasn't even shaved, she couldn't get rid of the "too pretty" thing on her. "
White Grace Jones,"
they said.
His relationship with Yves Saint Laurent
Yves Saint Laurent (“Monsieur Saint Laurent,” says Nieves)
forever marked his career.
With him she also achieved her dream of being a girl "like those in Robert Palmer's videos." The majestic and almost clonal women in the music videos for 'Simply Irresistible' or 'Addicted to Love' had a special fascination for the young Nieves. When she, for the first time in the Yves Saint Laurent atelier, saw herself transformed into one of them (crystal stockings, pencil skirt, tight hairstyle, red lacquered lips), everything changed.
Allegra necklace in rose gold with pink tourmalines, citrine quartz, blue topaz and pavé diamonds, and Allegra earrings in rose gold with amethysts, rubellites and diamonds, from Bulgari. Tuxedo jacket with lobster embroidery, from Avellaneda.
"When I entered that mansion on Avenue Marceau I knew that I was entering a unique and exclusive world and that I was the fashion elite," says Nieves.
That's where the good stuff started.
What would be left behind was traveling around Paris on the subway, from casting to casting "without a penny and living with four other models in the same apartment, listening to NO all day long." "Didn't ANYONE like me today?" Nieves thought then. Add to that the comment that she had started late in the profession (at 18, when other models debut at 14), the warnings to prepare for retirement at 28 or those "too pretty" words as ridiculous as they are cruel. .
With the heart
But Nieves, educated to always go to the end ("you have chosen this, here you stay," her mother responded when she, from Milan, called her overwhelmed by so many no's), did not give up. Although she still went too cerebral.
"I have very good intuition..., but I have never paid attention to it,"
she admits. Now, at 50, she does trust her hunches.
Her latest business project, the
Nieves by Nieves Álvarez cosmetics line,
was on the verge of being just another collaboration between a celebrity and a pharmaceutical laboratory. But in the middle of signing the contract, Nieves backed out. Now it is one hundred percent his project. After assuming that her packaging could not have the sophisticated presentation she wanted, she decided to invest everything in the content. «Today the final consumer knows a lot. In my time you used the cream they sent you and that was that,” she says. Now Nieves knows about cosmetic assets like she did at the time when she knew how to change clothes at full speed backstage on a catwalk.
Nieves and the top of the 90s
Today, the model who wears more than one look in a parade is rare. The art of
express shifting
has been forgotten. Not for Nieves, who takes advantage of it to, between presentations of her cosmetic line, change her clothes anywhere. In a parking lot in Alicante, for example. “And no one notices,” she guarantees me in a playful tone.
"Those of us from the 90s are old school,
we know a lot about light,"
he answers when I ask him if he has ever had the lighting on a set changed before starting work, knowing that a spotlight was placed incorrectly. The answer is basically "yes." Because, for a model, light is everything. And photogenicity, more important than beauty. «Laura Ponte, one of the colleagues and friends whom I admire the most, for me is the most photogenic woman in the world. You put this woman, who is super sassy and very grunge, in front of a camera and she is beastly.
Divas' Dream necklace in white gold with rubellites and diamonds, from Bulgari. Red dress from the private collection of Nieves Álvarez, by Alberta Ferretti by Lorenzo Serafini. In the space, French chandeliers, from Galería Marita Segovia. Set of Venetian glasses and ice bucket, by Yudith San Quintín. Crystal candle holders, antique souzani from India, green malachite porcelain plates, cutlery and ceramic leopard, from IQ HOME. Silver jug, from Carina Casanovas Antique Shop.
About education
Days after this interview, Laura Ponte, also 50 years old, would become, almost by surprise, one of the faces of the new brand of one of the most influential fashion designers of the last 20 years, Phoebe Philo. Instead of receiving applause for joining other international superstars who were the image of the brand, she sparked all kinds of hurtful comments on social media. When Nieves Álvarez assures that
"education has been lost"
she is probably referring to cases like this.
«The confidence you have in yourself is silent; rudeness and envy are very loud,”
she says. She is many things, but loud is not one of them. When we say goodbye, I'm left wanting to ask her if I've been talking more with Nieves than with the top girl or the other way around. With the 50-year-old person who, like you and me, carries her laptop (and charger) in her bag all day long or with the goddess who asks to change her AVE ticket and they do it for her. Or they don't do it. And nothing happens.
Serpenti High Jewelry bracelet and ring in yellow gold with rubies and diamonds, by Bulgari. On the lace patch, from Maison Vivascarrión, Serpenti necklace in white gold with emeralds and diamonds, from Bulgari. Capucine dress with sweetheart neckline and tulle flowers, by Pronovias.
Story of a cover
Veronica Gonzalez
Inspired by the suggestive
symbolism of Bulgari's Serpenti (powerful women who shed their skin, seductresses who transform, reinvent themselves...) and overcoming
all the obstacles, demands and clichés of the society of our time, this special issue is a
ode to metamorphosis, passion, rebellion and imagination.
In these pages, with spring just arrived, we celebrate
the fun, ambition and desire to live
of all those women (of any age) who do not plan to give up curiosity, the search for beauty, adventure or love. In short, we celebrate the spirit of all those who do not plan to give up. For this reason, and because we are proud to continue fantasizing, to create our cover 'Dreams of the 50s', with the complicity of Bulgari and Nieves Álvarez, we decided to be inspired by the universe of an irreverent, iconic master, but above all a great dreamer. We are probably talking about the most versatile and fashionable artist in our history:
Salvador Dalí.
The master of eccentricity, ironic and infinite, incorporated
surrealism
even into his own personal style. His distinctive mustache, for example, often twisted upward into sharp points, became a visual signature that reflected his devotion to theatricality and drama; This is how the idea of the
jewel patch in pavé of diamonds and emeralds of the Serpenti Seduttori Necklace by Bulgari
(inspired by the sensuality of the female gaze) that covers Nieves's right eye arose, or the obsession with going through the delirious outfits of our editorial with the spectacular pieces from the high jewelry brand winding through the silhouette of our extraordinary model.
The pretension? Take you into the universe of a creator who, following the example of his admired masters of the Italian Renaissance (Leonardo, Michelangelo, Raphael, etc.), used
all the codes of modern culture
to develop his artistic discourse (painting, sculpture, architecture, photography, theater, cinema...) and deployed them in parallel, deepening his global vision of art, conceiving it as a language without limits. Likewise, the master of performance extended his creativity far beyond the canvas and left an
indelible mark on fashion, luxury and fine jewelry.
-a world that was fascinating to him-. His enthusiasm materialized into collaborations, projects and unique creations that reflected his extravagant and avant-garde vision. However, although the Lobster Dress (photographed by Cecil Beaton and worn by Wallis Simpson before becoming the Duchess of Windsor) or the well-known Shoe Hat became part of fashion history; If there is a truly memorable facet of the painter in this area, it is his foray into high jewelry.
Dalí created a series of unique and exquisite pieces that fused his imagination with the most refined opulence. In 1949 he created the
Eye of Time
and in 1950, after the success achieved with the sofa that reproduced Mae West's lips, he designed
a brooch that simulated lips set with rubies
that, when half open, showed pearls reproducing the actress's smile. .
These creations, which often featured dreamlike motifs and whimsical shapes, reflected Dalí's desire to
explore new horizons,
transcend artistic boundaries and collaborate with other creators. His audacity and originality demonstrate that Dalí's creativity knew no limits and, for this reason, he continues to be an inexhaustible source of inspiration in art, but also in fashion and beauty.
MAKEUP AND HAIR
Beatriz Matallana for L'Oréal Professionnel (@lorealpro)
SET DESIGNER
Amaya de Toledo.
PRODUCTION
Deborah Palmini, Elena Alfaro and Javier Mediavilla.
STYLING ASSISTANT
Diego Serna.
PHOTO ASSISTANTS
Luis Spinola, Borja Alba and Germán Arbós.
PROPSIST
Lluc Planas.
FLORAL INSTALLATION
Alejandro Fernández Banegas.
PRODUCTION ASSISTANT
Javier Larraondo.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Palacio Infante Don Luis.