Beatriz Miranda
Updated Monday, February 19, 2024-21:33
Princess of Asturias Awards The suspicious presence of Felipe Varela in Madrid
Mystery The strange disappearance of Felipe Varela, Queen Letizia's dressmaker
Finally, what many
Letizia watchers
and other experts in the world of rags expected has happened. Felipe Varela has finished
disassociating himself
from the Queen's closet and also from his own brand, which he has left
in the hands of his brothers.
It is the natural step after several
movements
in his company that predicted the current situation.
Starting in 2014, the Madrid couturier gradually
stopped working
for his star client, to whom he owes his worldwide fame. In 2016,
he relaunched his brand,
but in a much more personal way, since he simply renamed himself
Varela,
with a clear intention for it to survive him.
The Queen, dressed as Varela.GTRES
Then several
insiders
consulted by this newspaper opened the eyes of those who thought that the relaunch hid a reconquest of Letizia after different rudenesses, since then she was already beginning to be
unfaithful
with other
maisons
:
"It is not she who has abandoned her favorite designer. It has been the other way around.
Felipe has made money, he has married
a Cuban boy living in Miami and lives between Paris and the US. He has made enough money and wants to finally make his life,
renounce the slavery of the workshop."
Indeed, in 2010 she had married
Joel, a strong young man
who worked in a Prada store in Miami, in Salamanca. Since the wedding, Varela went to see him a lot, she also traveled a lot to Paris, where she trained as a
couturier
working for Mugler, among other prestigious fashion houses.
His final departure from Spain
was, therefore, about to fall.
See this post on Instagram
In any case, Varela's departure from Varela, announced by Vanitatis last Friday, does not imply, by any means,
the closure of his company,
with points of sale such as
its Ortega y Gasset store and two corners
in shopping centers in Madrid and Valencia (apart from the online channel), which continue to supply ceremony fashion to a demanding group of Spanish clients who highly value their well-made sewing. Especially his
impeccably cut
suits
. From now on, everything indicates that
her brother Jacob
will continue to be the CEO,
Abraham
the financial director and
Ruth
, her intermittent communications manager, although we have tried to contact her and have not received any response.
Felipe Varela founded his own brand
in the late 90s,
whose company is called
Centro de Costura Castresana.
It was in 2004 when he met the then future Princess of Asturias. He introduced them to
Jaime de Marichalar,
who lived in the attic of the building where Felipe Varela's store is still located in the Salamanca neighborhood of Madrid. The young Letizia Ortiz went there with her sisters and her mother; It was Varela who made
these very important guests
their dress to attend the royal wedding.
The proclamation
The rest is history. The aforementioned media estimates the presence of Felipe Varela outfits in Letizia's Zarzuelí dressing room at 90%, as she always trusted him when it came to wearing new clothes, especially at official gala events. Things went down from 2014, coinciding with the proclamation of Felipe VI as King and with
the signing of Eva Fernández as royal stylist
, which opened the Queen's wardrobe to other brands
made in Spain
and Spanish capital of greater international significance, like
Carolina Herrera (from Textil Lonia) or Nina Ricci (from Puig).
It was then that there was speculation about a possible disagreement between Felipe Varela and his most important client, but later it emerged the opposite, that he had already achieved enough fame for his brand to fly alone and the Queen no longer needed him as much. There was an amicable
divorce
, wow. With the
pandemic crisis
, the Queen was encouraged to recycle her
rods
, even update them. The last one was premiered at the 2019 Princess of Asturias Awards, Leonor's first public speech, an ideal symbolic framework to stage her farewell among these good friends.
The last time the Queen wore one of her
varelas
was on the official visit to Denmark last December. And it is foreseeable that she will continue wearing them, since many are timeless and she maintains the same size. As for the brand, it will continue on the right path once established. In 2022
they had a turnover of almost two million and continue to employ 12 people
.