“It is time to once again build bridges between fashion and cultural manifestations. During these last few years, it seemed that it was frowned upon, if you belonged to certain cultural circles, to use fashion to send messages”. Sergio Lázaro and Verónica Abián, creators of Otrura, are not interested in the almost always sterile debate on whether or not fashion is art, quite the contrary, their idea is much more concrete: treating the craft of dressing as a vehicle for expression . After winning the L'Oréal award for the best collection in Madrid fashion week last April, this “fashion house”, as both like to define Otrura, has been chosen to dress the members of the EL space COUNTRY in ARCO, which this year houses the work of the Cantabrian artist Juan Uslé. "When we saw the piece, that subtle way of representing hope and calm, we thought it fit our way of seeing things," they both comment.

Faithful to his philosophy, focused on contemporary tailoring and the enhancement of craft trades, Otrura has designed two seemingly simple suits but full of nuances. For him, a jacket and pants with a relaxed silhouette; for her, a two-piece vest and pants and flat shoes. “Two things were important. The first, that the colors and shapes dialogue with Uslé's work but that they remain in the background”, they explain. "Second, to get out of the stereotype marked in this type of event, especially with regard to women's clothing." In fact, these and most of the firm's creations escape traditional gender impositions. “Comfort is the key. For the rest, we believe that the clothes you choose condition your attitude, your way of moving and interacting”, they say. “That is why we wanted to dispense with adornment, with the classic idea of ​​getting ready that always prevails in this type of context. Dress as in day to day ”, they affirm.

However, this impression of everydayness does not imply the absence of content at all. “Art should only be concerned with the transmission of its messages, fashion has to be wearable, but it must also express ideas. In fact, you just have to see how certain artists relate to clothing, for some it is a way of reinforcing their ideas”, they say. In their case, they are very clear about that message: they do not have a predetermined client profile in mind, as is often the case, but they seek to provoke emotions in those who wear their creations, what they call "dressing for oneself", a message apparently simple that, however, condenses ideas that are revolutionary in the fashion sector: permanence versus novelty or imprint versus brand new. “We love that the garments show the passage of time. What's more, we always say that if someone has something of ours they can bring it and we'll fix it or turn it into something else”.

Lázaro and Abián believe in the slow rhythm, in the value of national clothing, in the basics that make a difference through their nuances and in dressing in an artisanal way every day (something that is also new in Spain , where the industry usually oscillates between the massive offer and the author's design for events). Because, above all else, they believe in clothing as intellectual reinforcement. “Bringing our designs to ARCO is not only entering a context that is not related. We are also representing a media outlet in some way, and that is very interesting. Relate our clothes to the concept of the reader with a critical spirit, how they would dress, how they would express their freedom through the garments”, they explain.

After the fair experience, Otrura will once again immerse themselves in their new collection, which they will present in September at the Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week in Madrid and at 080 in Barcelona. If in the previous one they wanted to vindicate the mastery of the textile workshops of the so-called empty Spain, in this one the theme has yet to be revealed, "although it will focus on problems that in some way interest us all," they advance. That is precisely the basis of his ideology: creating garments that represent the person who wears them, making aesthetics a wrapper for ethics.