Moisés Nieto – Madrid's rising star

10 Oct 2012

Not only does his name sound like a prophet's, but he has the beard that goes with it. Besides this, Moisés Nieto is actually a worth-watching young designer based in Madrid, Spain, who has – next to his own eponym brand, that now goes into the 5th season – already received a lot of praise from the critics, Vogue Italia's Franca Sozzani included.

Fashion-wise, Moisés didn't part the sea so far, but within his last two seasons the designer has proved that he has a few other tricks up his sleeve, fusing eye-catching traditional and sometimes mystical elements – from historical architecture and religion, over to taxidermy – with sporty yet feminine contemporary tailoring, minimal aesthetics and bold print detailing. A promising designer talent who deserves to be observed more closely.

You've been working as a furniture and graphic designer before premiering your first collection in Spain, in 2010. Why did you switch from one profession to another?

I was basically tired to work on the computer solely! I wanted to breath life into my designs and motives, to shape my ideas into volumes and patterns, so this is when I decided to start with fashion. After graduating in fashion design and pattern making at the International School of Design in Madrid in 2009, I was pretty sure by then that this change made sense. Fashion has just much more dimensions and is therefore less “flat”, than what I did before.

Your first Spring/Summer collection 2011 was indeed about feminine volumes and draping, also a lot about showy accessories...now, your latest silhouette is cleaner and more tailored than before. How would you describe this evolution?

Well, my style is continuously evolving as my brand is barely three years old. I started indeed with a lot of volumes and shaped silhouettes in order to experiment with proportions. I guess you always need to challenge yourself, if you want to end up finding your own signature style. For my latest spring-summer 2012 collection for example, I started to work with technical fabrics, such as neoprene, which I didn't use before. Then for my last autumn-winter 2013 season, I wasn't exploring that much fabrics anymore, but rather a story behind the collection. For this one, I was inspired by San Joan de la Cruz who died in my hometown, Ubeda. It was all about turning religious, therefore rather austere looking gowns, into a feminine look. So I had to play with textures and tailoring a lot. At then end of the day, I'm still experimenting when it comes to creating collections. With time, you start to realize what you like and what you don't – in this context, moving to a more sporty and fitted silhouette, with less volume than in the beginning, is not necessarily an evolution, it's just another way to experiment with fashion design. I guess it might still take me around five years – just as any other young designer – to find my own way. But I'm rather confident for now.

Even if you don't own it yet, how do you imagine your signature style?

It would be like a subtle battle between a very classy, sensuous lady and a more sporty and masculine woman. I don't want to go for straightforward elegance, this would be to boring. I think it's better to be somehow biased, in between things, maybe in between luxury and sportswear.

Talking about luxury: you've been taking part in Franca Sozzani's prestigious fashion design competition “My own show” and now you're working with Valentino...it just looks as you've been taking the fast-track through fashion!

Working in Valentino's atelier is just an incredible opportunity to actually learn more about my profession. I just finished working on ten outfits and I'd love to do more! It's something that keeps you going, of course not only because it is a good name to have on your CV, but it's an unique experience to learn from and work with people of such as traditional fashion house. As a young designer, you're often on your own, so working in Valentino's atelier just opens up new perspectives and gives your energy for your own work.

Your last spring-summer was all about colorful sportswear chic and your latest autumn-winter collection played with austere yet desirable looks...what's up next?

I've already got a clear idea in my mind, the leading topic of my spring-summer 2013 will be taxidermy. Now, that my sound odd to some people, this said, I do not intend to set my focus on fur solely – the fur that I will use for this collection is in fact second hand, I'm basically recycling it and mixing it with technical fabrics. To go beyond the animal topic, it is rather about spirituality, about breathing life into something dead. I just love the contrast between something old and recycled and something new. Working with contrapositions and contradictions in order to create something desirable is all what I am looking for!

For more informations about the collections and access to the designer's e-shop: http://www.moisesnieto.com