Maison Mesa at MBFWMadrid
About Maison Mesa
With a career of more than 20 years, Juan Carlos Mesa has actively contributed to visibility and development of Spanish fashion.
He has worked for such important brands as Delpozo, Blanco and Cortefiel. In 2001, he moved to Mexico City to create the styling department for Elle, Harper’s Bazaar, Men’s Health and Marie Claire. After returning to Spain, he develops his work as Agatha Ruiz de la Prada’s Creative Director for 15 years.
In 2017 Juan Carlos Mesa opens his first design studio, Maison Mesa, located in the heart of Madrid. Maison Mesa is presented as an atelier for sewing and fashion image, based on the quality of the materials and the classic and artisan techniques of traditional sewing without prejudices to new technologies, as 3D printers and holographic or ecological experimental materials, looking for an absolutely contemporary classic avant-garde.
Since then, he has presented 5 collections, the last 3 of them within the MBFWM calendar. Also, over these 3 years he has carried out more than 20 catwalks in Spain, Mexico and Thailand, without neglecting his dedication to teaching and stage costumes.
Collection lines
The figure of Elagabalus, Roman emperor of the 3rd century AD, inspires our new collection. This emperor, reviled and vilified by historians, is known as the first trans person in history after expressing his desire to surgically change his sex and to dress in female attire. He rises to power through the influence of his Syrian-born grandmother Julia Mesa, identifying himself with the Sun God Invictus (Helios) and the Syrian god Gabal, as the fusion of the Sun king/god Heliogabalus. A short reign, barely 4 years in which, for the first time in history, two women rose to power in the Roman Senate, even creating a Senate made up exclusively of women.
The sexual scandals and delusions of power are the highlights of his government, surrounding himself with prostitutes as a court and exercising this profession himself, marrying vestals or men, holding parties where the guests, after getting drunk, died literally drowned by an incessant rain of rose petals. An irreverent emperor, who breaks with gender schemes, with established sexuality, with power systems, who grants women political power destined exclusively for men, delivered to their own desire and establishing himself as an absolute god. A reference “for all the true enlightened ones that may remain in this world that is lost; pointing out its outdatedness, its spiritualism, its uselessness, the anarchy and the war in this world; reference to the ancestors, to the heroes in the old sense and to the manes of the great dead.” (Antonin Artaud from his book Heliogabalus or, the Crowned Anarchist).
Femininity, desire and power as central elements around which all garments revolve, a story about female power regardless of age, race, origin, gender identity, orientation of desire or size.
Geometric pieces generate volumes and drapes according to their construction structure, of a classic/avant-garde cut and with references to the films Medea by Pasolini or Roma and Satiricon by Felini.
Evening dresses along with day pieces such as sweatshirts, shirts or jackets, all united under the influence of the Sun god Helios, which reflect his light with nuances and sparkles, with his color or with embroidery and applications.
Bright colors ranging from white to yellow, passing through heavenly blue and gold, dusty greens and nuanced pinks faced to their more intense versions. Smooth, textile textures, innovative materials such as lasers merge with more traditional embroidery techniques such as the smock stitch, made by hand by artisans from the company Belán from Zaragoza.
Classic materials versus more contemporary and innovative ones, cotton voile, organdy, satin, mikado, silk muslin and crepes versus metal fabrics, shiny and lurex jacquard or knitted finishes, going through metallic or translucent sequins or others that create camouflage military embroidery. Fabrics that reflect light with their shine predominate, with lurex, with satin weaves, fringed fabrics that provide shine and movement as if they were lightning, even fabrics that change their color after continuous exposure to sunlight, or that allow it to pass through them in translucent effects on polyurethanes, organdy, muslin and tulle.
Helios is present from the concept to its textile manifestation.
Once again we will collaborate directly with the choreographer and artistic director Dani Pannullo and his dance company to direct the staging, fusing again dance and fashion with various artistic and artisan disciplines, such as the video art made expressly by the artist E-dito, collaborating with the jeweler Lisi Fracchia with whom we jointly designed all the pieces in the collection, in the same way that we will do with Casteller and its traditional espadrilles or with a set designed by Cemente Design in collaboration with the Malaga School of Architecture .