Andalusian Businesses & Covid-19 – Fashion Designer

08/05/202023/05/2020
by Coralie Neuville

Andalusian businesses and Covid-19 – Interview with flamenco fashion designer Antonio Gutiérrez

From the collection *Souvenir* by Antonio Gutiérrez – Photo by Kiko Lozano ©

Spain’s Covid-19 state of alarm entered into effect on the 14th of March 2020, just a few days before the start of the season of the most celebrated Andalusian festivities. How are businesses in Andalusia coping with the Covid-19 crisis?

Every year, millions of tourists come to Andalusia for Holy Week, the Seville Fair, the Cordoba Patio Festival and Granada’s Day of the Cross. It’s also this time of year that one of Spain’s most important pilgrimages takes place, the Romería of El Rocío.

In 2019 alone, these festivities contributed over a billion and a half Euros to the region’s GDP.

And, this year, they’ve all been cancelled. So, to see how Andalusian businesses are managing with Covid-19 crisis, and, at the same time, give a voice to various protagonists of Andalusian culture and tradition, the Andalusian section of the international French news site Le Petit Journal commissioned a series of portraits of Andalusian entrepreneurs.

One of these is the following interview of mine with the flamenco fashion designer Antonio Gutiérrez.

Granada’s flamenco fashion week had just come to an end when the Spanish government declared the state of alarm. How did you take the news?

This time of year’s really important for us. There’s the Seville Fair, the pilgrimages, and, of course, lots of weddings. And, from one day to the next, our production completely stopped. We had to cancel everything.

Economically, how is the situation?

Well, currently, we’re not receiving any new orders. Though my customers haven’t cancelled their orders, so, for the moment, it’s fine.

I’ve got a full order book. But next year, what’s going to happen?

Will my customers just wear the creations they bought this year. That means they won’t be ordering anything next year. So, in any case, I’ve decided that, for now, I won’t be putting on any sales.

The government has promised some form of aid for businesses trying to cope with the Covid-19 crisis. Can you benefit from it?

My workshop’s shut, and my seamstresses are all at home, furloughed. We’re waiting to be able to resume production.

But more than any subsidy, I would like the national as much as the regional government to give us creators more visibility. This moment in time should serve as a lesson.

How would that work?

Together with other flamenco fashion designers, we’ve created an association, Qlamenco, whose prime objective is to get flamenco fashion formally acknowledged as a craft industry.

We want the flamenco dresses that have inspired internationally renowned stylists, such as Christian Lacroix or Dolce & Gabbana, to be seen as an art form. We want the business that revolves around it to be based on the model of the Paris or Milan Fashion Week.

For this, we need the Spanish government and the Andalusia Region to support us. To recognize it as an art.

Flamenco fashion is the only regional fashion that continually changes, evolves, creates jobs and is admired the world over, year in, year out.

That’s why we have to have a presence at major events, such as Madrid’s International Tourism Fair, FITUR.

And, during the Paris Fashion Week, why not organize a parallel flamenco fashion show at the Spanish Embassy?

We need space, we need visibility. Even more so after this crisis.

Right now, how are you coping with the Covid-19 crisis on a daily basis?

I’m a positive person. I adapt easily.

I’m particularly active on social media. It’s my way of staying connected with the world.

My brand is selling in Dubai and Belgium. I have to keep it up. For this, social media really works well. As I said before, we are trying to make things happen, to have a broader recognition of flamenco fashion.

Many fashion houses have been manufacturing masks and protective equipment during this crisis …

Us too! When we shut the workshop, all the seamstresses took their sewing machines with them. Some stores in Granada supplied us with fabric. This kind of helping hand is normal. With this crisis, we have had this surge of solidarity, a humanity that has found itself a little lost of late.

Do you have a final message for our readers?

Andalusia is a land well-known for celebration and good humour. I have to admit that, as an Andalusian, I’m very proud of how people here have respected the lock-down.

Us Andalusians are often seen as a bit of a black sheep, but we’ve shown that, beyond the sun and the fun, we can be serious too. We have adapted to this unprecedented situation, all the while keeping a smile on our faces.

Ours is a land of traditions and of solidarity. So we look forward to welcoming back all the world’s lovers of Andalusia and Andalusian culture with open arms.

Businesses are coping with the Covid-19 crisis by taking the time to better promote their products and services. This is a photo by Kiko Lozano © of the collection Souvenir by Antonio Gutiérrez. — From the collection Souvenir by Antonio Gutiérrez – Photo by Kiko Lozano ©

Find out more about designer Antonio Gutiérrez by visiting his website, Facebook page or Instagram profile.

Article originally published in French in Le Petit Journal, the local and international news site for French expatriates and French speakers.

Read my other interviews with Andalusian business owners facing the Covid-19 crisis:

– Cereal café owner Ludovic Meloen.

– Hotel owners Virginie and Betrand.

The Day of the Cross

04/05/202023/05/2020
by Coralie Neuville

The Day of the Cross: My favourite of Granada’s festivities

Picture of a flower cross in Granada's town square with a setting paying homage to the Alhambra. — The Cross in Plaza Carmen pays homage to the Alhambra

Once a year, I dress up to the nines, thread a rose through my hair, grab my hand-painted fan, and head out to meet my friends. No, it’s not a masked ball, but Granada’s Día de la Cruz, or Day of the Cross.

Well, what’s the Day of the Cross all about? What do we get up to? And why do I look forward to it so intensely every year?

Falling on the 3rd of May, it was originally conceived as a celebration of the Holy Cross and a Christian holiday right across the Christian world. However, little by little, it was abandoned and finally removed from the Church’s calendar. In certain places, it evolved into a popular festival, while retaining its religious name and some connotations. In Andalusia, the festivity, which arrives with the spring bloom, is arguably most passionately celebrated in Cordoba and Granada.

It was back in the 17th century that the Day of the Cross really took off in Granada. At first, neighbours simply gathered around a cross decorated with flowers to eat, drink and chat together. With growing enthusiasm, these convivial meetings began to be highly organized, with neighbourhood committees competing to build the most beautiful cross and setting, and inviting the rest of the town to come and gush over their craftsmanship and artistry. Today, the town council runs a fiercely contended competition for the most beautiful cross. “Cross, cross, on the wall, who is the fairest of them all?” And, as with most beauty contests, there are several categories to win, according to the specific setting, be it a patio, restaurant, school, or so on.

Of course, there are also the favourites, the darlings of jury and bookmakers year in, year out!

Picture of a flower cross with a Spanish literature themed setting. — A tribute to Spanish literature

As the results come in, there’s always some disappointment, voices raised to denounce the jury’s favouritism, and then it all gets lost in the ensuing festivities, and the controversies are all but forgotten until the following year.

But I digress … The Day of the Cross is much more than a beauty pageant for flowery crosses, it is hours and hours of preparation that brings people together in good humour, not only to erect the cross, but to build a kind of altar, and set at its feet all manner of Andalusian arts and crafts, all to the tune of the finest flamenco music.

Father and daughter standing in front of a flower cross dressed in traditional attire. — Father and daughter in front of a cross

A delectable anecdote

At my first Día de la Cruz, as green as I was, I was surprised to find an apple with stabbed with scissors below every single cross, thinking, “What does an apple and a pair of scissors have to do with the cross?” Well, in Andalusian dialect, the word for “apple” is “pero”, but “pero” also means “but”! So the metaphor of the apple and the scissors is to symbolise the cutting short of any sort of criticism of the cross, such as “It’s pretty … but … then, in place of this, I would have done that …”, etc.

Apart from the apple, there’s something else that can’t be overlooked on the 3rd of May. Since Granada is the land of tapas, we don’t simply go out to eat in a restaurant. We go out to “tapear”. The food on offer is extremely varied, and the price of about two Euros fifty for a drink and a tapa drives consumption. But, on the day of the festivity, all self-respecting bars will serve you a handful of broad beans to sink your teeth into. And as it is the peak harvest season of this particular legume, there are plenty to go round!

Some broad beans and a slice of lard on a toasted bread roll. — Broad beans, the tapa star of the Day of the Cross.

However, surely the true stars of the Día de la Cruz are the women strutting around in their magnificent flamenco dresses, afraid to eat or drink too much, just in case the stitches and laces begin to work themselves loose.

In Granada, the Day of the Cross is a real fashion show. Forget Paris, Milan and New York! Here, the avant-garde of flamenco fashion is played out in all its glory.

Ostentation is a must! Bright colours, small or large polka dots, vibrant flowers, and a dash of lace. Just don’t be shy. And that’s what I love! It’s a femininity that flourishes and blooms. You might find that corny or overblown … but only until the day you find yourself taking part. For me, that was the 3rd of May 2015, and there’s been no turning back. That’s when I really felt Granada as my city and my home. Dressed as a local, I became one. I was the one tourists stopped to take a picture of. I had crossed the mirror.

Mother and daughter in traditional Andalusian dress. — Mirror, mirror, on the wall, tell me, who is the fairest of them all?

For more information, here are the official tourism websites of:

Feel free to comment, let me know what you think, ask for recommendations, and share this article!

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Feliz Día de la Madre 💖 Aujourd'hui en Espagne, c'est la fête des mères. Photo : @adambishop_it #diadelamadre

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Cordoba, city of magical sights, scents and sounds

29/08/201908/05/2020
by Coralie Neuville

Cordoba, city of magical sights, scents and sounds

Welcome to the sights, scents and sounds of Cordoba, a magical city where, behind almost every building façade, lies a magnificent open-air courtyard, or ‘patio’.

Before continuing to read this article about the beautiful Andalusian city of Cordoba and its most famous festival, why not check out my Andalusian Spotify playlist?

Does that set the scene?

Now, imagine some flowers, a whole load of flowers, absolutely everywhere, and of all shapes and colours!

Are you seeing it all?

If you want to experience the real thing, the time to visit is undoubtedly at the beginning of May, as the flower-full patios are proudly opened up to the public on occasion of the city’s world famous ‘Patio Festival’, listed as UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity since 2012.

Every year, thousands of people flock to Cordoba with one goal in mind: to visit as many patios as possible. Grabbing a map, leaflet, booklet or card, they plan their itinerary and set about marking off the stops one by one. The most renowned patios are quick stormed, building up long queues on pavements outside. If you’re lucky, you might only spend a half waiting to get in, and, in the meantime, you might strike up a pleasant conversation with your fellow queuers. But there are plenty of smaller patios tucked away in delightful corners of the old town, where you can spend longer admiring all the flowers and foliage around you and chatting away with the patio owners. On the other hand, if your mission is to see each and every patio, well, it’s pretty much mission impossible. Or, at least, you’ll need quite a few days to do it, since the patios are only open for a few hours a day, and are strewn right throughout the city. But you’ll have to sharpen your elbows! If you want to take a rather more leisurely pace, just stroll around, check out a few of the patios with lesser queues, get a refreshment here and there, and listen to the sound of Flamenco music that seems to permeate the narrow, cobbled streets. You could even indulge in a horse-driven cart ride around the sights of this multi-awarded UNESCO city.

Apart from the patios, you can also decide to visit the city by theme, historical period or at random, but, at least on your first visit, there are certain must-sees that you really can’t afford to miss.

What are the unmissable sights of Cordoba?

*The Mosque-Cathedral, UNESCO World Heritage Site*

First of all, it’s pretty much sacrilege to visit Cordoba without visiting the ‘Mezquita’, its ‘Mosque-Cathedral’. In turn, this religious place has been a temple, a basilica, a mosque and a cathedral, and, by its various architectural influences, is considered one of a kind in the world. The cathedral stands today as a witness of the various settlers of the city over the centuries, including Romans, Visigoths, Arabs and Castilians.

Leaving the cathedral, you will likely step straight into the ‘Judería’, the medieval Jewish quarter, a maze of alleyways and souvenir shops. It’s a beautiful part of the city to get lost in, though its restaurants are quite the tourist trap.

Digging deeper into the history of Cordoba, you will learn that it was once the capital of Baetica, one of the three provinces of the ancient Roman Empire on the Iberian Peninsula, corresponding more or less to the size and shape of Andalusia as we know it today.

The name, Baetica, comes from the River Baetis, nowadays known as the Guadalquivir. In the city centre, you can still cross the river by its Roman bridge, restored on numerous occasions and an outstanding example of ancient Roman engineering and architecture. Heading back through the centre, on the far side of the Jewish quarter, you also will find the remains of a Roman temple, right next to the town hall.

*The Roman Bridge over the Guadalquivir*

Just a few steps from the temple is the imposing square of Plaza de la Corredera. This focal point in the Cordoba scene is the only quadrangular ‘Plaza Mayor’ in the whole of Andalusia, where the term ‘Plaza Mayor’ is used to denote a main square historically used as a marketplace, the location of the town hall and a ‘place-of-arms’, a large open space in which to gather soldiers, weapons and supplies in case of attack. It also makes for perfect place to sit down and have a bite to eat on your tour around the city.

Returning towards the banks of the Guadalquivir, you should visit the ‘Alcázar of the Catholic Monarchs’. The ‘Alcázar’, a Spanish word taken from the Arabic ‘al-qasr’ meaning ‘palace’ in Arabic, was one of the fortified residences of Queen Isabella I of Castile, the first catholic queen of Spain, and her husband, King Ferdinand II of Aragon. It also served as one of the very first courts of the Spanish Inquisition, and was one of the locations where the king and queen consulted with Christopher Columbus before his impending voyage of discovery of the Americas.

So here are the absolute must-sees for a first short visit to Cordoba:

TIPS:

Top tip: Visit the Alcázar by night to see an awe-inspiring show of its refreshing fountains, lit in a multitude of constantly changing colours and pumping to the sounds of Flamenco and Arabic music. All this is set to a recounting of the history of Cordoba, and of the city’s importance not only for the Catholic Monarchs, but also as a capital city of Al-Andalus, the region of Spain once ruled over by the Moors. It all makes for an extraordinary spectacle that you’ll remember in intricate detail for years to come. For more information and tickets, visit the webpage of the city’s tourist office.

The perfect Instagram spot: ‘Calleja de las Flores’, or ‘Alley of Flowers’, a flower-lined street, in the Jewish quarter, that quickly narrows towards a backdrop of the Mosque-Cathedral’s main tower.

Did you know … ?

Cordoba has been listed 6 times by UNESCO, and boasts more UNESCO Heritage sites than anywhere else in the world. These include the Mosque-Cathedral, the historic city centre, the Patio Festival, and the Medina Azahara, the Caliphate City to the western outskirts of the modern city. Added to these four listings, are two of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity for Flamenco music and dance and the Mediterranean diet, which reference larger geographical areas that include Cordoba.

Feel free to comment, share your own suggestions, ask for advice, or simply share this article.

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Des fleurs aux balcons et des patios riches en couleurs, bienvenue à Cordoue. ▪ #cordoue #cordoba #andalousie #andalucia #viva_andalucia #patios #flores #patiosgram18 #cordopolis #ok_spain #ok_andalucia #total_cordoba #total_andalucia #total_espania #igerscordoba #estaes_cordoba #estaes_andalucia #loves_cordoba #todocordobac #spain #espagne #spain_vacations #unesco #travel #ok_europe #vsco #fiestas #flowers #mayocordobés #casas

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My Andalusian Playlist – ‘Envie de voyage : Andalousie’

26/08/201908/05/2020
by Coralie Neuville

Find my Andalusian playlist on Spotify, press play, and close your eyes to take your mind on a trip across this inspirational land.

But don’t expect to hear any Gipsy Kings or Reggaeton! On my playlist, you’ll find some of the great Andalusian composers, singer songwriters and performers, admired not only across Spain, but also extremely well-respected internationally.

Stay tuned as I update the playlist with more artists and songs.

The rhythm of Flamenco interpreted by a mural in the centre of Málaga near to the Picasso Museum.

Who is … ?

Vicente Amigo: Considered one of Flamenco’s greatest contemporary composers and guitarists, he grew up in Cordoba, and paid homage to the city in his album entitled ‘Ciudad de las Ideas’, meaning ‘City of Ideas’.

Paco de Lucia: If you know anything at all about Flamenco, you will already have heard this name. Largely known as the greatest Flamenco guitarist of all time, it is mostly thanks to him that the world over knows the distinctive sounds of Flamenco.

Estrella Morente: Originally from Granada, she has one of the most celebrated voices on the contemporary Flamenco seen. If you have seen Pedro Almodóvar’s film ‘Volver’, hers is the title track of the same name.

Pablo López: Discovered on the television show ‘Operación Triunfo’, the Spanish version of ‘Fame Academy’ in the UK, he is one of the leading exponents of the latest generation of Spanish singer songwriters. He is currently a jury member of ‘La Voz’, the Spanish version of the TV singing competition ‘The Voice’.

David Bisbal: Once again discovered on the show ‘Operación Triunfo’, he is one of the biggest selling artists in Spain and South America. His song ‘Todo es Posible’, ‘Everything is possible’, features in the animated film ‘Tad the Lost Explorer and the Secret of King Midas’, which is partly set in the city of Granada.

Manuel Carrasco: Here’s another artist discovered through the show ‘Operación Triunfo’. He has participated in a number of other TV shows as a jury member.

Pastora Soler: Representative for Spain in Eurovision 2012 with her song ‘Quédate Conmigo’, ‘Stay with me’, she has a varied musical style that fluctuates between modern Flamenco and Pop.

Not born in Andalusia, but born of Andalusian parents:

Malú: Niece of the acclaimed guitarist Paco de Lucia, she is one of the most well-respected artists of the Spanish contemporary scene.

Alejandro Sanz: The Spanish singer songwriter par excellence, he’s a bit like the UK’s Gary Barlow, or Canada’s Bryan Adams. He achieved instant international fame through his collaboration with Shakira on the song ‘La Tortura’.

_{Did you know that … ?}

Los Del Rio: The original Latin pop duo responsible for the dance hit ‘La Macarena’ hailed from the Andalusian city of Seville.

If you know of any other Andalusian artists you think deserve a mention, don’t hesitate to leave a comment and I’ll be happy to add them to my playlist.

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Buller devant la cathédrale de Grenade. ——————————————————————— #fairedesbulles #bulle #bubbles #cathedrale #church #cattedrale #granada #grenade #andalousie #andalusia #andalucia #spain #architecture #vsco #facade #place #visit_spain #life #beautifuldestination #ok_granada #ok_andalucia #ok_monuments #total_granada #estaes_granada #summer #été #total_andalucia #igers_granada

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