Aliaga By Aliaga's collection reminded me a lot of to this year's theme at the MET Ball, "Heavenly bodies" with those all white gowns embellished with pearls, lace, overlapping layers of transparency and a mystery halo all over every single piece shown.

Pablo Escudero comes from the city of Córdoba but is currently based in Valencia, and his origins are present in every gown of his collection. Frills, polka dots, flowers and lots of different colors who transport us to the South of Spain with flamenca gowns reinterpreted into pieces to be worn on a more day to day basis, like a special family event or occasion.

Gilles Ricart's professional career in fashion started in 1987 and since then, he's been translating his background in graphic design into colorful geometrics and shapes present in his garments. Eclectic and chic, the hand painted fabrics give every piece a unique sense of authenticity.

Miguel Carbonell puts together his career in fashion design with his interest in scenic arts and theatre, mixing them both and getting very dramatic and powerful looks as a result. At Pasarela de las Artes he put into the stage a set of mesmerizing hand-painted silk corsets and assembles inspired in Rococó era with hints of ancient silk trading routes.

Zoraida Cases collection played with silk, feathers, and very defined straight silhouettes to obtain a collection directly taken from the flapper era. Clean and polished encounters between the many different materials result in elegant and refined garments which could be worn in the most varied kind of events.

Antonio Faus beautifully crafted designs were all about draped shapes, clean lines and very defined edges in different colors. Heavy fabrics formed A-line skirts in varying lengths in a collection which used floral crowns and diadems as accessories to add an ethereal, fairytale atmosphere.

Last but not least, Esther Canet showed a flowery collection, with designs with unique patterns which reminded of the countryside but in a sort of urban way, with knee-length dresses and skirts, jumpsuits and rompers and comfortable and versatile pieces to be worn on the go.

The second day of our Apritimoda 2018 experience in Firenze we decided to take advantage of the fact that it was not necessary to make an appointment to visit the Antico Setificio Florentino and the factory of the brocades and handmade silks of Stefano Ricci, which are in the same building a bit far from the center from the city, on the other bank of the river.

Inevitably, I have to start with the less positive aspects of our visit and it is that, because it is an extremely rare place and that it is not normally open to the public (it is not a mandatory stop for curious people nor tourists here in Florence), we found a lot of people in the first turn of the visit. This was not what bothered me in our visit to the Antico Setificio Florentino, but the fact that they made us sign a type of authorization with our data - that I must confess I did not read- quickly and in an absolute rush before entering, due to "image rights and possible damage to the machinery". I do not like to sign things that I have not read previously. As you will understand, in this situation, with almost 50 impatient and nervous people waiting to enter behind us and a waiting time for the visit that had already lengthened more than expected, for a visit that did not require a previous reservation (as it was actually required in other visits to which we did not go, as for example the atelier of Ermano Scervino) was something very uncomfortable and inconvenient. There were people who did not want to sign and they went where they came from after a few tense moments.

But, in short, and bad things apart. This site surprised me a lot because it reminded me of the traditional silk industry that is being carefully and little by little recovered, with places such as the Museum of the Greater Art of Silk in the city of Valencia. With the particularity that this site is a factory + real showroom, where silk fabric is crafted every day (there are also these places in my city, and like this place, they are not very known by people who are not very familiar with the world of fallas and traditional design of Valencian clothing) destined to create brocades, brocatelles, wild silks and all kinds of wonderful fabrics that are generally used for interior design (although I could easily make a couple of skirts and dresses with many of the fabrics that I saw there). I enjoyed it and appreciated the live demonstrations of weaving.

After our visit, we returned to the chaos that is felt on any Sunday in the city center of Florence, where, in the Piazza della Signoria, is the Gucci Museum, also known as "Gucci Garden". Gucci Garden is a museum, café-restaurant and the Gucci flagship store here in Firenze. A place where all the philosophy of the brand and its current designer, Alessandro Michele meet and interact with the public to show the history of this Italian maison.

I have to say that from this site, I loved its interior design, the museography (which is very well planned and executed. The lighting is impeccable from the architectural point of view, and the wallpaper and fabric coverings of the walls of some rooms, they are so divine that you want to die right there) and how, even being poor and unable to afford to buy a sweatshirt for 1,300 euros in their gift-flagship-store, you can feel like you belong for a tiny moment to that universe full of light, color and flowers. However, I am not sure if I would pay the entrance for entering any other day. I liked it as a concept, I liked how it was planned and I liked the things that I saw (although, I had the sensation during the brief tour of the museum that everything was a great ode to the current designer, and I found a great lack of pieces from other eras that showed more of the history of the brand). I liked it, but I do not know if I would pay the 8 euros that the entrance costs, and that we didn't pay thanks to the Apritimoda event.

Without a doubt, it all was a different experience that not all Erasmus students can live in their destination cities for their year studying away from home, and for that, I felt very fortunate.

A lot of you might know about my preparations for the next year studying abroad and some of you might also know about me being dressed in the traditional Valencia costume. How does this two things get together and what's behind this bizarre beginning of a post? Well. Today's post is about what are we and where do we belong. Since I'm already starting to get my preparations for my year abroad, still not very sure where I'll be traveling next course I've realized how much I appreciate my city and how I'll be somehow a representant of Valencia soon.

I didn't really appreciate being a Valencia citizen since I cut off my belonging to a falla and saw my friends dressing proudly their traditional and super colorful dresses this year. It's made a whole change in my mind. Like a click. I didn't really realize how much I missed dressing as a fallera and how much I'll miss the cultural heritage in Valencia until I started searching for silk fabrics and accessories like a crazy thing. How in this city we have one of the most ancient silk industries in the world, as Valencia was a key spot in the Silk Road between the 15th and 16th Centuries.

So, in today's post, I would like to approach a little bit of what means silk to us valencian people and our fiesta; I'd like to show you some hints of the kinds of patterns, colors and contemporary uses we give to this fabric and also how it represents our culture and history. Nowadays, the main use we give to this floral patterned fabrics is for making the traditional fallera and fallero (woman and man) costumes, which we only use during March at neighbourhood parades and processions during the fallas festival in Valencia. Well, and also during some events taking place during the year, but only related to fallas. Some designers have also found out how to commercialize this traditional fabrics as souvenirs or as more on-the-go fashion pieces as skirts, dresses or purses.

Second thing is that although the silk is the main and original material used to manufacture these fabric pieces, the common thing is to find artificial silk dresses, as it's cheaper and its use is more extended. Anyway, these fabrics are not usually sold "to cut": a fabric roll might measure up to 1,4 metres wide and up to 7 metres long, and you usually buy the whole roll for asking to your local fallera dressmaker to made the whole dress custom to your measurements. You might find fabric remnants to make children fallera dresses or to cover our shoes, but it's not a very common thing. The approximate prize for a fallera fabric roll starts at about 100-150 euros. And then, sky's the limit.

Then, there's the espolín. Espolín is the handmade fallera fabric fully made out of silk threads and 100% by a handmade loom. It's the thing we aim to treasure, appreciate and pass on generation to generation here. This fabric is also named after the little pod used to carry and pass on the threads through the wooden loom, which is also called espolín. An espolín fabric is a very rare and unique thing. There are only a few companies in Valencia which make these silk fabrics following the ancient tradition, usually custom-built for those who are crowned "queens" of the fiesta or are inherited from generation to generation. An espolín fabric may cost from 5,000 euros onwards; all depending on the threads' colors, metals used and the pattern difficulty.

Since these last fallas festival that I started doing some research to help one of my friends to get her first and own fallera dress ever, I really felt like I needed to share with the world the amazing things you can find at the places where we come from.

("Espolín Lidón" silk fabric from Les Barraques)

Floral patterns. I've always thought they're very cute and feminine. Any floral dress is always easy to combine, with sandals or pumps. The clue is keeping it simple with accessories, and rocking the outfit with makeup. This dress made with a brocade, sparkly fabric which reminds me my fallera costume is just perfect to leave aside my black and white accessories, and match everything with golden touches as well as blue shades.

Makeup was really fun to do, there're some closer pictures of it below and a really quick explanation of it. It's basically blue eyeshadow with sparkly golden liquid eyeliner + blue eyeliner + lots of random eyeliners. See below.

Last but not least, you might be wondering why so much time since the last post, right? Well. There're many reasons: first, I updated my old HP laptop to a new, faster Macbook. It took me zillion days to get used to the new system (it's weird sometimes!), as well as tuning it for blogging and class tasks. Second reason, I've a real obsession with ''Once Upon a Time'' TV series, so it seems like someone put glue on my screen and couldn't stop watching it. Third and last thing, I'm traveling soon to Italy and NYC (yay!!) so, I'm getting ready with my bags and things for it. Really exciting! 

Any tips for visiting Milan and Lugano? :)