Valencia Fashion Week 2014, XVI Edition. The city where I live may not be as large or even known as Milan or NYC, but we also live fashion here and so we have a local Fashion Week where some Spanish designers show their collections, and where we can enjoy fashion, share our experiences with friends and live style.

This local Fashion Week edition has been full of complaints and controversy, due to the ''exclusivity'' thing which already happened on last New York Fashion Week's events (limited tickets, smaller spaces...). I was really lucky to be invited this year (in fact, first year of FW for me...) but, I know a lot of bloggers couldn't attend and some people said that even some press and media had no accreditations. The truth is that I really missed the fact of seeing more people around there, different things and more street style.

I was invited to Eugenio Loarce and Anillarte catwalks held in the ''City Museum''. It's an awesome place, full of a kind of luxurious atmosphere, ancient but perfectly restored where most of the events were developed. Surrounded by cameras, lighting, soft fabrics and in between catwalk and catwalk I met Fashionart team which collections I already spotted the week before.

I spent a really lovely evening and it was such a new experience for me I hope to live again next season!

Fashionart. Nice to meet you! :)

It feels like ages since the last time I attended a local fashion event! Everything feels like a hurricane since I ended classes, and coming back to blogging was a must-to-do thing on my list. Since it's summer (and a really warm one in Valencia, I must say) fashion events, presentations and launch parties surrounded by iced tea, cocktails, friends and nice music have taken over the city. And all I could do about it was to say yes, have fun and tell you everything happening around!

Last Thursday night I was invited to one of the chicest, trendiest party place in Valencia to have a look at two recently graduated fashion designers' collections who are already succeeding and catching everybody's eye at the city. Marcos Gamón (MG Design) and Adrián Cubero (CuberoQuesada) collections are the result of their Final Graduation Project at Barreira A + D school and were first launched about a month ago on a graduation fashion show. Thursday night was their second release on a more relaxed, informal ambient. All I can say is that I'm glad I attended, and I'm thankful I was able to see first hand their effort and hard work during their course. Both collections are different, have different influences, shapes and techniques, but both of them were almost as proficient I thought I was spotting a catwalk on a professional fashion show.

I'm glad I could have the opportunity to meet this two emerging designers and have a really fun night among fashion and friends. It was so terribly warm outside I decided to match my outfit with the tropical, humid weather we're suffering in Valencia with this colorful, patterned midi dress from Ted Baker and my Rondine tote bag, where I'm always able to carry my camera and blogger survival kit. Definitely, a night to remember which may be repeated in coming days for the Chapelle Magazine event!

#17VFW Spring/Summer 2015. Here I'm another season doing my little report on what is coming to our wardrobes, and specially Valencian wardrobes this coming year. This time with some special features running on the catwalks as most of the show's we've seen until the moment have been achieved by local emerging designers and Fashion or Design students introducing their Final Degree Projects, among some consolidated designers and brands. That has created a really powerful concept of Fashion Week on my opinion, full of contrasts and different points of view beating the catwalks. We've been also thrilled to enjoy fashion, music and every little piece of clothing at that huge white hall at "Centro del Carmen", which is great.

For all of you who follow us on our fanpage you might know that I had some mates during the evening. By the way, thank you Eduardo and Natalia from Fashionart for the help, pictures and for making the day super enjoyable! Every show was really nice to see and take pictures for all of you to see them. It feels incredible on how every designer has this kind of "vision" for the coming fashion, which is some months away, but at the same time they have their common points, shapes or color palettes. You can learn amazing things at Fashion Weeks, believe me, and not only about fashion or trends. You learn about your city and their people, about spaces, about light, about everything you could imagine. Every show is a mix of sensations coordinated by the chef designer.

As we lived on Thursday really different experiences and collections of this #17VFW, here's a little summary of what happened on this first day of Valencia Fashion Week!

Fallas were finally burned Tuesday's midnight. But I couldn't avoid uploading this pictures, so you can really see what a fallera costume looks like. I think it's the other side of fashion, isn't it? Tradition and typical culture of each part of the world. I personally love to see how different fashion can be depending on where you go, and how each culture has its own way to see things which you can discover through fashion and what they wear.

So, this is my little input to this topic of traditional fashion and local costumes. I think the fallera dress is pretty overdone, basically because the skirt is full thanks to the petticoat we wear underneath (and super heavy because of the material it's done of), because we also put our hair into three buns (one on the back, and two on the sides over the ears. Ouch!) and well... You see: the dress has lots of colors, flowers, and fabric, and jewelry and so on...

It may seem uncomfortable as it's a very voluminous costume, but once you wear it and you get used to it, you walk downtown with your friends wearing the same costume, and you see lot's of people taking pictures of all the girls looking like this... Well, you know it's worth it, because you're helping other people to understand what you feel living here.

Autumn is here! After a long and warm summer around, we're finally able to see some rain drops covering the city and enjoy mornings full of fresh air. You can't imagine how much I missed fall season. Autumn is synonym of inestable weather and grey sky, but also the start of that period of the year where you begin to get the coziest and warmer pieces out of the closet. Rain boots, maroon and brown shades, sweaters and dresses, isn't it nice?

Between fashion show and fashion show last weekend we landed at Place Valencia to get inspired by the new collection based on burgundy, brown and fall shades at El andén de Marie Jo. Casual dresses inspired by 60's era, easy to pair with your most comfortable coats and jackets when weather gets cooler. Neutral but really charming makeup was required for this photoshoot, thanks for the help to Kento - Cuidado Personal and everyone who lent a hand on this project as well! We had an amazing time shooting and having fun while pairing the outfits.

On following days, we'll be showing you some ideas to pair your fall looks the best way possible! On this first part, I'm featuring this lovely maroon dress with long sleeve and flowers, which makes it look really fun.

(Pictures shot by Leticia. Thanks for being my blog-tographer for a day!)

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.

Friday, 10PM at Centro del Carmen, Valencia. Yay, can't believe I have been all the week wishing Friday finally arrived, not only to get some rest but also for the emerging designers/fashion event organized by Circuito de la Moda from Valencia and it has already passed by!

Circuito de la Moda Valencia is a national fashion platform which features young emerging creatives and every month looks for new faces for this designers' presentations and catwalks. They do some events on Valencia, and this time we were invited to meet the collections by Anna Vicent, Yana Oblap and Fashionart, which is a crew of young designers based on the Valencian College of Fine Arts. The event had an unique placement downtown, on a former convent converted into a XXI century museum. Imagine what was running through my mind when entering there and see that pure-awesomeness-piece of archi-culture.

Circuito de la Moda is an independent, non-profit organization that works with the new designers to develop their presentations and shows, so getting a proper space for developing the events might be a little bit tricky. That's the reason why I feel like I must write down my critic about the event, as a constructive review. Although the whole space was like the perfect scenery, the catwalk was held on an available exhibition hall, pretty narrow for the over 400 people who attended to the event and taking pictures was a total ordeal: everyone was in front on me or had to peek to see when the models where coming, and therefore half of the pictures I took have publics' heads, or hands or backs everywhere. The evening ended quite well although my feet almost killed me, and I ended a little grumpy because the few pictures I could take without everybody in the middle of the frame... 

Anna Vicent collection ''Peonía'', which features a really feminine shapes and soft fabrics reminding Spring and flowers. Delicate and super stylish:

#CHAPELLESUMMER. As some of you might know, I'm a regular contributor at Chapelle Magazine, an independent online fashion magazine 100% made in Valencia and where I have the pleasure to review fashion shows, talk about fashion and architecture or trends every three months. I'm very proud on taking part on this project, not only because their founders (Eduardo, Natalia and Beatriz) have become true fashion colleagues, but also because Chapelle Magazine is one of the most important independent fashion publications at the city right now, giving the opportunity to young and emergent designers to feature their creations and to reach more people interested on their designs.

As last week, I was invited to one of the most iconic and modern places in Valencia which is L'Umbracle, a partially covered garden turned into a terrace and summer lounge bar where I had the pleasure on covering the Barreira A+D School fashion show last week. This time I came not only as a blogger to tell you all what happened there, but also as a contributor, friend and kind of assistant on the previous backstage. I will tell you about that, about what happens behind (and before) the show on another post (because the first thing you should see is the final result, like when Cinderella attended the ball) but I can tell you there were nerves, there were plenty of mishaps and everything happened on a rush.

As it was the launch of the new Summer issue, we had the chance to see some swimwear collections of designers featured at the new number and even a dance performance by dance crew DSM5. Eve Angel Suit, Moisés Prats, Isabel Akkin, Anna Vicent, Nathnit, Montag73 and E. Jairycovich were the ones in charge to add fashion and style to the night with their collections of bikinis, swimsuits (both for men and women), beach wraps and accessories. Their designs were as fresh as ever when talking about young designers, and the night was as fun and bright as I thought it would be. Congratulations!

• 150 cm x 150cm aprox. of a tight and heavy fabric like canvas or neoprene. For a more accurate dimension, measure your waist and double it.
• Scissors
• Needle and thread. Preferably you'll need the thread on the most accurate color possible for the fabric and thread on the most opposite color for basting with large stitches.
• Sewing machine (or you can hand-sew it)
• 20cm zipper
• Iron
• Measuring tape
• Pins. Tons of them

Step 4:

Put the zipper on that hole of 20cm high you left at step 1. I recommend presenting it closed and with its handle facing the right side of the fabric (be careful about not putting it reverse!). Then pin it being careful not to leave any fabric on the path of the zipper, or you'll have trouble clasping and unclasping it. Then you can hand-sew it or sew it by machine.

Step 6: