Custo Barcelona (Q1302)
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Spanish fashion label
- Custo
| Language | Label | Description | Also known as |
|---|---|---|---|
| English | Custo Barcelona |
Spanish fashion label |
|
Statements
Gold sequins, colorful fringe, and sparkling Lurex were the usual suspects atCusto Barcelona’s Fall 2019 show, often appearing all at once. The collection, titled “Insta Glam,” had razzle-dazzle stitched into every garment, and it was a lot to take in. From the jacquard patch-working to the crystals and giant paillettes, it felt more like a party than a fashion show—and that tends to be Custo Dalmau’s intention. “We are not fashion designers,” he said. “We are creatives who make clothes.”With a deep passion for making confident, feminine clothes, Dalmau embraces the power of sex appeal with a side of glitzy chaos, always inspired by his hometown, Barcelona. However, something about the futuristic sunglasses paired with his crafty, magpie aesthetic for Fall had more of a Western, potentially Burning Man–inspired feel.A few of those looks were barely there, like the shoulder-tied asymmetric minidresses, while a sequined puffer and kaleidoscopic fur offered more zipped-up options. The opening look seemed too young for a club—and the model certainly was. Within the 59 looks, Dalmau introduced a sneak peek at his next project: a children’s line.
10 February 2019
There are two ways of looking at a Custo Barcelona show. Either you embrace the madcap nature of Custo Dalmau’s aesthetic or you scratch your head. Spring found Dalmau looking to nightlife with a collection of looks for balmy summer evenings dubbed After Sun. Partygoers who come alive after dark require a little glitz to keep them going into the wee hours, and Dalmau provided it via clashing prints and techno fabrics. A metallic overload filled his runway with embellishment amped with holographic sequins, glossy textures, and plenty of neon mixed into pieces that were already busy.There is always a great deal to take in with Dalmau’s shows, but your eyes may not know which element to settle on. Do you look at the reflective patches, sequins, zigzagging prints, or strategic cut-outs? (All of which can be found within one look.) More is not always more. Does a bodysuit that already has an appealing pattern and color also need a layer of fringe and the patchwork face of an owl? Questions abound, namely why promising pieces like a dress with geometric patterns in shades of tangerine and lavender didn’t inform more of the collection.
9 September 2018
When it comes to Custo Dalmau’s more-is-more aesthetic, your mileage may vary. If you are interested in skin, embellishment, and pattern, Dalmau provides plenty, but the clash of textures and colors can prove overwhelming. For his Fall 2018 show, Dalmau played with an East-meets-West motif and a dramatic take on outerwear. The latter worked better than the former, with cold-weather staples like the puffer coat and down jacket getting a welcome dose of oomph via unexpected fabrications. A sequined patchwork coat in a unique shade of olive drab could be a cure for the winter blues, but the layered-on styling took some of the attention away from the collection’s stronger pieces.Of course, outwear wasn’t the sole focus. Slinky dresses abounded, with flesh-baring slits showing off toned stomachs and thighs. Paillettes covered black gowns, while transparent mesh provided several looks with a futuristic feel. Still, with all the neon camouflage and assorted frippery, it was hard to separate the hits (sweaters detailed with embroidered swans, loose-fitting bronze trousers detailed with sequins) from the misses (fringe and feather pencil skirts worn with see-through printed tops).
11 February 2018
A label’s audience denotes its aesthetic. When core customers crave a certain style, designers respond with collections that address those needs—all of which makes you wonder exactly who Custo Dalmau of Custo Barcelona geared his Spring collection towards. Futurism may have served as an inspiration this season, but the looks presented seemed rooted in overt trendiness of the early aughts. Filled with glitter, sequins, transparency, and every other design element you could think of, Dalmau leaned into maximalism.Streetwear was a focal point, with brightly colored hoodies, tracksuits, and bomber jackets all making appearances. They were crafted in transparent fabrics that seemed unsuitable for the gym or the club. Likewise, sequined-covered dresses provided intriguing moments of pattern play, but their beauty was hard to take in when styled with clashing fanny packs or an odd series of baseball caps. With so much of everything (and all at once), the collection’s strongest moments occurred when Dalmau gave the clothing—and his ideas—room to breathe. When Lula Kenfe stepped onto the runway in a comparatively simple asymmetrical dress, the moment was a much-needed change of pace and something the collection could have benefited from more of.
9 September 2017
Custo Dalmau’s signature patchwork came with a metallic sheen and plenty of sparkle and shine this season. Lurex, iridescent lamé laminated fabric, sequins, and tinsel collided on a parade of club-ready ensembles. In some cases, the metallic mashup was accented with macrame fringe, twill, and velvet jacquard.The silhouettes tended toward body-conscious and asymmetrical; at times they felt a little overly complicated, as evidenced by a complex minidress with cutouts and crisscrossing straps. But then simplicity is never the goal with Custo.The sporty puffer coats were a great foil to some of the sexier styles; a vinyl black minidress looked particularly cool accented by a puffy coat. The outerwear in general was strong; a blue monochrome zebra coat in the men’s collection had the right blend of funky sophistication. Dalmau takes risks with fabrics that other designers wouldn’t dream of attempting, with varying degrees of success. He used metallic tinsel to line coats and accent collars—a perfect example of his more-is-more approach at its best.
12 February 2017
The show notes forCusto Barcelona’s Spring 2017 collection, titled “Way More," promised a “more is more” theme—and they weren’t kidding. Designer Custo Dalmau cranked up the volume on his signature heady mix to create something like a sartorial version of an Ibizan rave.As a reviewer, it’s a challenge to find words to describe the individual looks at Custo Barcelona; there’s always so much going on, which is, of course, the point. This season, given the theme, there was even more than usual to parse: plastic-looking sheer culottes, skirts with gold fringe stripes, sequined bikinis under fishnet dresses, embroidered bralettes, tropical prints, and red and gold embroidered ruffles arranged asymmetrically on a minidress.Worn separately, a handful of pieces—like a beautiful hand-cut eyelet white coat and shimmering sequined pants—would make sophisticated statement pieces, even for the minimalist-inclined. But Custo Barcelona clients will, no doubt, want to throw it all on at once. They’ll find plenty to play with in this collection.
11 September 2016
Fall 2016 marks the 20th anniversary ofCusto Barcelona. To celebrate the occasion, designer Custo Dalmau decided to surprise his audience with a collection that was considerably more pared down and sophisticated than usual. In comparison with last season’s spilled jigsaw of prints, textures, and textiles, it felt downright minimal.Of course, there were still a number of mixed prints and interesting textiles, but they came in a softer, more subdued palette. The first handful of looks featured a geometric patchwork of a hairy knit leopard, dark snakeskin, and a shiny coated fabric that looked somewhere between patent leather and plastic. Some of the looks—particularly the ones constructed from the plastic-y purple ombré material—seemed to borrow from the mod decade. Mostly though, the collection referenced the ’70s. Between the flares, the quirky square glasses, and the eclectic mishmash styling, there was something a little bit reminiscent ofAlessandro Michele’sGucci. Whether it was merely coincidental or not, Dalmau is hardly the only designer this season who seems to be feeling Michele’s influence.Dalmau still excels at creating one-of-a-kind fabrics, and this prowess was perhaps better appreciated thanks to his restraint elsewhere: Two standouts included a wool that was woven with tonal raffia and a black fringe coat with metallic thread. The collection was titled “Reborn,” and it did feel like a turning point for Dalmau. Where he goes from here remains to be seen.
14 February 2016
Custo Dalmaucalled hisSpring collection“Slow,” which appeared to be a bit of a misnomer at first, because the head-on collision of prints, colors, and textures felt more like a frenzy.Actually, the collection’s name is an homage to slow cooking, of all things, which the show notes defined as “a culinary movement that rejects the standardization of taste.” Dalmau wanted to go against the current, he said, defying the pull of fast fashion and deliberately designing pieces that would require painstaking and time-consuming work. One open-work vest was assembled like a puzzle, from different pieces of fabric that had been cut into geometrical shapes. Backstage one could admire the impressive handiwork, but on the runway it was hard to notice because, between the contrasting car-wash-pleat skirts, color-saturated dresses layered over slinky striped flares, and embroidered patchwork contraptions, there was simply too much going on. The collection would have benefited if Dalmau had subtracted a few ingredients; that way we could have savored the unique taste of each piece.
11 September 2015
Who finds fashion at the car wash? Custo Dalmau, that's who. For Fall, the ebullient designer took flyaway strips of his typically raucous prints and fabrications and sewed them up into flirty minidresses. (Those streamers were meant to mimic the pieces of cloth fabric flapping at your car when you drive it through the automatic suds machine.)How the heck did he come up with that? Apparently, via good old-fashioned team brainstorming. "We're always trying to mix experimental shapes with classic silhouettes," the designer said at a preview on the ground floor of his Soho boutique. To be sure, this collection was more rooted in the classic than usual. Heavy coats in mohair plaid and navy wool were paired with embellished and revealing miniskirts, as well as sheer metallic-threaded blouses. A firm believer in color—and lots of it—Dalmau also made room for black-and-white wool plaid, as well as some semi-somber tweeds. Long capes woven into tribal prints were the big story for both men and women: They gave off the Custo vibe while still potentially appealing to a new sort of customer.Dalmau and his team are always eager to point out that the runway is a place for experimentation. They take those ideas and make more easy-to-digest pieces for the commercial market. But there was stuff this season, particularly the outerwear, that won't need much tweaking.
15 February 2015
A Custo Barcelona collection is never lacking in the exposure department, but Spring took baring (almost) all to the next level. "The goal was to show the body," designer Custo Dalmau said at a preview in his Broome Street store. He did that by punching cutouts and keyholes onto the hips of already scant minidresses, which were made decent by satin bathing suits in the house's lively prints. Even the more covered-up numbers offered a bit of reveal, including a white lace, collarless V-neck jacket and a black teardrop lace tank top with a metallic glaze. Dalmau tempered the provocative look—albeit only slightly—by using more black and white than usual. His print mash-ups—such as an embossed graphic satin patchworked with metallic embroidery and beading—were still very present. But did it look good? Taste is such a subjective thing, informed by province and personal culture. For the Custo Barcelona customer who loves Dalmau's outlandish aesthetic, there was plenty on offer.
7 September 2014
Designer Custo Dalmau loves a busy pattern. But for Fall, instead of relying on clashing prints to get the Custo Barcelona message across, he played with texture and the idea of a guillotine splitting looks straight down the middle. A camel skirtsuit, for instance, was done on one side in wool and the other in a shiny faux fur. A set of men's and women's overcoats was split personality too: One side was a light tan, the other a zebra print. When Dalmau did incorporate more colorful patterns—one a digital Gaudí depiction on gold lamé fabric—they were grounded by black turtlenecks and tights. "I wanted to create something optical," the designer said the day before his show, in his studio underneath the Custo Barcelona store in Soho.The collection also aimed to capture a single fashion moment: 1980. It was after disco but before the power suit, which meant people didn't know exactly what to wear. Dalmau did his best with a shaggy black coat dipped in pink and camel. It was a piece that could easily be found on the streets of New York, or even London. The rest, as usual, was designed for the brand's very specific customer, who probably does not reside in one of those cities.
8 February 2014
Designer Custo Dalmau was feeling a bit subdued for Spring. "This collection is about sophistication," said the designer earlier this week in the basement of his Soho boutique. But subdued and sophisticated mean something different for the always vibrant, entirely eclectic Barcelona-based label than they do for most.Instead of a collection of beautifully engineered jacquards and woven raffia haphazardly piled on one another, Dalmau was content with pairing two or three textures. The change was good. For instance, a sheer white blouse with sweet broderie anglaise accents was worn with a pair of long culottes, the front of which were done in a red and white Aztec embroidery, the back of which were printed with a black and white hieroglyphics motif. The outfit was topped off with a red and white visor. Yes, it was a lot, but it still looked good. Same went for a shimmering rose-gold blouse embroidered with neon raffia at the shoulders and worn with a metallic jacquard skort. On the men's front, a pair of iridescent, tiger head-printed trousers elicited cheers from the males in the audience. They would never fly north of Miami—especially worn with that fishnet tank—but there's obviously a market for them.In this increasingly global world, the way we dress day to day will continue to homogenize. It's good to see that Dalmau recognizes the fact that globally, consumers are more clued in to current fashions, and that he's willing to offer some more practical, trend-driven pieces. But it's also nice that there's still a colorfully printed bathing suit with purple leather fringe hanging from the sides in the collection, even if it's something only one in one hundred would want to wear. It's pieces like these that help Dalmau keep his standing as a fashion original.
7 September 2013
"It's not for everybody," designer Custo Dalmau said the Saturday before his Fall show, going through looks with the team at his Soho boutique. Indeed it is not. An utter mishmash of fabrics, colors, materials, and prints, it's easy to knock a collection that many would consider the ultimate hot mess. Titled Beauty and the Best, the lengthy runway show featured too many concepts to mention, but here are a few. For women, Dalmau did tiny dresses with pronounced shoulders in a variety of sparkly, jangly fabrics and knits. There was also an Aztec skirt reminiscent of Proenza Schouler's 2012 collection. For men, it was all about wildly printed suiting; woolly shawls were draped over the models' shoulders.It's hard to imagine any guy going for those capes, but the suits? There's surely a market. Because Dalmau does have a following. For those who subscribe to the Christian Audigier aesthetic, he offers fun party clothes that look great on the beaches of Miami and Spain. It's just that very few of them attend New York fashion week. Dalmau's been showing since 1997—an impressive run—but he might be better off trying, say, Madrid fashion week or even Rio on for size. Right now, his unique point of view is being ignored by the aesthetes.
9 February 2013
"Our identity is prints and colors," Custo Dalmau said backstage before the Custo Barcelona runway show. So prints and colors you shall have! Spring's energetic lineup featured palm trees and chevrons, hearts and flowers, and the portrait of one serious-looking lady who can best be described as Mona Lisa the Pirate. Men and women alike were treated to the print parade, but it was a man who was chosen to rock a pair of dangerously small gold-foil shorts and a tight knit top in violet. Call it girlfriend dressing. Transparency was a recurring motif—several of the girls had plastic trains floating from the back of their shorts—and various trimmings were patched together to make entire garments, which gave several pieces a mesh effect. These are unsubtle clothes with a lot of moxie. Monochromists and minimalists need not apply.
8 September 2012
Backstage before Custo Barcelona's Fall show, Custo Dalmau talked about his continuing evolution of the brand's DNA. "It's a fusion of colors, graphics, and materials," he said, explaining that this season they focused on combining traditional fabrics with tech fibers. The goal, he added, was to make something that was "experimental and contemporary."Experimental's not a bad way to put it. The mash-ups that occurred when, for example, tufts of hand-loomed wool were grafted onto a synthetic leather cocoon dress had a science-experiment quality to them. The collection's thigh-grazing minis were accentuated by strappy, open-toe boots worn with socks that had a coat of silver fuzz growing along the back calf. Sounds odd, but they looked right at home among the patchwork knits and Chewbacca furs.For the guys, there were skinny herringbone suits, tinfoil pants, and half-one-thing, half-another blazers. But it was the girls who got to have the most fun. What Little Monster wouldn't flip at the chance to wear a hooded green confection covered in thick fringe? It looked like what Gaga herself would wear if she appeared again as Kermit the Frog, but this time he was stationed in Patagonia. All in all, these are statement-making clothes for an adventurous crew.
11 February 2012
For Spring, Custo Dalmau played with shifting holograms, creating 3-D prints on garments that, when sold, will come with their very own pair of high-tech 3-D specs. To give to your date? To better see yourself? Who knows—it's all part of the wacky Custo Barcelona gimmick. Flat prints were a big story, too. One sheer printed tank top featured a pair of hands coming around from the back and reaching up to grab the model's… well, you get the idea. That top wouldn't have worked so well on a guy, but Custo did show some looks intended for both women and men. For the most part, this meant T-shirts, shorts, and blazers. Happily, a pair of gold mesh hot pants that zipped up both sides was girls-only.
10 September 2011
For Spring, Custo Dalmau played with shifting holograms, creating 3-D prints on garments that, when sold, will come with their very own pair of high-tech 3-D specs. To give to your date? To better see yourself? Who knows—it's all part of the wacky Custo Barcelona gimmick. Flat prints were a big story, too. One sheer printed tank top featured a pair of hands coming around from the back and reaching up to grab the model's… well, you get the idea. That top wouldn't have worked so well on a guy, but Custo did show some looks intended for both women and men. For the most part, this meant T-shirts, shorts, and blazers. Happily, a pair of gold mesh hot pants that zipped up both sides was girls-only.
10 September 2011
Custo Dalmau's Custo Barcelona celebrates its 30th anniversary this year. That's pretty extraordinary, when you think about the relative newborn status of many of his fellow labels. But Dalmau—still at the helm, no less—is hardly an éminence grise. Some labels mellow as they age; not this one.Dalmau titled his show Clean…But Not Really, a reference to his original intention and aesthetic at the line's founding: "We started this project on a palette of clean colors that are not usual," he explained backstage before the show. "From there, we work a lot of details into each piece to achieve a sophisticated, contemporary language at the end." Was it clean? Or even sophisticated? Not really. Layers of overgrown knits dangling hairy appendages were married to quilted silk minidresses—in some of their gone-to-seed extravagance, they almost resembled a maxi take on old Rodarte (not that you can really compare this to what the Mulleavy sisters do, of course). For men, the engorged knits—Dalmau called them "three-dimensional"—took the form of bulky sweaters, which, off the runway and on the rack, could have a punky afterlife.This wasn't for the faint of heart. But Custo never has been. Over 30 years, Dalmau has carved himself a niche and done what he intended: created a contemporary language all his own. The house was packed with those eager to hear what he had to say.
12 February 2011
Custo Dalmau's Custo Barcelona celebrates its 30th anniversary this year. That's pretty extraordinary, when you think about the relative newborn status of many of his fellow labels. But Dalmau—still at the helm, no less—is hardly an éminence grise. Some labels mellow as they age; not this one.Dalmau titled his show Clean…But Not Really, a reference to his original intention and aesthetic at the line's founding: "We started this project on a palette of clean colors that are not usual," he explained backstage before the show. "From there, we work a lot of details into each piece to achieve a sophisticated, contemporary language at the end." Was it clean? Or even sophisticated? Not really. Layers of overgrown knits dangling hairy appendages were married to quilted silk minidresses—in some of their gone-to-seed extravagance, they almost resembled a maxi take on old Rodarte (not that you can really compare this to what the Mulleavy sisters do, of course). For men, the engorged knits—Dalmau called them "three-dimensional"—took the form of bulky sweaters, which, off the runway and on the rack, could have a punky afterlife.This wasn't for the faint of heart. But Custo never has been. Over 30 years, Dalmau has carved himself a niche and done what he intended: created a contemporary language all his own. The house was packed with those eager to hear what he had to say.
12 February 2011
There wasn't a solid color in sight. Illuminated by the light of a thousand camera phones (give or take) wielded by exuberant audience members, Custo Barcelona's print-on-print-on-multicolored-feathers party mix came stomping down the runway on shoes that matched. Backstage, flanked by Kimora Lee Simmons in a ginormous turquoise faux fur wrap, Custo Dalmau explained that he wanted to juxtapose fantasy (say, a top made of looped synthetic strips with fluttering wine-red sleeves) with reality (a pair of denim micro-cutoffs). In their smackdown with the real world, the fantasy-on-fantasy pairings grabbed the upper hand more often than not, and the rainbow-dipped feathers flew. But you expect Custo's Ibiza-bound, private-jet-setting customer to have her head in the clouds, don't you?
11 September 2010
Style.com did not review the Fall 2010 menswear collections. Please enjoy the photos, and stay tuned for our complete coverage of the Spring 2011 collections, including reviews of each show by Tim Blanks.
13 February 2010