This week we spoke with Ángel Vilda of Brain&Beast – one of the Spain’s most contemporary and queer labels – about his obsession with..obsession, how he feels like a daddy to the fashion kids of Barcelona and how Brain&Beast is really an extension of his real-life family with César Olivar, Ezequiel Carril and a lot of dogs…
Ángel, there are three of you involved but you are the face of Brain&Beast, right?
Call me the boss! Haha…At the beginning, all three of us would walk out at the end of our shows but my therapist told me that it was not right to do it like this. I am the one who is designing the collection. It’s not about ego, it’s not about being more than the other two. But if I am the only designer then I should walk out at the end on my own. The one who sells the collection is the seller. I won’t be there because my task is not selling. My task is designing. So it’s like that.
I didn’t realise you were a teacher too?
I’m the Head of the Fashion Department at IDEP. As soon as I graduated from London College of Fashion, I started teaching here in Spain. I taught more or less everything – pattern-cutting, fashion design, costume design, fashion history. Working with new generations can be really really exhausting. You become like father to all of them. I feel responsible for them. Maybe just 5% of fashion students now will find a job. I really care about that. I care about all the stupid tiny things going on in their head, right until they finish.
Did you have a mentor when you were starting out?
My parents always taught me well. No one had to tell me anything. I don’t know if you believe in horoscopes but I am a Scorpio and ever since I was a kid I have known I wanted to be a fashion designer. But when it comes to learning, I had to go bankrupt to really understand money. Before Brain&Beast, I produced my own label, Ángel Vilda. I had seven or eight people working for me. But the first time we went to a trade fair in Paris, we didn’t sell anything. It was really hard, I had to close the label. Then I met César, moved to Barcelona, worked on Costume Design for Cinema and Theatre until César told me, ‘You are a fashion animal! We have enough money, let’s start something.’ And this is how Brain&Beast began.
How do you feel your collections have progressed since the beginning?
Our first collection was really a mistake. Coming out of bankruptcy, I was really scared and so I wanted to be sure the first collection would be commercial. But I was completely wrong because there was nothing personal about it. I made what everybody else was making. That first collection was all about not making anything too risky. But we went to that same trade fair Paris and still sold nothing. I was really down, but afterwards thought, ‘OK we are not making Brain&Beast for us to suffer – I want to enjoy it!’ So we found our own way of working and did the sampling, the patterns, the sewing – all by ourselves. That’s why, ten years down the line, we are still here; because we are completely independent. I don’t care about trends or selling and maybe not being obsessed with that has been part of our success.
Is finance an important part of Brain&Beast?
To be honest, after you hit forty, you don’t care about about the same things as you did before.
Yes, I am thirty-eight and I can feel that already.
In two years it will make no sense. Now I like travelling, being comfortable at home. I’m not really into brands or buying things anymore. I only wear Brain&Beast. We went to Florence last weekend, and it was really nice but we bought nothing! We just ate!
Since moving to Spain, I have become a minimalist. When I lived in London I bought magazines every day!
Me too. I had the French Vogues from nineteen ninety-eight to two thousand-and-something. But they were taking up too much space, so I moved the whole collection to my parents’ house in Madrid. I have a garage full but I will never look at them again.
Going back to IDEP. It must be hard balancing your work there with Brain&Beast.
I’m not really afraid of working too much, I’m afraid of being unemployed! I enjoy teaching as much as I enjoy designing for Brain&Beast. And at Brain&Beast there are three of us; César, Ezequiel and I. We don’t have kids, we just have dogs.
Is it hard to not bring work home?
We don’t think of Brain&Beast as a job. It is the way we feel. We talk about work all the time. Right now we are starting a new collection and maybe over dinner we’ll talk about the new concept, figure out the casting. During the week so many other people are….repairing bicycles! It’s just that we work in fashion.
Are there any core themes that have inspired you right from the start?
Illness. I am crazy for anything ‘science.’ If I was not a designer, I would have been a doctor. I am interested in how people suffer. I don’t like strong people, I’m always drawn to the weaker ones. I ‘m not like a nun but I want to know what is wrong with them!
The influence of ‘illness’ is there in your models’ makeup but is it in the design too?
In a very ‘Brain&Beast’ complicated way. When someone obsesses over an actor/singer there is a relationship between them – even the pop star is involved. This is a type of illness. I was reading about someone who had been living in George Michael’s house when he was alive. She was there for a few days and thought he had invited her!
I have never met Madonna but I feel like she is part of my family. What is the limit of this ‘healthy love’? Eventually fans feel this relationship is over and everything flips from love to hate in a couple of seconds. That idea of obsession really inspires me.
So if ‘obsession’ inspired your last show, what is inspiring the next one?
We have spent the last ten years becoming known in the world of fashion and now we want people on the street to know Brain&Beast. But inspiration-wise, we are looking at Spain. I’ve never done anything typically Spanish. I want to think, ‘How do I see Spain? How would I like to see Spain?’
So will it be political?
No, no, no. Politics is a waste of time for me. I don’t believe anyone anymore. I’ve stopped reading the news, listening to the radio. Things are getting worse, every day, everywhere!
There’s a lot of fake news out there. How has social media changed for you?
When I started in fashion, all of us were obsessed with being in Vogue. I was in Vogue a lot of times, but I never sold any more items because of it. Nowadays social media is more or less the same. It’s important if you want to get sponsorship from a big brand. But ultimately it means nothing. It’s like when you put on a show, everyone wants to come, but I feel like saying, ‘If you want to support me, don’t come to my show, buy a t-shirt!’
You’re showing in Madrid and Barcelona but are you showing outside of Spain as well?
We are not doing runway shows but we are selling in in Hong Kong. To be honest, trying to sell in Spain is a waste of time. I’ve known this from the very beginning. But at the start I wanted to be the designer at Christian Dior. Now I’m really happy with Brain&Beast and my family. From next week we will have seven(!) dogs, we are adopting a lady, but we also have a house here in Barcelona, a house in Sitges near the beach, I have a family, a job, I can do the show I want to do. I mean if I made much more money – what difference would it make to my life? If I got to Marc Jacobs’ level, I would need a jet! I don’t want to get this big.
You have described yourself as a ‘radical non-conformist.’ I feel Spain has been shaped massively by the end of Franco’s dictatorship. There is a sense of rebellion everywhere.
One of the pieces that we sell the most of is a t-shirt that is half Iron Maiden and half Brain&Beast. I have never heard an Iron Maiden song. This is not the kind of music I like. But I love what it means. If someone is quite conservative, they would hate something featuring Iron Maiden. It’s not about the group. It’s about the meaning. There is a lot of anti-Christ symbolism in the signs of our last show. I don’t believe in the devil, but I’m thinking, ‘I want you to hate me!’
We should talk about your models!
My models are part of my real creative family. We have a big What’s App group and the group is becoming bigger and bigger. When I design a collection, I really think about who is going to wear it. Some of these models are always in my shows because they really represent a part of me. Didi, for example, is the girl I would like to be.
Now we have a lot of readers in London too…
I studied in London in 1999. It was the best time of my life, although everything was really expensive. Sometimes I had to decide whether to buy lunch or go out and the answer was always ‘Go out.’ I went to G-A-Y. Heaven. Ministry of Sound. Freedom bar. It was like coming out of the closet and just feeling like I was free. Coming from Spain, it was a shock.
Are there parts of London that have inspired part of Brain&Beast?
Sometimes people say, ‘Oh this reminds me of Vivienne Westwood’s style’ and I’m like, ‘Oh my God. Wow.’ It’s kind of a compliment when people say to me, ‘Your work doesn’t look Spanish.’
And last but not least, we are named after the infamous Mariah Carey song, ‘Loverboy.’ So…your favourite Mariah memory please?
I love her Unplugged moment. The video of her singing without the music. She was singing so badly. No, not her MTV Unplugged concert! The Times Square one! Just because of how bad it was! I love to choose what no one else likes. I think this is very Brain&Beast.
