Teresa Helbig: "I am very much into cava and I am a 'bubble-lover': when I am happy, I burst with happiness"

Fashion designer Teresa Helbig (Barcelona, 1963) receives ARA at the showroom that the brand has on Mallorca Street in Barcelona. Each piece and each object has a story that Helbig explains with passion, vitality, and joy. Happy with the reception the retrospective dedicated to her by the Museo del Traje in Madrid has had –and hoping to be able to bring it to Barcelona as well–, the designer shows an imaginary that has been nourished by everything she has seen, felt, tasted, and drunk.Have you ever heard of Terra Remota? How did you get there?

— We spent a season in the Empordà with the brand. The owners of the house we rented were the owners of Terra Remota, which fascinated us. The winery was the work of Pepe Cortés and it is wonderful. I have spent magnificent moments there and they make a specific wine that I like a lot: the Caminant.

What do you like about this wine? 

— It is a blend of garnatxa blanca, chardonnay and chenin blanc. And it is exactly how I like wines: dry and very fresh. Furthermore: I would say it is an elegant wine.

Are you also looking for elegance in wines? 

— I always look for beauty. It is sickly [laughs].

What does fresh mean, in your case?

— I know it is frowned upon, but I like wine with ice. In my defense, I will say that I have seen French winemakers do it. If they do it, it must not be such a big sin [laughs].

The name Caminant makes one think of the landscape.

— It is beautiful to walk through the Empordà, with the vineyards and the light, even though I am a totally urban person. If you make me choose a vacation, I would always spend it on asphalt. I am enthusiastic about the city.

What is the best wine you remember?

— I have drunk extraordinary wines at the homes of people I love very much, but I do not remember their names. I am sure that the best wine I have tasted must have been with Artur Carulla.

Carmen Mañana wrote in a chronicle about Fashion Week Madrid that one of her collections appeared "like a bottle of cava in the middle of the desert". Do you feel represented by that? 

— A lot. I am a big fan of cava and I am bubbly: when I am happy, I burst with joy.

What has fashion taught you about the world of wine?

— Dedication, passion, time. Both are products intended for people who value them. There is the matter of waiting: in the end, a wine, like a piece of clothing, requires many months of work. And the time you spend at a dinner, drinking a good wine, enjoying it, savoring it, is something that does not go unnoticed.

Gastronomically, who do you admire?

— I am a big fan of the Gaig family and the Miramar family. It is like being at home. I always say that they are like Teresa Helbig but in a restaurant: the dedication, the effort, the family, the product; everything so well-cared for and meticulous. I always leave with the satisfaction that there are people on the other side, that there are more people who live their project as a wonderful story: a way of understanding life that involves a lot of passion, that gives value to things done well, that creates a memory that lasts over time.

Where do you find inspiration?

— I really like to nourish myself with different things: from cinema, from exhibitions, from books, from gastronomy; from everything that makes us grow. In a time when everything is fast, fast, fast, cultivating different things is fantastic.

When he was awarded the Ciutat de Barcelona Prize (2024), they said it was for his style outside of mass production.

— We always joke that we invented sustainability and women's empowerment without even knowing it. It is our way of life. When I was very young, I used to buy clothes that I couldn't afford: I would spend a lot of time saving up to have things that I considered precious and that I still keep. It is my passion.

A passion that runs in the family. Her mother was and is a dressmaker. 

— Mother Teresa is the alma mater of the house, my great role model: she is the one who taught me that a dress had to be just as impeccable on the inside as it is on the outside. She is 88 years old and is very, very open-minded.

What was happening with the porrons at your house?

— All the men in the Helbig family had a different one, and there were fights at the table if someone touched another person's porró [laughs]. They made one for me, smaller, and I had to drink from it –water–.

Was she the first girl to have a porró at home? 

— Sure. I was the only girl in the family for many years, and I was very spoiled, especially by Aunt Maria. If I said that I wanted sunglasses, they would buy me Ray-Bans; nonsense for us, who were a working-class family.

And Aunt Maria? 

— She listened to me a lot. We imagined that we were going to Paris and we made jewelry to go to the opera with plastic stones. She took me to the theater to see varieties. And she had a book that she had ordered from Hollywood in the year 1927 with all kinds of photographs of silent film stars, and we would copy them. My childhood passed in an ugly, gray time, so I hold a deep gratitude for her.