In the avalanche of images of looting that have reached us in recent days, whether the scenes are from Paris, Marseille, Barcelona, or Bilbao, there is a common aesthetic denominator: the black hooded sweatshirt. A garment allied both with those who confront the State apparatus in defense of their rights and those who need anonymity to break the law with impunity. The hood hides the face, key to visual identification, while the black color favors camouflage and the roominess of the sweatshirt facilitates mobility and allows for the hiding of objects. It is no wonder, then, that this garment has historically sparked suspicions, controversies, and complicities.

The whole scene gives off an unreal light. Four black men with bare chests and in precarious trousers hold candelabras and a clearly feminine figure rises imposingly at the top of some red stairs. In the gloom, one can already distinguish the curve of a breast and the angle of a hip, which the dress – champagne-colored, scaled, increasingly resplendent as the light grows – and the cape – green, perfectly straight – enhance with precision. The close-up finishes drawing a time and a country: the anti-gravity pompadour, the painted beauty mark, the watermelon-pink lips, the jaw-dropping neckline, the jewelry that wouldn't last half a walk down La Rambla and, above all, the face, so mythical, of Sarita Montiel.

Do not be alarmed if you run into teenagers on the street wearing stickers the size of a gummed label on their faces. Your vision is not failing you, nor are you experiencing a vitreous detachment. It is simply a trend that has been spreading among young people after the American brand Starface began marketing them. The reason? Treating acne pimples with hydrocolloid patches that absorb the liquid and protect them. But if until recently many of these patches were sold in beige tones, with the intention of going unnoticed, some young people have now decided to do the exact opposite: turn the pimple into an ornamental pretext. The patches are sold in bright colors – even fluorescent ones – and take the form of stars, moons, hearts, emojis, panda bears, avocados, or ghosts, in addition to reproducing fictional characters. Famous people like Justin Bieber and North West, along with her mother, Kim Kardashian, have joined this trend. But, as often happens with contemporary fashions, not everything is new under the sun: behind these apparently innovative stickers, a much older gesture is hidden.

Circularity, emerging talent and craftsmanship have been the keys around which the latest edition of the 080 Barcelona Fashion Week has revolved. For four days, Marina Vela-Port Vell hosted 26 fashion shows and an extensive program of activities to showcase the creations of established and emerging brands, as well as international proposals, which have highlighted the strength of a sector with a great economic, industrial and commercial impact in Catalonia.

The 38th edition of 080 Barcelona Fashion has been held this week at the Port Vell with a lineup of fashion shows that has combined established and emerging proposals, and a parallel program that has brought part of the activity to different points of the Catalan capital. We compile what caught our attention the most from what is much more than a showcase of glamour.

Without invitation or queues. Fashion enthusiasts will be able to follow some of the 080 Barcelona Fashion shows from the street, which opens today, with what will be one of the novelties of an edition that aims to claim fashion beyond the catwalk. Thus, within the framework of PLEC, an initiative of the Barcelona City Council, the fashion shows can be enjoyed from various points in Barcelona through a large screen that will be installed each day in a different area of the city. Today it will be the turn of Plaça de Can Fabra in Sant Andreu, Wednesday at Plaça de les Glòries, Thursday at Plaça del Mar in Barceloneta, and Friday in front of the Born Market. "The goal is to bring fashion closer to the citizens," highlights Nàdia Quevedo, commissioner of Economic Promotion, Commerce, Catering, and Fashion Plan of the Barcelona city council. On October 21 and 22, the Port Vell sheds will host a program with talks, musical performances, and artistic proposals such as an installation dedicated to the editorial archive of creative director Luis Venegas.

Smashed shop windows, emptied stores, luxury bags disappearing in mass. On October 17th, several French luxury houses were looted during a day of social protests across the country. Dior, Celine, Hermès, Louis Vuitton… These are not just any shops, but temples of exclusivity, showcases of a sector that trades on distinction—and social inequality. The looting occurred in the context of the French student mobilizations, which demand more resources for public education, more teachers, better infrastructure, and more equal opportunities. But what does demanding quality public education have to do with looting a boutique of luxury?

On October 5th, in the middle of the midterm election campaign, Donald Trump delivered a speech in Nebraska. Nothing new: patriotic grandiloquence and discursive posturing about the greatness of America. Once the speech ended, Y.M.C.A., by the Village People, played—that song which in the seventies became an icon of gay culture and which today Trump has adopted as his campaign soundtrack. The president then gave himself over to his now-characteristic robotic dance, until a movement revealed an unexpected detail: the suit's label, with the name Jos. A. Bank. An American brand that, at first glance, seemed consistent with one of Trump's most recurring proclamations: consuming products manufactured in the United States. But is the case of Trump and his protectionist measures in fashion exceptional?

On September 22nd, the first day of Milan Fashion Week, during the Vogue World fashion show at the imposing Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II, there were two people visibly uncomfortable with what they were seeing. Miuccia Prada – head designer of her eponymous brand – and Alessandro Michele – creative director of Valentino – two of the heavyweights of the global fashion scene, were clearly wrinkling their noses while the rest of the attendees applauded, enthralled by the spectacle. The reason? The appearance of four humanoid robots from the Chinese company Unitree acting as acrobats among the models, presented under the title The age of intelligence. While the audience responded with enthusiasm, Prada and Michele seemed to be among the few who did not find it amusing. Perhaps because, behind the spectacle, they saw something more than four robots doing somersaults: the irruption of artificial intelligence into a world, that of fashion, which until now had made the body, hands, tradition, and human creativity its reason for being.

Queues at the doors of Zara stores, items sold out in minutes, resales at double the price, and videos on social media in which shoppers proudly show off their acquisitions are not exactly part of the usual experience at Amancio Ortega's house. But that is exactly what happened on October 1st. And it is not a minor anecdote: the arrival of John Galliano at Zara has altered, even if momentarily, the rules of the game in a territory much broader than that of fashion. Because Galliano is not only one of the great designers of the last decades: he is also a name loaded with symbolic capital associated with an Olympus of creation and luxury that, until not long ago, seemed incompatible with the fashion of common mortals. But what is different about this collaboration compared to the many others that, from time to time and for years, enliven –like a swallow that does not make a summer– the dimmed creativity of fast fashion chains?

Right now we are living in a surreal dystopia stretched between two apparently opposite extremes. On one hand, we are frightened by the possibility that a potentially superintelligent AI might end up annihilating humanity; on the other, we suffer from the human stupidity of a good portion of our political leaders. A paradox between artificial intelligence and natural foolishness that, if it weren't for everything we have at stake, could seem comical to us. Leaders who, all too often, whether out of overconfidence or because they feel in danger, seem to start rambling in their public statements, taking their shortcomings out for a walk. And it is precisely in this context that Donald Trump has decided to imagine a uniform for the Space Force that does not exist... nor does it seem likely to exist.On September 6th, the President of the United States surprised the world with a post on Truth Social. This consisted of the image of a supposed new uniform for the Space Force, the latest branch of the American Armed Forces, created by Trump in 2019, intended to protect and operate the country's military space infrastructure. We are not dealing with astronauts, but with what he has dubbed "guardians": military personnel who, beyond exploration tasks, must dominate, protect, and defend this new military domain. With the Space Force, Trump contributes to transforming the space scenario that, until now, we had associated primarily with science and fiction into a new space for military combat.

I found at the back of the closet an egg-yolk colored t-shirt, with the four bars printed on the chest drawing a V and the words, in black, Ara és l’hora. I ask the AI what year it was from: 2014. Next to it, wrinkled but with the yellow still vivid, there is another t-shirt with the slogan SOS Quality Public Education. Beside it, two more black ones: one with the word Democracy and a face crossed out by a red prohibition mark and another with the phrase You don't have enough prisons for so much DIGNITY!, and the caricature of a girl breaking some chains.

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?

Barely two weeks ago, the Catalan clothing brand Desigual launched a campaign mocking the touristification, massification, insecurity, and rising prices currently stifling Barcelona. A campaign that public opinion perceived as a misstep, due to playing frivolously and without a defined critical will with such a poignant social issue, simply to sell clothes. But little did we know that, in a matter of a few days, the brand would manage to completely turn its image around. The sudden change of direction has arrived with the new campaign, titled Born to disobey. A girl, with a defiant attitude in front of a robot, questions the infallibility of artificial intelligence, which collapses in the face of human singularity, and encourages standing up to the dictatorship of algorithms. And looking straight into the camera, she says: “She was designed to obey. I was not.” The brilliance of the ad, however, lies in the fact that its protagonist is not just any model, but Vivian Jenna Wilson: Elon Musk’s trans daughter.

Returning from vacation does not just mean resuming schedules, routines, or obligations, but also recovering a much more serious, prudent, and restrained way of dressing. During the holidays we allowed ourselves to wear bright Hawaiian shirts, show off loose hippie dresses, wear shorts all day long, or go in a bikini and sarong to buy an ice cream at the beach bar. Through clothing, we experience a pleasant sense of freedom and comfort that we rarely enjoy during the rest of the year. But why does all of this end in September?Now it is time to make an appointment at the hair salon urgently. If until now we haven't worried that the hair dye color was a total mess, upon setting foot on solid ground it becomes an unavoidable priority to recover the brown shade of number 4.0 before our colleagues see us. Also, the thin-strap tank tops or minishorts are over: the body becomes more gaunt and now it is time to cover it with fabric again. And if our feet have enjoyed almost absolute freedom thanks to flip-flops, now they must be covered and put back in order. Even Crocs have allowed us to enjoy the comfort of putting on and taking off our shoes without even bending over. But now the laces return to contain our feet and, with them, a small example of the bodily discipline that runs through us during the year.

Imagine going back a hundred years, to the Barcelona of 1926. Cinema was still silent and a fashion show could be, literally, an extraordinary spectacle. In Paris, the great houses had begun to use those presentations to showcase the new collections of the designers of the era, but in Catalonia, no one was doing it. Located at the Pla de la Boqueria, Santa Eulalia saw the opportunity and decided to import the formula. “We were pioneers thanks to the vision of my grandfather,” recalls Luis Sans, fourth generation at the helm of the house, founded in 1843. In that adventure, Pere Formosa also played a key role, having started as an apprentice and ending up becoming a master of the house and the driving force behind that event

The Catalan clothing brand Desigual has once again pulled a Juan Carlos in Botswana with its now iconic "I am very sorry... it will not happen again." The reason? The latest campaign, in which, with a clearly sarcastic and mocking treatment, it makes gentrification, touristification, overcrowding, rising prices, and insecurity in Barcelona the central theme to promote its latest collaboration with the Berlin brand Ottolinger. A campaign that has ignited social media and received a mostly negative reception. Firstly, because many have perceived it as a trivialization of the problems that currently stifle the Catalan capital. Furthermore, this treatment, beyond the fact that a brand based in Barcelona is shooting itself in the foot by ridiculing the city's image, does not aim upwards as a form of denunciation. What we must be clear about is that not all irony is a critique. And if, in addition, all of this is done to sell a few t-shirts, it is even harder to find any real desire to question anything.And I say that they have pulled a Joan Carles again because it is not the first time, in recent times, that Desigual has had to rectify its advertising campaigns. The most recent one, in 2025, starred actress Ester Expósito wearing the slogan Not a doll(I am not a doll), with an apparently feminist intention of women's empowerment. The problem is that, in parallel, the t-shirt campaign Protect the dolls was taking place, to support the trans community following the attacks and harassment by Donald Trump's American government. A campaign that, in no case, was minor, but rather had a great reach, with the adherence of renowned figures such as actor Pedro Pascal, singer Troye Sivan, or designer Haider Ackermann. The campaign itself could have been good, provided it had been carried out in a parallel world. The problem is that contexts are fundamental and seeing Expósito proudly wearing a t-shirt with the phrase "Not a doll", at that moment made the reading go from feminist to transphobic.In December 2012, it launched the campaign Tengo un plan, composed of three advertisements in which three conventionally beautiful women dressed up, in a sexy and uninhibited attitude, in front of the mirror while they explained their future plans. The first, to travel to Thailand to have sexual adventures and leave her life behind, including her boyfriend. The second, to tell her family that she had a female partner. And the third, that she had decided to sleep with her boss. A campaign that, despite wanting to empower women, fell into a false representation of equality by the adoption, on the part of these three women, of behaviors traditionally associated with men.The most serious one, however, was released following Mother's Day 2014, titled Tú decides. A normatively sexy girl, after putting a pillow under her dress to see what she would look like pregnant, took a strip of condoms and poked holes in them. An advertisement that clearly treats women's freedom of choice in the clumsiest way, since, apart from ignoring the other person's reproductive consent, it disregards the risk of contracting sexually transmitted diseases.Seeing, therefore, the promotional trajectory of Desigual, we could think that at the head of the marketing department they have a monkey at the wheel, with a total disconnection from the world and what is cooking. But, seeing the repeated blunders, perhaps what they have is a clever person who, in the face of a company that is struggling with sales, has opted for the old formula that says "let them talk about us, even if it is badly". A dangerous tactic that must be executed very well so that it does not end up being bread for today and hunger for tomorrow.In any case, perhaps the latest campaign regarding the touristification of Barcelona is better thought out than we locals have been able to see. With a brand owned by the Swiss Thomas Meyer and sales directed mostly to the international market, perhaps the campaign was not intended to amuse the people of Barcelona. Perhaps, precisely, its audience was those who experience the city from the other side: as a backdrop to visit, consume, and, now also, wear.

Lately, when I try to buy a bikini, I have to face the search and capture of an increasingly difficult piece to find: one that covers my entire buttocks. While the part that covers the breasts is not problematic, when we get to the bottom part, it seems that we only have at our disposal the minimum expression of what a panty should be. Among the available options, the thong is quite present, which mysteriously disappears between buttock and buttock, given the apparent comfort of the user, and front panels so minimal that I myself wonder how it is possible to fit the entire pubic area into such a narrow strip without it protruding from either side. Suddenly, wanting a panty that generously embraces the buttocks and lower abdomen has become almost an extravagance. It is paradoxical that this occurs in parallel with the clear retreat of the topless, caused by the increase in aesthetic pressure and rising conservative values but, above all, by the threat of camera phones, capable of forever archiving your breasts on social media without your consent. But why do these fears, which have caused the liberation of women's breasts to recede, not have the same effect on the buttocks?

Designer John Galliano, one of fashion's great icons, has announced that he is renouncing the exhibition and gala that the Metropolitan Museum of New York (Met) had prepared for him as a tribute, driven by strong public opinion questioning his anti-Semitic past. As he himself published on social media, he has decided that the exhibition will not take place "after much reflection and discussion with those involved".

At the beginning of August, during the royal family's stay in Mallorca, Infanta Sofia caused some surprise among the media for an apparently unusual gesture in the protocol of royal houses. The reason? She was wearing a Desigual dress that Queen Letizia had already worn in 2023 and that Princess Leonor had reused in 2025, during the respective Marivent receptions. In fact, Queen Letizia has repeated dresses on more than one occasion, and each time the fact has become news. But what does it say about us, as a society, that it seems so exceptional to us for a queen to repeat a dress?The reuse of clothing has been an inherent practice in fashion throughout pre-industrial history, when clothes were scarce, expensive, and often had to be passed down from parents to children. It was a practice that affected all social strata, including European courts. Royal families had record-keeping systems to document existing garments, specifying their characteristics, measurements, and decorative elements, as well as the repairs and modifications they had undergone, with the aim of facilitating their reuse within the same family. Everything indicates that clothing was conceived less as strictly individual property than as dynastic heritage capable of circulating among different members of the lineage. And when clothes ceased to be used, they could become diplomatic gifts or be passed on to members of the service to ensure alliances and loyalties. Likewise, fabrics were dismantled and reused in new garments, ornaments, furniture, or liturgical objects, and only when they had exhausted any possibility of use were they destined for paper manufacturing. The wardrobe was thus understood as a true reserve of material resources and political strategies. Therefore, what has changed between the old European courts and the current royal family for something that was completely normalized in the past to have become an exception today?