These are intense days for José María García (Santander, 35 years old): in just four days he will dress a guest for the red carpet of the Goya Awards and inaugurate the first store of his brand, Ze García, in Madrid. This space will officially open its doors on Wednesday, with three floors where its collections of ready-to-wear, a test room and a sewing workshop. “I’ve always liked the Salamanca neighborhood, because aesthetically it reminds me of the old town of Santander, and when I discovered Jorge Juan alley, I was blown away,” says the Cantabrian. His local is located precisely in that pedestrian space where Isabel Marant, Missoni and Pedro García also have their headquarters.
One of the spaces of the new Ze García store in Madrid. The interior design, the work of Studio Marabunta, is inspired by the German Pavilion by Mies Van Der Rohe, built for the Barcelona Universal Exposition in 1929. Photo: Dr.
The opening in the capital is important for the firm, but what really meant a leap into the void was the opening of its first store, in Barcelona, four years ago. There it has 600 square meters in which his company was transformed from a small sewing atelier into a solid company with more than 20 people hired. Today, to custom-made dresses, add brides, the line of ready-made garments and a collection of accessories: “If you work on social networks (a great window that designers have today to show us) suddenly a day comes when many people want your product. We realized that depending on which pieces we could generate a new concept of ready-to-couture. In which we continue to control stocks, all made in Spain, with the DNA of the firm, but without the need to ring the bell or make an appointment”. Ready-to-buy garments that immediately found demand, both physically and in-store on-line. Prices range from 200 euros for a bodysuit and the more than 2,000 of various dresses.
Two models from the Avenida Paraíso collection by Ze García. Transparencies, shines and openings are some of the characteristics of his pieces. Photo: Dr.
It all started at home, when the creator gave his little sister a dress for Christmas that was the seed of Ze García. That garment was the culmination of many years designing (at the age of 13 he was already enrolled in sewing classes) and the beginning of his professional career. Although the real impulse came a few years later, when a Barcelonan wrote to her on Instagram to ask for a dress. It was Aida Domenech (Dulceida for her 3.2 million followers on her Instagram), at that time a young woman who, like García, was just starting out. “We were all just starting out, Aida had about 20,000 followers. It was a time when the big companies did not want to know anything about them, they did not listen to them. I made dresses with a lady I met, at her house, and I began to dress them for the events they went to ”. The collaborations in many cases became friendship and in the Ze García fashion show in 2018, he took the catwalk to an army of those who are today the influencers followed by Spain: Aida Domènech, but also María Pombo, Laura Escanes, Patrick Jordan, Gigi Vives, Jessica Goicoechea, Carla Hinojosa, Marta Lozano, Nina Urgell…
The inflection point? Domènech’s wedding in 2016 with his then partner, Alba Paul. Like any self-respecting famous bride, Aida received an important offer from a large brand of wedding dresses (a common practice in weddings that end in Hello: the firm makes the suit and also pays the celebrities a large amount for showing it off). But the instagramer He decided that the garments for that day would be made for him by his friend Ze García. “It was all very popular in the media, she had started on TV, the wedding of two girls drew attention and suddenly we had more repercussions with that dress than in the entire history of the brand with our party dresses. People found us as a bridal firm and we started getting requests. I had to stop and think if I wanted to go there, because a wedding dress is not the same as a white party dress. I asked myself if I felt like it, what story I wanted to tell, how I would do it… And from there everything translated into new hires, new structuring, new suppliers”.
The prices of her ready-made garments range from 200 euros for a bodysuit to more than 2,000 for various dresses. Photo: Dr.
Despite this unexpected turn after the wedding, almost anecdotal, nor the appearances in accounts of influencers nor on the red carpet translate into direct sales. Everything is part of a plan to create a brand and gain notoriety: “I try to convey that we are a luxury firm, that it is a careful product. As a luxury firm, you need to be in the red carpet and that your dresses are worn by certain celebrities, because of the image they project. An aspirational feeling for a legion of followers of these women who agree with their styles and with that of García.
Portrait of the designer, José María García, creator of Ze García. Photo: Dr.
The facade of the store in Callejón de Jorge Juan in Madrid. Photo: Dr.
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