The profusion of brilliant colours and designs of flounced flamenco dresses worn at Seville’s annual feria have dazzled visitors for more than a century.
The style has inspired designers at Yves Saint Laurent and Dolce & Gabbana, not to mention Madonna. But as the week-long event began on Tuesday, experts raised fears that the growing availability of cheap flamenco dresses posed a threat to the city’s seamstresses.
“For some time now, with the boom of the feria, everyone wants to wear flamenco dresses, and certain low-cost companies have started to bring out their own versions,” said Pilar Larrondo, the creator of Wappissima, a social media platform dedicated to flamenco fashion.
“If a small firm from Seville makes a collection of 30 dresses to survive the year round and a low-cost brand comes along and copies one of them, they have no way of defending themselves.”
Larrondo pointed to a new flamenco dress produced by the Spanish fashion retailer Zara, alleging it was similar to one worn by the designer Vicky Martín Berrocal. “In that dress, the flounces were cape-like and not drooping, like this one, but it has many similarities with the one that Martín Berrocal wore to the feria in 2007,” Larrondo told the El Confidencial website.
Sevilla Magazine, which reports on the city’s society and fashions, said that “a worrying trend has emerged: the arrival of low-cost flamenco dresses produced in Morocco and China, cheap options that may seem interesting for some pockets but have a devastating impact on the sector and flamenco culture”.
• María Benítez obituary: champion of flamenco dancing
More than 400 companies are said to be working in the sector, which is worth an estimated €100 million. A traditional flamenco dress can be bought for €200, plus the cost of the fabric, from the many seamstresses who work in their homes or in small workshops in Seville. More established brands can charge in excess of €1,000, depending on the work that goes into the dressmaking and all the details, Larrondo said.
Carmen Latorre, creator and president of Qlamenco, an organisation that brings together several flamenco fashion creators, said: “There are dresses that are jewels, worn by grandmothers, daughters and granddaughters, that have history and memories.” Defending the “essence” of the flamenco dress, she called for the “defence of this regional costume”.
