STYLE : VIVA BARCELONA! : FASHION : Easy Does It
Antonio Miro--who was a friend but no relation to artist Joan Miro--is, along with Sybilla and Adolfo Dominguez, among the best-known Spanish designers of the post-Balenciaga era. Amazingly prolific, he creates two lines of men’s and women’s fashions each year, including shoes and accessories, under the Antonio Miro label, does wardrobes for Spanish films and plays and has designed uniforms for the Catalan railway system, the Barcelona police, even the opening ceremonies of the Summer Olympics.
The self-taught designer opened the first of his two shops, called Groc, in 1968, when he was 19. (The name is Catalan for yellow, then his favorite color.) “The final days of the Franco era were sad times,†he recalls, “and a style for the young simply didn’t exist in Spain. There were no blue jeans, no flowered shirts, so that’s what I wanted to sell.†But by 1975, such clothing had become common in Spain, and following a trip across America and a protracted illness, Miro changed direction.
“I wanted to make something from myself, not from a lifestyle,†he says. “I wanted to do something more intimate.†Indeed, intimacy still characterizes his clothing, which tends to be soft, clingy, sensually textured, handsomely worn-looking, often unstructured.
