Let’s take a trip to Spain together with luxury handbag designer Lidia Muro.
Lidia Muro lives and works in Madrid but before founding her own brand she used to live and study in Paris and at the Central Saint Martin’s in London and she worked for Givenchy and Stella Mccartney.
Her bags, with a timeless design, are the result of experimentations: colours, materials, textures combined to create contrasts and harmony.
Her must-have bags are sustainable: created with upcycled leathers, recovered from the production waste of luxury brands. For the workmanship the designer relies on the artisans of Andalusia.
A project in which creativity lies not only in the design of an aesthetically beautiful object but also in choosing productions that are sustainable for the planet.
Her summer collection Riviera is a tribute to the Côte d’Azur: Mediterranean colors and stripes recall the famous T-shirt worn by Picasso, who loved those places so much, becoming an icon of that style.
On April 16 she will launch the project “The Eastern side of Riviera”.
A capsule collection of folding bags created in collaboration with the Bulgarian lace artist Bistra Pisancheva.
A mix of two universes: leathers and natural fibres.
The natural fibres are shaped like a very delicate handmade lace by the Bulgarian artisan in Sofia and only later are inserted by the Spanish artisans in the bags of designer Lidia Muro.
We had the chance to interview the designer and talk about her projects.
Read our interview.
Tell me something about your brand.
My Brand started with a serendipitous material’s experimentation with tulle and leather, and those materials, curiously for being antagonistic, articulated perfectly. These first tests evolved into foldable bags. Now I also make bags uniquely with contrasting leather skins.
The bags are so compact and light that are perfect for travelling, also for storage.
All the skins I use are upcycled and come from luxury brands productions excesses. We do not produce new leather skins.
I work locally with small ateliers in Ubrique, in the South of Spain, well-known internationally for high its leathergoods tradition and industry.
I am based myself in Madrid, Spain, but I try to travel to Ubrique anytime I can.
I have also started using textiles such as cotton canvas for the upcoming summer.
Tell me something about your latest collection.
Our last collection follows the concept and aesthetics of the very first striped foldable bags. However now many turned absolutely multicolored, with each stripe in a different shade. I combined colors that are apparently distorting for a playful and surprising effect.
Would you like to tell me something about this project?
We are very happy to present our new project this same week! It is a new line that involves artisans from different fields. It actually started as a collaboration with Bulgarian bobbin-lace artist Bistra Pisancheva. We presented our first experiments of a more artistic and sustainable substitute to the nylon tulle I was using to the Worth Partnership Project and we were awarded.
We wanted to combine techniques, materials, approaches from different fields such as lace, leatherwoods, basketry to create unique, highly experimental and beautiful bags. Bistra is making the lace and the bags are finalized in the atelier in Ubrique, Spain, by master leathergoods artisans. Recently Ana da Silva, a bakes try maker based in Galicia, Spain, joined us to make the same models with basketry techniques and materials, and combine them with bobbin-lace and crochet.
Colors that you love
I think I love all colors. And indeed besides some greyish hues… I love them all! What I just feel more interesting is how to mix them, and try to make not so obvious combinations, quite the contrary, luminous and surprising ones.
Iconic piece of your collection?
The Bomboniere.
It is our Must. It condenses perfectly the idea of compactness, that once opened surprisingly becomes completely 3D. And it also represents the fusion of preciousness and practicality.
Think about the iconic bags all of the times… a bag that you wish you designed?
I like mainly everyday classics, to which time has brought out their essence.
I simply find perfect the very plain canvas tote bags, the ones just used for the beach… Also the sailor bags. All these designs that belong to the collective tradition, and have no designer or brand behind, that have always been there…
On the contrary, among those bags with a “brand name”, I would take the Chanel 2.55. For me it represents the ultimately desire for a bag in the public imagination. In some ways you tend to think we all crave for one. It is also visually perfect, with a perfect combination and balance of simple materials, quilted leather and coated metals. Its size is convenient and functional. You can wear it all day and all night. For me it represents the most classic of all bags and never gets dated.
Beside this, the Castilian wheat fields painted by Alberto.
We are an Atlas of fashion, so we collect often news about tradition from different Countries. Tell me a traditional dress, or accessories, from Spain.
Spain is so rich in terms of folklore, also for clothing. And I am certainly fond of folklore!
I would mention the ones from Lagartera, a little Southern Castilian village next to Toledo. The costumes are so richly decorated with very accurate and colorful embroideries, they have so many overlapping garments and the whole of it is such an excess, that you feel all this ceremonious and ritual idea of what festivity’s clothing represented in the past.
Close your eyes. The first object that you see if you think about Spain.
I love to travel and go all over and I certainly used to move around quite a lot in pre-pandemic times… So when I think of Spain I literally think of my house!
Beside this, the Castilian wheat fields painted by Alberto.
Discover the collection here on Lidia Muro website.
