Iberian Spring: Day 10 Madrid

Soundtrack: “Vogue”, Madonna

Sunday was fashionista day for us. After a hostel breakfast we headed north to the Museo del Traje, which google seems to think “traje” means suit. Maybe it does, but it’s a fashion museum, so it has more than suits. It’s a collection of almost 400 years of Spanish clothing. including what the aristocracy wore as well as regular folks. So there were some wonderfully intricate posh jackets, amazing frocks, and embroidered waistcoats from the 17th and 18th centuries. The path runs chronologically, and highlights other events at the time that had an impact on the fashion, as well as times fashion was at the forefront of societal change. Much of the early fashion on display was influenced by the Hapsburgs, so reflected trends from Central Europe. Lots of good formal stuff there.

After the Hapsburgs came the Bourbon dynasty, bringing French influences into the clothing of the day. Bustles and hoop dresses and court clothes. For better or worse, the Bourbons were only around for about 100 years, and after that came the 19th century where Spanish rulers went out of fashion faster than Spanish fashion. By then clothing and fashion had spread to all classes, with the advent of mass textile production opening up dressmaking and tailoring to the common folk. By the late 1800s there were department stores selling mass market clothing, and patterns became available for folks to make their own clothes, and publications talking about fashions from other countries started circulating. The Museo had a number of exhibits showing the styles of the time, against a backdrop of what traditional Spanish clothing was doing, and toreador outfits getting more elaborate and shiny.

Into the 20th Century saw the rise of designers whose names were known by the lower classes, designing outfits that the upper classes could afford and the middle classes could aspire to. Designers like Marciano Fortuny (who got all the credit, though it was likely his wife Henriette that did all the heavy lifting) are well represented at the Museo. Then came the civil war when civilian fashions adopted militaristic touches like berets. Then came Franco and while he tried to doo all the repressive stuff, it got harder once Spain opened up in the 1950s and started getting tourists. From then on the people wanted nice clothes, and the Museo has great examples of these. Regular wear, local designers like Montesinos, French designers including Ungaro, Y S Laurent, and Gaultier are represented. One dress that they apparently do have, but wasn’t there today, was a Givenchy designed for Audrey Hepburn for Breakfast at Tiffanys. Sadly it’s in Paris apparently. According to the internet the dress itself didn’t appear in the film as it was too short for the time, escandalo and all that.

Now that we were experts in the history, it was time to immerse ourselves in the current and future of Spanish fashion. A short car ride away, in a tower that was formerly Madrid’s first public water tank, was Nostalgia/Utopia, a major career-spanning exhibition by Spanish designer Ana Locking. She’s also a judge on Drag Race Espana, but as a designer she’s been at the forefront of fashion for the last 20 years, taking Spanish inspiration to the world. Her work, arranged through four storeys of tower, is simply stunning. There were some amazing fabrics incorporated into the designs, from the shiny to the sequined, lace to cotton, leather, studs, and plastics. The detail of the exhibition was amazing, each dummy model was posed uniquely to highlight features of the outfits; on the ground floor the outfits were posed in scenes that sometimes complemented, and other times provocatively contrasted the outfits. Sadly, the only merch available was a large book, as we would have happily bought some smaller, easy to pack items if they were available.

And amazingly, the Museo del Traje and the Ana Locking exhibition were free. The Museo is free on Sundays, and the Ana Locking exhibition free all the time (we think).

After so much fashion, we stopped for a coffee and snack at a place that actually had some gluten free cakes and muffins. From there we wandered through a bit of light drizzle to Madrid’s other branch of the gaming shop chain Goblin Traders, where we checked out some merch and L got some dice.

After a bit of a siesta it was time to head out for dinner and a drag show. Our gluten free tapas place from Friday night, Lalinas Bravas, was around the corner from the show venue and had tables free, so we booked and headed there. WEe got the cuttlefish croquettes again, as they are so good, rich and full of flavour, almost like black pudding but with a more marine taste. Then we had some patatas with crispy pork belly and what was described as carbonara sauce, which was delicious, the carbonara sauce being more in line with the traditional italian use of egg yolks and cheese, rather than the weird creamy thing we get in Australia. Along side this we had gluten free deep fried seafood, anchovies minus the heads, calamari, baby cuttlefish, and dogfish, all very delicious. We’d left room for dessert this time, so went with a wonderful lemon cheesecake, and a glorious rich chocolate thing filled with a caramel cream and served with icecream, so amazingly full of flavour (I just checked the receipt and it was a “coulant”, though didn’t so cuch have a runny core as a pool of caramel on top). All with some wonderful vermouth.

After walking off the food a little we headed to Vesta bar to see Spanish drag queen extraordinaire Pupi Poisson. We first became mesmerised by her talent and wonderful nature on season 1 of Drag Race Espana, and again when she was on All Stars Espana. She comes across as humble and down to earth (she was Miss Congeniality in DRE S1), though is a fierce performer and very funny. She was circulating among the crowd before the show, greeting people. As she’s been performing for over 10 years, she knew a lot of people in the crowd, so seemed happily surprised to greet a couple of strangers all the way from Australia. There was a good amount of merch, including her new CD and t-shirts in my size.

Some performers exude intense charisma, Pupi is more about humble charm. She can certainly command a stage, and sing, and deliver humour, but always with an approachable manner. There was some good natured banter with the crowd, and the Australians in the crowd got a couple of shout outs. It was an intimate venue, so didn’t take much for the smoke machine to fill it, causing our throats to tickle somewhat. So while we stayed up the front for the first set, we were happy to and at the back for the second, where the smoke was less and the air could circulate more. She finished with a medley of songs both in English and Spanish, including Madonna’s “Vogue” and “Hung Up”, Lady Gaga’s “Born this Way”, and others. Then we said our goodbyes and left, getting a car back to the hostel this time. I managed to get a bit of Spanish happening this evening, to at least thank Pupi, have a mixed language chat with some local fans while waiting for our car, and making small talk with the driver.

Tomorrow’s an early breakfast, a train to Barcelona, and hopefully dinner with cousin R and partner.