It was a wonderful event, here are some pictures for you to enjoy (click on the image to see more):

You are invited, next Thursday June 17th 2010, to come to the cocktail that will take place at the shop PARIS VINTAGE in Barcelona to inaugurate their new venue. There you will be able to see and purchase wonderful vintage haute-couture garments. For this day only you will also be able to view and purchase garments by the couturier Paco Peralta and hats and fascinators by Cristina de Prada (myself).

Cocktail: 19 h. C/Rosselló 237, entlo. 1ª (Esq. Rambla de Catalunya)

Estáis invitados, el próximo jueves 17 de junio de 2010, a venir al cocktail que se celebrará en la tienda PARIS VINTAGE de Barcelona, con motivo de la inauguración del nuevo local. Allí podréis ver y comprar maravillosos vestidos de alta costura vintage. Únicamente durante este día también podréis ver y comprar prendas del modisto Paco Peralta, y sombreros y tocados de Cristina de Prada (la que os escribe).

Sant Jordi is the patron saint of Catalonia, the region where we live.  On the 23rd of april there is a tradition for the man to buy a rose for the woman and for the woman to buy a book for the man, that’s why it’s also know as Book day or Rose day.

Today, Barcelona has a flower stall on every corner selling roses, and many shops have book stalls on the street. In the spirit of the day I have put on a little rose fascinator and have been to Gratacós (the fabric and accessories shop)  where the author of the book “Barcelona alta costura”,  Josep Casamartina, was signing.

Here you can see me with my new book (on the right), “Barcelona alta costura” (sold internationally as “Barcelona haute couture”). It is a gorgeous book showing both haute couture dresses and hats from the Antoni de Montpalau Textile Collection. This hardcover book is packed full of wonderful full page color pictures, and very little text  (three introductory articles, the cataloguing and biographies). Both versions (the one in Catalan with a green dress cover, and the Spanish with a pink dress cover)  have full English text, which is wonderful. Some of the couturiers shown are well known (Balenciaga, Pedro Rodriguez, Pertegaz, Lanvin), while others not so much, but throughout the book the constant is incredible quality, design and workmanship. These were the dresses worn by the Barcelona elite and it shows they had excellent taste.

Here is the dedication from the Author, Josep Casamartina i Parassols (I love his curly hand):

The other book in my hand is my Mom’s book, “Joaquín y Loli. Un encuentro de cine”. Those who have been following me for a while know about this wonderful book, written by my mother as an homage to my father, and they also know that my mother was sued because of it by the surviving brothers of my dad. The book is wonderful, and I want to repeat this to my mother, I LOVE YOU MOM, and I think your book is beautiful, innocent, romantic and fun.

This is the dedication that my mother wrote to me in my copy of her book, and I hope you enjoy it as much as I did:

A mother’s love, what can I say!!

SPANISH TEXT follows… for my Mom, and her friends, and my friends, so they can read it without using a silly online translator (just this once).

Haz click en “More..” para leerlo en castellano…

(more…)

Last Sunday, April 11 2010, we celebrated the VI Passejada amb barret (Hat stroll) in Barcelona, and that was an excuse for a couple of friends to stop by, try on some hats and decide which one they wanted to wear for the event (about which I will blog shortly).

Above you can see the lovely Helena (a wonderful storyteller, checkout the blog that she writes along with my brother José Manuel: http://escuchandoconlosojos.blogspot.com/), she’s in front of the harpsichord which is serving temporarily as an exhibition area for my hats (I knew it would come in handy one day… naaah!! just kidding!!! Sorry Peter!!).

My friend Eulalia also visited me to try on hats and they both had a great time, and had to try every single hat (some of them more than once!).

It was a pleasure for me to see others taking pleasure in my hats. Thank you Helena! Thank you Eulalia!

Truth be told, the only traveling I’ve done with this wonderful vintage Samsonite Streamlite hatbox is the trip a couple of years ago from Cologne (Germany, where I bought it at an antique fair for a hefty 50 euros) to Barcelona where I live. But it’s such a beauty that I could not resist buying it, specially considering its mint condition -key included- (after buying this one I saw others cheaper, but they where all dirty or damaged). These come up frequently on eBay (US) and can be bought at a reasonable price.

The vintage style Loewe umbrella on the other hand was a gift, a couple of years ago, from my wonderful mom. The umbrella has a green leather handle and luscius fabric that is green on the inside and shocking pink on the outside, with the lettering LOEWE making a repeated circle pattern. I believe these umbrellas are still available, although from looking at their website I think the handles are now all brown, which is a pity.

Funny enough, after having bought the hat box I happened quite by chance upon the corresponding patents, one for the manufacturing process and one for the design.  The patent allows us to date the design to 1955 (that’s when the patents were filed, although they were granted in 1958). I’ve also found an old ad for the hatbox, dated 1955, already with the famouse catch phrase “… it’s strong enough to stand on!”.

If you check out the patents you might be surprised (as I was) that they are not under the name of Samsonite but Shwayder Bros. Jesse Shwayder founded the company in 1910 and Samsonite was a trademark (that was first used in 1941). The name of the company was not changed to Samsonite until 1966.

All pictures can be seen in more detail on Flickr if you follow this link.

My most grateful customers, here you can see Emilia and Philip wearing their new hats:

And here is the cloche of Emilia while on the block. It’s a 5 piece puzzle block, and all went dandy, including unblocking (a miracle how when you pull out the middle piece the whole thing collapses and you can take out one piece at a time) until I folded the bottom edge in, and it buckled!!  there was too much felt!! It was supposed to fold in nicely but it didn’t and I had a hart time shrinking the felt so that it stayed flat… I’m thinking of modifying the block shaving off the extra wood, so that the next time it will work properly.

If you happen to be in Barcelona and get a chance you should visit GRATACÓS (Paseo de Gracia 110), the best fabric and accessories shop in Barcelona where you will be able to try on and buy the hats from my mini-collection, PAJAROS (Birds). My friend Nina Pawlowsky and I share a window and a large table display inside (shown on the picture). The hats with a cut design on the left are Nina’s designs, the bird hats on the right are my babies.

Si pasas por Barcelona te propongo visitar GRATACÓS (Paseo de Gracia 110, esquina Diagonal), la mejor tienda de telas y accesorios de Barcelona, dónde podrás ver y comprar los sombreros de mi mini-colección, PÁJAROS. Mi amiga Nina Pawlowsky y yo compartimos un maravilloso escaparate y una zona interior de exposición. Los sombreros “troquelados” a la izquierda son diseños de Nina, los sombreros de pájaros a la derecha son míos. Ya sabes que pedir a los Reyes Magos!

Last week was the last class of the millinery course that my friend Nina Pawlowsky was giving at Escola Massana in Barcelona. There was a celebration dinner and I was invited because I was a substitute teacher for one class (and some of the students are followers of this blog!). I had a great time, and it was fun to be there with these wonderful ladies, all of us with our hats on, of course.

On the picture above you can see Nina (the one holding the flowers) and her students (one holding a 2 piece cork block made in class). They were very very happy with the course, very sad it was over, and I must say they were very good students to work with.

The Massana School, one of the centers where Nina gives classes, is a center of art and design belonging to the Town Hall of the City of Barcelona. It is placed in a beautiful historical building on the Gothic quarter (Hospital de la Santa Creu) and was founded in 1929 thanks to Agusti Massana’s legacy, a well known patissier and philanthropist. Unfortunately their website is available only in Catalan language, which is something I find absurd at many, many levels, but I’m not going to bore you with my rantings about that.

The 2009-2010 course will be even more interesting because instead of being just one course lasting two semesters it’s going to be divided in two different courses, both lasting 60 hours, one about hatmaking in general (starting mid-October) and the other one about fascinators and turbans (starting beginning of March). Nina is a very experienced milliner and speaks perfect English so if anyone reading this blog is interested in joining these courses and needs help inscribing just let me know. Inscription is from 2 to 10 September and from 18 to 28 January.

On June12 1991, 18 years ago, my father, Joaquín de Prada, died.

Two days from today, on the 14th of June, Peter’s father, Ewald Kooiman (like a father to me) would have celebrated his 71birthday. He died on the 25th of  January 2009.

These are sad days for us, made even worse by the fact that some of those who should have been comforting us, uncles and cousins on my father’s side, decided instead to soil his name and his memory by dragging it through the courts. To those people I say, like my brother does, STAY AWAY FROM MY BLOG, this is not for you.

But what I really want to do is to thank the many who want to honor the memory of my father and of Peter’s father and who join us in remembering these loving, intelligent men who left such a void after their deaths.

Dad I miss you terribly. Mom, we’re with you.

Ewald, we are still trying to come to terms with your death. We miss you more than you could ever imagine.

*******************************************

El 12 de junio de 1991, hace 18 años, murió mi padre, Joaquín de Prada

En dos días, el 14 de junio, habría sido el 71 cumpleaños del padre de Peter (como un padre para mí), Ewald Kooiman. Murió el 25 de enero de 2009.

Estos son días tristes para nosotros y todavía más tristes por el hecho de que personas que deberían estar consolándonos, mis tíos y primos/as por parte de mi padre, han preferido dedicar su tiempo a ensuciar el nombre y la memoria de mi padre en los juzgados. A esas personas les digo, como dice mi hermano, NO OS QUIERO EN MI BLOG, no es para vosotros.

Lo que sí quiero hacer es dar las gracias a los muchos que quieren hacer homenaje a la memoria de mi padre y la del padre de Peter y que se unen a nosotros en recordar a estos hombres inteligentes y cariñosos que han dejado un gran vacío tras sus muertes.

Papá, te echo de menos muchísimo. Mamá, estamos contigo.

Ewald, todavía estamos intentando asimilar tu muerte. Te echamos de menos mucho más de lo que tu pudieras llegar a imaginar.