Everything the fashion industry owes to Almodóvar
A comment that could pass for pure improvisation if it weren't for the fact that this concept doesn't exist in the Manchego's filming. Come on, that line was not the result of a banal occurrence between shots, but proof of how much Pedro knows that industry, even being able to anticipate the trends that later triumph on the catwalk.
Because yes, today we all know that Prada is not only ideal for a nun, but even for the Pope himself. But in 1999, when the Oscar-winning film was released, there was still a decade left for Benedict XVI to certify him with those famous red shoes that, although in the end they were not, in the popular imagination they will always be from the Italian maison.
Of course, Almodóvar's love for designers is mutual. And we're not just talking about that famous invitation from Donatella Versace encouraging the director to join the viral Ice Bucket Challenge. For the big firms there is no catwalk more luxurious than appearing in a movie from La Mancha. That is why they lend him without question everything he asks of them.
He returns the favor by respecting his designs enough for his own aesthetic not to cannibalize those garments until they disappear. Quite an honor knowing that, when the adjective 'almodovarian' enters the scene, any attempt to claim individual authorship is mission impossible. Let's say that the moment Pedro includes something in a shot, whatever it is, it becomes exclusively his. And not because he has the intention of appropriating something that doesn't belong to him –"Rosalia, beautiful, I'm Pedro"–; but because that is how the public directly understands him.
AESTHETICS FIRST
In any case, there will be those who think that it is easy to have the big firms at your disposal when fame overwhelms you and even Cannes has asked you to be president of its jury. And it is true. It would be ridiculous to deny that there is a before and after in Almodóvar's collaborations with international designers after the 1988 premiere, and subsequent Oscar nomination, of Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown.
