Agatha Ruiz de la Prada: Happy Fashion

In 1982, Agatha presented a collection of costumes painted by artist Enrique Vega in Fernando Vijande's art gallery in Madrid, and two years later, she once again exhibited another collection of costumes painted this time by the artist Gloria García Lorca ( image) at Juana de Aizpuru's gallery of Madrid.

It is precisely in the Juana de Aizpuru´s gallery that Agatha presented her first licenses: a collection of bed sheets for Burés in 1987 and collection of crokery for Bidasoa (image) in 1991.

Her first fashion shows are also presented in equally artistic and original places, such as in the Real Atarazanas or in the Borne Market in Barcelona; ​​in the Madrid Railway Museum (image); or in the San Telmo Museum of San Sebastián, where she presented a collection tribute to her most admired fashion designer, Cristobal Balenciaga.

Her international projection begins in 1986 at the SYGMA Festival in Bordeaux where she presented a collection with other Spanish designers from La Movida. Later she will present fashion shows in solitary in Berlin (1989), Osaka (1990) and Kyoto (1992). At her first fashion show in Paris fashion week (image) Agatha presents a collection of 150 original dresses at the Museum of Modern Art.

"Surrealism? I have a son who, among other reasons, is called Tristan after Tristan Tzara. I love Elsa Schiaparelli, but I prefer things with less meaning... It is true that I like fuchsia like Schiaparelli, and the surrealist's lip and heart, yes. And I would like to have the connections that Coco Chanel had with Diaghilev, Jean Cocteau, the Serts..."

"When I was in Paris and saw the exhibition 'Les années Pop' at the Pompidou, I said to myself: 'I am a daughter of Pop art... I am an absolute Warholian'."

Agatha was the first European designer to become part of the international fashion collection of The Absolut Company. The Absolut Ruiz de la Prada collection was presented in Madrid, Stockholm, Miami and Punta del Este.

She has worked with artists from different fields. In 1994 she edited a book with the photographer Christopher Makos (image), collaborator of Andy Warhol, on the photographs that Makos made of Agatha's fashion show at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Paris.

It is worth noting the collection of dresses made in 1996, a Tribute to Eduardo Chillida with the close collaboration of the famous Spanish sculptor.

She worked with the Majorcan painter Pep Guerrero (image) fusing fashion and painting in recycled everyday objects, as well as with other artists such as designers Luis Galliussi & Philippe Andrieux, photographer Ciuco Gutierrez...

She has collaborated in the artistic project Self-Hybridations of the French artist ORLAN (image), and with other artists such as Nicole Herzog, Karim Rashid, Enrico Bertelli...

She has even collaborated with famous Spanish Chef Alberto Chicote designing his chef jackets.

Her designs transcend the world of catwalks exhibiting her masterpieces in important art galleries and museums of different cities of the world.

Agatha opened her first studio-store in Madrid in 1982. Her products can be found at her store in Madrid and online, as well as in multi-brand stores in more than 150 countries.

In 2011, the Agatha Ruiz de la Prada Foundation was created, where an important representation of her work Agatha is preserved through its more than thirty years of history in the world of fashion and creativity, in order to catalog, conserve and spread her impressive documentary legacy.