Roberto Verino: Forty plus one and the Serene Beauty of his style

The past Friday 17 March was presented in Madrid, in the Theatre Fernán Gómez - Centro Cultural de la Villa, the exhibition "Cuarenta Más Uno", forty years of "Estilo Verino", an audiovisual and retrospective route photographic that printed an only character to the most emblematic advertising campaigns of the brand. An exhibition that, in addition to putting in value of this brand in the actuality, as it indicates the same web devoted to him exhibition (www.estiloverino.com), has the task of looking at the road travelled, stopping to assess what has happened, weighing up the successes and lessons learned and revisiting the brand's icons, which have characterised it over four decades, making it a model of style.Iconic pieces, portrayed magistralmente in images of big visual power and carried by the most recognised international models that remain inmortalize by the eternity, in that style of "sober beauty" that Verino loves to do reference.Exhibition. Image yielded by Loredana VitaleIt would be precisely a thrilled Roberto Verino, arropado by authorities, journalists, team, friends and simpatizantes of the brand, that would open the route and the visit to the exhibition, to explain in first person this conductive thread that always has had joined, with passion, vision and clear ideas, these forty years of work."Serene Beauty" is the very apt name that Verino himself gives to his style, a way of dressing people, men or women, respecting their personality and trying to highlight their inner self, beyond the clothes."In my work understand that one of the basic principles is to try that the people are able to take out to the outside his soul, that show his authenticity. Then I, as a designer, attempt that the dress that contribute him to these people, do not disguise them. The elegance is a consequence. You are elegant because you do not disguise you and respect your authenticity".We can read in the book "The essential. The design and other things of the life" of Miguel Milá, a conclusive sentence: "The fashion is that go out of fashion. It removes you personality, is an error think that it gives it to you".Roberto Verino agrees with this affirmation and never has wanted to go in in the game of the fashion, understood like something that forces you to be to the last, that changes the canons, that demands you be what are not. Always it has bet by a style debugged, atemporal, inciting to the creation of some emotional "basic wardrobes", as he same defines them, conformed by pieces that adapt to you and no the contrary."Coco Chanel already said that it is you who has to wear the suit, not the suit on you", comments Verino. And it is precisely Mademoiselle one of the indisputable referents of the fashion for him, source of inspiration, to the equal that went it other important designers and creators."Certainly, in my opinion, there has been an unquestionable recognition of the work that Coco Chanel did to break with certain ties, and although she was not the first, she was undoubtedly the one who broke with certain canons. Then, for me, Balenciaga's elegance and modelling architecture is incomparable, and he was, without a doubt, an example of simplicity and the ability to give value to people. The most important reference for me was undoubtedly Yves Saint Laurent, from whom I understood the need to dress women so that they would be prepared for the evolution they would undertake in the future, when they joined the new activities that required their attire to be "masculinised" in some way, and which Yves knew how to incorporate into the garments. Finally, Giorgio Armani, who captured all that need and took it to fashion, determining the style of the feminine woman, practical and at the same time elegant and functional. It fills me with pride when I am told that I am the "Spanish Armani"; I wish I looked like him! No doubt there are many more people who, without contributing or being in line with what I think I should be doing, also seem to me to be doing magnificent work. Spain is a country brimming with talent, full of people with desire...". If something drawing attention of Roberto Verino, in addition to his professionalism and evident creative and business capacity, is his friendliness and vicinity. How loved he is personally as well as professionally. This is evident in the many expressions of affection received in the sunlight and more "behind the scenes", perhaps the most sincere.When he is meeting you, he rushes to do you feel comfortable and to tell you to address him as "tute tu" because the "tu" treatment gives him a feeling of remoteness. It is clear that he cares about people, that he does not live to make a business profitable and just pile up money, or to profit from the customer at any cost. In fact, he says that he got out of the "fashionable system" many years ago because he considered it to be nonsense in some respects.""I got out of the fashion wheel, because there was no reason to justify the fact that we were doing fashion shows to show them to people and then the clients received the garments six months later, when the new technologies were transmitting the show on the spot". Besides, he continues... "Who decides what is fashion or not? The interests of people who only want to commercialise", without further ado, or to take advantage of the customer at any cost. In fact, he says that he got out of the "fashionable system" many years ago because he considered it to be nonsense in some respects.To Roberto Verino, sees him a determinate man, of acute look at the same time he is humble, of those man whose have the feet in the earth.. And sure enough, in more than an occasion, along the interview, speech of ethical: "The ethical for me is a lot before that the aesthetics", and stresses that he is happy with his trajectory, even if he feels proud and sometimes incredulous, with forty years of history already behind him, with some dizziness...He affirms that it does not want to give a jump to other echelons of public. "I do not pretend to work for an immense majority, but for an immense minority. I conform me with that this immense minority was faithful to my proposal, thing that consents me be profitable season after season. If I pretended to go in in another dimension, would be perhaps more conditioned. Well, I am not conditioned, in consequence, think that this form to work is more ethical. Knowing that there is a big majority that comprises my proposal seat me very reconfortado and think that is me sufficient volume, that even would not be able to face more, with which why pretend more".He says he is always the same, both in front of the camera and behind it, because he is lucky enough not to have to act, as he enjoys his work enormously and there is no limit between Roberto as a "designer" and as a "person". He claims to be a non-conformist and has always been branded a bit crazy, perhaps that is why he dared, in the relatively distant 1982, to set up a company with a clearly French or Italian industrial style, when in Spain these business systems were still practically unknown, bringing a daring vision and innovation to the country.Fotográfo: Javier Marquez. Model: Lucía Lopez. 2018A pioneer without a doubt, it is also noticeable when he comments that the "hackneyed" word "sustainability" has always been a credo of his proposals, precisely because of the quality of the materials used, the style of his garments and, of course, the durability of the proposals made, collection after collection.A discreet man, no doubt, who did not want to get involved in a show business that would see him somehow tied to the rhythms of red carpets, catwalks, influencers and that would take him further and further away from what he considered he had to do in order for his values to be reflected in his work.. "When I am sometimes asked what my wife is like, I always answer: my wife is intelligent, because she really knows what is good for her. The key is in that, that's what I try to convey, things that "suit", because from that people understand what you are proposing, what you are offering. Anything else is a façade. If we want to be authentic, if we want to be real, if we want to have a discourse, if we want everything to keep adding up, you can't be cheating. I accept the idea that, to be authentic, you have to be a bit crazy, because you have to believe in what you think, in what you feel, sometimes go against the tide, go for what really transmits things to you, that leads you in the search for a balance and a capacity to assume it. Balance between what you feel you have to give and what the client understands and receives. I like to stress to my team that our objective has to be to surprise, excite and seduce. If we manage to do that, we manage to enter into a bond with the consumer, for whom we have to work with seriousness, coherence and honesty". Honesty, ethical and coherence to himself same and his followers keep on being the maximum to follow the next decades in his work.In spite of being a man of the world, internationally known, it is pleasant to hear how for him Verín, the place where he was born, is still his place, demonstrating that, in spite of his projection, he still has well planted roots and, it makes one's heart shrink a little to hear how his favourite person is undoubtedly his daughter, very recently deceased, leaving a void impossible to fill in his life and in the company, where he worked with extraordinary dedication.Impeccably dressed, in black of course, his favourite colour, he did not fail for a minute, throughout the meeting and the interview, to exude that austere sensitivity of other times, the kind we would give to men who dress by their feet, broken by a frank and authentic smile, with sparkle, as well as the citrus scent, lime, which is also his favourite scent; A cocktail almost identical to the character that he intends to imprint on his company and proposals and which, without doubt, have successfully transcended his person and his ability to charm, not only the buyers but also all those who accompany him in his business project.He don't tell his dreams about the future, and says that the Galicians are superstitious and that, if it explained his dreams, would not do reality. We have to wait for the arrival of this future, to see made each one of these dreams, year after years materialised in the Serene Beauty of the style Verino.

Roberto Verino: Forty plus one and the Serene Beauty of his style

Luxury expert and contributor to 'Next in Beauty', Loredana Vitale, has interviewed the Gallic designer Roberto Verino.

Loredana Vitale

Partner Director of Vitalissima Inter-Trading