Flamenco fashions with runway flair

By Dale Fuchs

Dresses by Aurora Gaviño of Seville reflect the variety being sought by innovative flamenco designers. (Miguel Angel Trelles)

SEVILLE: So many polka-dotted skirts hang in Aurora Gaviño's dress shop that an uninformed traveler might confuse the place with a tourist trap.

Candy-colored ruffles seem to overwhelm the racks with flamenco drama, the kind hawked mercilessly on souvenir posters and plastic dolls.

But glance at the €800, or $1,050, price tags. Or touch the fabrics — embroidered silk, velvet and gauze. Some dresses are decked with beads or encrusted with mirrors. Others look like vintage gowns.

Clearly, these are not the sort of dresses that swirl above the furious heel-stomping at a package-tour tablao, or show. They are examples of a new generation of flamenco fashion that is pushing the limits of tradition and causing a stir in the conservative circles of Andalucía. And the women who buy them are not foreigners but locals who dress to impress at the traditional spring fair, the Feria de Abril, the highlight of the year's social calendar.

(leer +) [vía international herald tribune]

tags: flamenco, baile, cante, traje flamenca