It is a difficult feat to create dresses with a structural grandeur akin to architectural icons by the likes of Norman Foster, Zaha Hadid and Frank Gehry. Cristóbal Balenciaga and Christian Dior spring to mind. But today the challenge has evolved: clothes that are architectural must be feminine and wearable, too.  Enter Josep Font, the Barcelona-born creative director of Spanish heritage brand Delpozo. Although it has been renowned in Spain as one of the country’s most accomplished womenswear houses since 1974, for the international market the label remains little known. Following the death of the brand’s founder Jesús del Pozo in 2011, it was bought by the Perfumes & Diseño Group. A successor was found in Font, who moved to Madrid to take the reins and steer the collection onto the catwalk during New York Fashion Week. From there, Cate Blanchett, Julianne Moore and Hilary Swank chose its sculptural, elegant dresses to wear, at the Cannes, Palm Springs and Hamptons film festivals respectively, and Delpozo earned its red-carpet stripes.  Font creates clothes with exaggerated silhouettes and hand-embroidered details, grounded in the engineering principles of a strong foundation and quality materials. He also succeeds in blending attention-grabbing, ambitious shapes with a feminine, romantic aesthetic. It’s no wonder that, without telling his father, Font left his degree in architecture behind for a career in fashion.  So how does he translate the ideas of structure and shape onto fabric and the body? "It’s all about balance," he explains. "In fact, I took this lesson from my training as an architect. Everything needs to have proportion to achieve harmony between volume, silhouette, colour and texture. I might design a voluminous sleeve, but to reduce its visual weight and heaviness, I will make it out of organza, a light and translucent fabric."  Such a sleight of hand can only be achieved with a team of expert craftsmen – Delpozo is known as a demi-couture house. "At the atelier," Font explains, "we work in a very similar way to how they did in the golden age of fashion, in the Forties and Fifties. Our patternmakers and seamstresses are a great part of the team and I work side-by-side with them to see the progress of my designs – whether the volumes are feasible, whether the fabrics can hold the shapes through pleats and cuts, do the colours work together, which embroidery should go on which fabric or design… It’s a team effort."  Three years on from the relaunch, the time has come for Delpozo to dip its toe in the waters of handbag design, with a new four-piece range. "I took four classic styles and reimagined them in the modern day for the Delpozo woman," says Font. "I wanted to stay true to my inspiration of organic architecture and interpret accessories the way I work the ready-to-wear collections."  The Doctor bag, which made its first appearance during the runway show in September, and the Flap bag are, says Font, "both for daily use – a working bag if you will; the Satchel is very ladylike, and the Clutch is great to transition from day to night." All the bags are made from refined calfskin with delicate nappa linings in contrasting colours.  After Delpozo’s flagship openings in Madrid and Miami, mid-March will see the opening of its first London boutique. As you would expect from a trained architect, Font had a very specific vision for the store. "Our new boutique in London will follow the same concept as our other stores," he says. "Natural materials like wood and marble alongside more industrial elements such as brass will create the structure of the store. The space has a lot of natural light, as for me it’s key that the garments are displayed with natural rather than artificial light so customers can appreciate the colour palette as much as the details." When it came to the décor, Font personally selected the furniture. "I love Tommaso Bari’s organic leaf lamps made out of golden brass, Willy Rizzo’s centre tables and Vladimir Kagan for the sofas. I feel it’s the new minimal concept."  It’s only been three years… for Delpozo the best is yet to come.
Spanish heritage label Delpozo is bringing its striking silhouettes to London, with a fittingly sleek store and a new handbag line