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Beatriz Azanza

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Heritage,nature and innovation

 

      The European Heritage Days.

    The activity I will present today takes place in a little historical village of Navarra with an amazing landscape as well: Gallipienzo.. The idea of a mixture between contemporary fashion and tradition has been taken from the proposal of the European heritage days. #EHDs is a joint program by European Commission and the Council of Europe.

Here we have the textual proposal for this year:

“In this year’s edition of the #EHDs we are celebrating the intrinsic relationship between people and nature under the common theme: “Heritage and Nature: A Landscape of Possibilities”. Emphasis is given to heritage values embodied in nature and to the extent to which the environment shapes people’s lives and lifestyles and its contribution to their well-being and socio-economic prosperity. The events taking place in urban nature sites, historic gardens, national reserves, home yards, national parks, heritage biotopes, protected areas, every day and outstanding landscape will help people to connect to nature and explore its diversity and cultural values.”

         “A Landscape of Possibilities”

At the old village of Gallipienzo, two dreams came true. The first, where this event took place: the Heredad Beragu Hotel. It is a business based on the respect of history, landscape, and its surroundings. It is ideal for people interested in cultural heritage and nature. Moreover, the hotel employs people from the village, so by creating jobs, the hotel helps to avoid depopulation, a great problem in small and old villages in Spain.

The second dream emerged from the inspiration in the landscape of Gallipienzo and the location of the hotel itself: a new winter collection of bags by the BeiA team. Some days ago, I wrote on this blog about BeiA, a brand of hand bags by Beatriz Azanza and Ainhoa Arriazu.Their design is based on folklore. But this time, their creations are based on the landscape.

       The Meeting:

With the assistance of a good number of people, Bea and Ainhoa explained all the creation process for the new models. Shapes,colors and textures. It’s also very usual on these handbags to see arbutus as an ornament.

All the explanations were followed in a very friendly atmosphere. This time, the public was not only formed by young people but by the grandparents of the designers and old people from the village too. Fashion designers, and specialists in the textile industry joined us.

After the chat, we had a nice snack with Spanish tortilla and some typical foods from Spain as well and wine and refreshments. People had also the chance to have a walk around the village and experience the atmosphere of old times.

If you want to read more about Gallpienzo click on here and read about our visit last year. You can also enjoy the pictures on the website of the hotel and even on our profiles on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

And of course! don’t forget visit the shop on line from BeiA

Blog

Folklore and fashion

JUSTE BY CHANCE

It was during the last spring when I came across an article at the magazine “Nuestro Tiempo”. Two students (actually graduates) from the architecture school, were starting a little business of bag design.

I kept in touch with them and made them a proposal.

What about designing with cultural heritage as inspiration? A good start is the Renaissance architecture found in a very little and hidden village: Morón de Almazán. Inspiration can be found not only on the stones of its amazing square but on the typical costumes of its Museum.

      FROM TRADITION TO INNOVATION

It was the goal. To create style and contemporary fashion but looking back to the origins in ancient dresses, ceremonies, music and festivals.

The girls from the BeiA firm would create new models of bags with this inspiration. First, they had to travel and visit the village and its museum, look at everything with care, time and even tenderness.

 

Beatriz and Ainhoa visited the museum guided by Rogelio Peña, the person in charge of this little but great museum. They had explanations about traditions, social classes and different ceremonies and roles.

Then they came back to Pamplona, and started designing

THE DATE ARRIVES

When summer is almost over, the day arrived. It was September 2nd.

Beatriz, Ainhoa and me were all excited. What was going on?

How many people would come? At the near village of Almazán there was a festival, with a “corrida de toros” included.

We had the doubt, perhaps nobody would come? After the hard work during the summer, what was going to happen?

And great! The museum was full of people. The old people from the village fell in love with their culture and their heritage, people from the city of Soria, (capital of the province) and more: people from Bilbao, Logroño and other surrounding cities. People who were traveling as tourist around this area.

Beatriz and Ainhoa presented the models and then we enjoyed a dinner with typical products from Navarra, the region from which Bea and Ainhoa come from

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Our gratitude to the team in charge of the Soria Museum, to the people in charge of the cultural area of the  “Diputación of Soria”Yolanda Martínez  and Milagros Tajahuerce  the mayor of Moron de Almazan.

 

Before finishing this post I’d like to encourage you to visit the Museum of Moron de Almazan as well as the old Medinaceli. Check out the web (The one of the museum is not available for mobile phones).

See you .