He had everything to succeed, but it ended up being a resounding failure. In December 1994, Robert Altman released the film Ready to wear with the premise of putting the fashion industry on the ropes. With unprecedented access to Parisian fashion shows and a star-studded cast with names like Sofia Loren or Kim Basinger, Altman managed to anger the entire sector for something that specialized journalist Suzy Menkes defined as a “pure farce”, obtaining the indignation of the very same Karl Lagerfeld, who took the director to court for calling him a thief at the end of the film. “I remember the scandal, but I’m not going to lie to you: that was the funniest experience of my career,” jokes Helena Barquilla (Ciudad Real, 50 years old), the model who was then living the height of her career, flanked by colleagues like Cristina Piaget or Judit Mascó. “It’s one of the many times this industry has been turned upside down, but what would it be without some urban legend,” she jokes.
Helena Barquilla in an off-the-shoulder ribbed knit dress by CHLOÉ and SALVATORE FERRAGAMO mules. Foto: EZRA PATCHETT
Looking back, Barquilla believes that in fashion it happens like in that failed film: what is shown of it does not always coincide with what happens behind the scenes. “For example, with the physique of the models,” she argues. Muse of the late Thierry Mugler, of John Galliano during his time at Dior or of Yves Saint Laurent himself, her success was always parallel to that of an insecurity regarding her physique that she dragged since she was a child. “I have never been particularly proud of my body or my face. From a very young age, at school, I suffered bullying by colleagues who saw me as a monster, and who in one way or another ended up convincing me that I was. That’s why, when a friend of my parents told them that he could succeed as a model, at first I took it almost as another mockery. That family friend—his father of his was dj and both separated when she was eight years old— turned out to be a bridge between Barquilla and Manuel Piña, a key dressmaker in the Spanish Transition who orchestrated some of the most spectacular parades of what was then called the Cibeles Fashion Show. “In our first meeting he didn’t notice me, I was still in school and played basketball, so my body wasn’t exactly that of a typical model. But she came back a few months later for a parade they dedicated to her in Ciudad Real, and we stayed there chatting until I dared to tell her that being a model had caught my attention. He put me on the parade in a wedding dress with transparencies, a four meter train and impossible platforms. I think it was her way, very particular, of challenging me and seeing what she did with me”.
Boat with caftan dress by FENDI. Foto: EZRA PATCHETT
A week was enough for Barquilla to pack his bags and head to Madrid, with Piña as honorary godfather. “Thanks to him, I went from being an insecure clumsy to an aunt who stepped on the catwalk and became someone else, what do I know. But if you realize, all the women who paraded in the eighties and nineties had that posture, theatrical and dramatic, that made going to a parade something similar to a play. You saw it at Gaultier, at Saint Laurent”, she longs for her. Towards the end of the eighties, living between Paris and New York, her face was as valued as that of Naomi Campbell, Claudia Schiffer or Cindy Crawford. Luckily, she had not yet imposed the model of extreme thinness that would prevail in the 2000s, but she confesses that being exposed to the constant judgment of professionals much older than her affected her psychologically. “I had to leave the first agency I signed up for, because I couldn’t stand being told how skinny or fat I was every morning. And that, no matter how strong you think you are, at 18 years old it generates a lifelong trauma for you, ”she ditches.
The model with pebbled buttoned top and ‘oversize’ bermudas, both from LOUIS VUITTON. Foto: EZRA PATCHETT
At the age of 25, Helena Barquilla began to mutter the decision to stealthily leave the world that had seen her become an adult. She was already dragging milestones such as Prada campaigns for Steven Meisel, being the first Spanish woman to parade for Victoria’s Secret and making Gianfranco Ferré fall in love with Elio Berhanyer. But this world simply did not compensate him. “I made the decision mentally, but I lived through three years of progressive disenchantment. On the one hand it was my standard of living, at an unsustainable pace, and on the other hand, the concerns of connecting with myself and getting rid of this complex industry, so I escaped to Latin America for a week and there was no going back”. After a journey that served him to study techniques such as yoga or shiatsu Japanese, would end up returning to the starting point to open a school of meditation in movement, 5 Rhythms, which is still active today. “It is a path that I learned from its founder, Gabrielle Roth, and that uses dance to understand our body and as a tool for psychological well-being. I always liked dance and dancing, but this incorporates meditation as well,” she says. Would she ever return to the catwalks? “Now I just want to do things that, at the very least, amuse me.”
Helena Barquilla in a cut-out dress in
sustainable silk by STELLA MCCARTNEY and pumps in brushed leather by PRADA. Foto: EZRA PATCHETT
* Styling: Paula Delgado. Makeup and hairdressing: Carmen de Juan (Another Artist Agency) for Chanel and Shu Uemura Art of Hair. Photography assistant: Pablo Rodríguez. Styling assistant: Cristina Ramírez.