N: Hi! Please could you tell us about yourself, how you came about creating SOPADEVODKA, and where does the name come from?

S: I've grown up in a small city called Santander in the North of Spain. Six years ago, I quit college while I was studying Fine Arts. In the meantime, as I was deciding what to do my grandma taught me to sew and I fell in love with fashion design.

The name is SOPADEVODKA which means vodka soup. It came to me when I was in high school. I hate vodka but a vodka soup it's not alcoholic because if you cook it the alcohol goes away. It used to be my name on Instagram as a joke but when I started to experiment with fashion I knew that something that it is and it isn't at the same time works perfectly as the name for a constantly changing brand so I keep It.

N: You say that you are always working on your garments with those three questions in mind; Where are we? To whom? With whom? and what do you have to say? As someone who has traveled a lot, I do also find myself asking these questions... I am wondering if this mantra has evolved for you overtime.

S: Of course, it has evolved . That's the biggest challenge for me... I think a brand should stick to its formula. My approach has changed so much overtime that at this point I think the only stable thing is the name.

But I guess constant change is also a feature of the brand and our “To whom?”. I like that.

N: How do you balance keeping this question in mind in your creative process while also creating something that is specific to your personality and isn’t tied to fashion trend cycles?

S: I used to be obsessed with not getting in the fashion trends loop and that obsession sometimes got me into a creative block.

Nowadays I just do not pay attention to trends, but I am also conscious of the fact that I'm not blind. For me, a fashion trend is something that our brain gets unconsciously accustomed to.. so it's only normal that some trends cycles affect my design process.

N: Next, I would like to talk about the Rhino Beetle Bag…I’m so in love! What a beautiful work of art that merges sculpture and wearable accessories together. What inspired the creation of this object, can you tell us a little bit more about it?

S: My last collection “Larva” was inspired by the Rhino beetle metamorphosis.

From the beginning, I knew that I wanted to create the first bag of the brand and after months of design and sewing work one day the bag design was so obvious to me. I looked at the rhino beetle and saw that its head was actually an unclosed bag so I drew it and made my first prototype. I also knew that I wanted to create it in biodegradable resin and that's what I did.

Then comes the idea of a chromed one, that part was so much more complicated because literally, everyone closed the door to chrome an intricate piece like the Rhino bag. When I was losing hope I called a small chrome place in my city and they said yes so that's all the story.

N: What role does technology play in your creative process?

S: It's a very important part of my process, I'm always working between the latest technology and the most traditional artisanal technique. In each new episode of my brand, I try to challenge myself with old and new techniques.

‍

For my next collection, for example, I'm working with ancient textile manipulations.

‍

‍N: Thank you for answering these questions with us today. Let's close this little interview on a light note. If you could make any fictional character wear your garments and accessories, who would it be and why!

S: I think it would be Furiosa from Mad Max. I can see her using my bag as a weapon. I love this question because when in the design process of each collection I like to imagine a dystopian futuristic world...Mad Max was the world of my latest one.