By Víctor Aparicio @victor___aparicio
There are places that are not simply spaces; they become the stage curtains for a story that defies time. And then there are the geniuses who don’t just dress bodies, but create characters. Lorenzo Caprile is one of those geniuses, a dressmaker with the ability to turn a dress into a declaration of love, but not just any love, but one that borders on the sublime. There is something almost spiritual in the way his creations flow, as if each fabric, each fold, speaks for itself, telling stories of other times, of other artists. Each stitch is not just an act of sewing, it is a dialogue between the past and the present, a kiss between the nostalgia of the great masters of fashion and the vibrant modernity demanded by the present.
The new exhibition ‘Caprile Lorenzo’ is not simply an exhibition of dresses, it is rather a manifesto: a tribute to art, history, culture and, above all, to the unmistakable personality of the Couturier himself.
In the Canal de Isabel II Hall, his work table stands at the very centre of the exhibition, surrounded by personal objects that seem to reveal more than a simple dress could. There is something almost mystical in the way this exhibition has been set up, with objects that evoke the life of the designer: his glasses, his old-fashioned phone and carnations that seem more like a still life than a simple collection of mementos. Caprile is not just a fashion designer, he is a sculptor who, instead of hammer and chisel, wields needle and thread, ready to carve with the precision of a Michelangelo and the delicacy of an Antonio Canova, while his imagination overflows with the intensity of a Verdi. In his dresses, history intersects with haute couture: we see the forceful lines of the Baroque, the draping that seems to whisper in the ear of Madame Grès, the richness of Fortuny, the romanticism of the literature of Byron and Shelley… and all of this merges into an aesthetic that is not of this time, or any other, but timeless.
One of the great passions that define his work is the influence of art, and in particular, painting. As a collector, Caprile has a keen eye for beauty in all its forms, from oil to canvas. It is hard not to see echoes of Zurbarán in the intense blacks worn by the court of Philip II, or the visual compositions that evoke the muslins and velvets of the Spanish Baroque. It is as if Caprile’s dresses make you board the bandwagon of the past, taking you back to another era, in a magical twist that transcends time.
But, like all masterpieces, what really captivates in this exhibition is the dialogue between the fragility of the past and the strength of the present. Because, although Caprile is inspired by El Greco and Goya, he doesn’t allow himself to be trapped by nostalgia. On the other hand, he is a man of his time, who knows how to merge the classic with the avant-garde. Perfect tailoring and elegance meet in a space where silhouettes are reinvented, colors merge in a palette that could have come from a Renaissance landscape, but which, at the same time, is absolutely contemporary.
The fascinating thing about Caprile, as with all great creators, is his ability to take what already existed and make it his own. And what better witness to his journey than the exhibition itself. Here there is no simple chronological line of ‘this is what he did this year and this is what he did next year’. No. Here what we see is a visual story where the dresses converse with each other, intertwine, not because of the dates, but because of the muses Caprile has followed: Italy, Romanticism, cinema, haute couture… and all those invisible threads that form his soul as a creator.
It is impossible not to think of the way his work pays homage to the great masters, but, as in any good story, the key is not just in the influence, but in the interpretation. The legacy of Pertegaz, the elegance of Valentino, the love of Grès technique… they are all there, in the very essence of Caprile’s pieces, but never as a copy, always as an echo transformed into something radically his own.
Finally, what this exhibition leaves us with, in addition to an endless number of dresses that could change the way we see fashion, is the certainty that Lorenzo Caprile doesn’t just make garments, he creates narrative. And in every pleat, every cut, you can perceive the story of a man who has not only mastered couture, but who has understood that fashion is also a way of life.
The question that arises in my mind is: If Caprile is Lorenzo and Lorenzo is Caprile, who are we when we look at ourselves in his fashion mirrors?
