A few years ago, when we first dreamed of Alawa's project, with my sister Flor and our mother, seeking to train ourselves more and more in the world of swimsuits, we went to find someone who revolutionized our mind and gave him much content to our fledgling project. Her name: Roser Bellsolá.
A "Lady" with a capital letter, eighty years of wisdom macerated over low heat and hard work in her beloved Catalonia. Elegant, generous, deep, bold, with a strong character and a big heart. Her eyes shine as a teenager in love when she talks about her husband, who left many years ago, and with whom she created one of her most important works: the family.
We meet in that endearing cafeteria in Barcelona, where many afternoons after working in his workshop -or in the morning before starting the day- we shared gatherings and our passion for fashion. She remains the same, with her unshakable faith, bulletproof self-esteem, enviable joviality, and an enormous desire to improve herself more and more each day as if she were still beginning today.
Thank you Roser for this meeting full of so many memories. Let's start by looking at the beginning. What is the beginning of your story of starting to create?
I don't know how to start creating, but in everything I see the hand of God. And at that time when my daughters were little I kept all the swimsuits that I was buying for them. I liked good brands, like Christian Dior and Nina Ricci, and I offered to pay them half and have them pay the rest. And I was getting all those swimsuits and I was putting them away.
I have always liked to sew, I would assemble everything and then I would have the seamstress sew them for me. And that same seamstress, to whom I must have talked a lot about swimsuits, always told me: "Mrs. Roser, when are we going to make swimsuits?"
And one day I met a very cute woman, who said to me "What a pity that young people do not find cute swimsuits and it is just a cute offer for a bikini!" And then I thought: "I'll make swimsuits!" And I remember that day as "a bomb", a spark, an illumination.
Thus "Bellsolá Swim", with a clear idea: to make cute swimsuits, for women of all ages and bodies.
And that's how it all started?
Yes, that's how it all started. Here the textile industry was very powerful then. I found out about workshops that made swimsuits and I went to learn a town where the best were, and there I didn't even know what an overlock machine was! They taught me, and that's how it all began. Since I had very good swimsuits from years ago that I had saved, I started by copying their patterns that were the best. And it was coming out. And it was giving me "on a platter". The right person was always there for everything I needed.
What you can tell when listening to you Roser is that you live it with passion, that you have enjoyed it.
Yes, I have really enjoyed it. It is that life is an enjoyment. And if you are lucky enough that you like many things ..., one day my husband told me in a Galician way - that Galicians always say everything backwards (laughs) -: “hey, you have a problem, you like everything! " And I enjoy even tidying up the closet!
What has been your motivation to undertake a project as specific as that of swimwear?
What has motivated me basically is the dignity of women. The woman is feminine, and the very fact of motherhood I think gives us a lot of status or a lot of honor. And this motherhood I think we take it to everything.
I like to go to good stores, but I do not buy, I learn, I observe: what is coming, how it is made, trends, etc. This is wealth.
Roser, as we said before, you have been able to see how fashion has evolved for a long time. What is your assessment of this entire trajectory?
In my opinion, the best time for fashion was the post-war era, the time of the great couturiers. It is precisely the "bad fashion" that we have now is because people have everything. At the time of struggle, and scarcity, is where the desire to create again arises, because fashion had been crushed for a few years. There were many years of break, there was a lot of desire to create. That moment was an elegant moment, the woman marked the forms and her femininity. Quite the opposite of what I see many times now.
I have a closet full of "Burdas" magazines since 64. And they are the patterns with which I started, and from there perfect patterns were produced, because German is German. And I never found a fault with them.
And how do you see fashion now?
Well, I don't see it very well. It cannot be that there are no references to the beautiful and that we relativize everything. The cult of the ugly cannot be fashion, the beautiful is beautiful, and the ugly is ugly.
I think that in fashion the first thing is to combine the color. The color is what attracts the most attention, and then, secondly, the shapes. A short woman should not wear the same as a tall woman. It is like decorating a house, you have to fit things to the shapes that the house has, not everything goes for all houses. I have always sought harmony, an aesthetic sense, in everything I have done.
And for swimwear, which is what you have specialized in, what have you been inspired by?
In everything I've done within fashion, everything comes out and fuels what one does in the end. I have made wedding dresses -in a family circle and that of a friend-, children's clothes and dress clothes for weddings. And here I have to say that it is very good that the raw material is good, here we must not skimp. I found a store in Barcelona where they had a magnificent quality natural silk and I worked with it. And all this has influenced. Everything you see and assimilate influences, because even a butcher shop window can be beautiful. Because what is beautiful is always beautiful. And that remains, it does not go out of style.
Then you have managed to pour all your experience and knowledge into a very constructive pedagogical vein. There are many girls who have learned from you and who use your patterns to this day. What has this educational aspect left you? Has it been rewarding for you?
And so much! It is that of life what really remains for you is all the good that you have contributed and have given. Also in the material part, it is very rewarding. The material for the matter does not fill the heart. I would rather say that the material has as much value as it serves to manifest other deeper things. Like your own way of perceiving fashion by making a swimsuit. It is something spiritual that comes out of you and materializes in a swimsuit, for example.
Many of those who have left here I have ended up giving them away, look, right now they have gone to Africa a lot! It is very gratifying for me that something that has come out of me ends up helping so many people who need it. And there are places where there are no cute swimsuits, but there are others where there are not even decent ones.
Another very gratifying thing is to be able to make swimsuits for women with more atypical shapes, sometimes they are sizes that are not easily found in the market, other times it is because they are not standard bodies, we all have a different body. They are delighted, that is priceless. Being able to do good with your time and dedication, seeking to do something beautiful and that improves whoever wears it, because it makes you happy.
We love listening to you and seeing that with your life you have served so many people.
It is that life is service. It is the most beautiful thing, in the end everything one does while serving is what truly builds the world.
Thank you very much, Roser, for having been a great Teacher for us. A little part of Alawa has come out of you and will always be yours. Until forever!
And to those who read us, encourage you to undertake regardless of age, that Roser has shown us that it is very possible, and that youth and audacity are carried in the soul.