Cecilia Sörensen
We met in the afternoon, on a typical day at the store. Cecilia Sörensen, one of the founding members and owners of Comité, a unique clothing store located in the Raval, was alone attending customers.

It’s always a pleasure to enter the shop. You’re surrounded by lovely soft lighting from white, peach, and sandy-coloured paper lampshades, soft jazz or hip-hop music. There’s unique artwork on the walls, from Asian-style prints to a huge cup made out of sewing pins, to jewelry, accessories, prints, CD’s, and books. All are tastefully and aesthetically placed throughout the store, rounded off to create the intimate atmosphere with a few rugs and comfy antique red velvet chairs.

Before starting our conversation, Cecilia gave me a tour. The collections of the three owners line one side of the store. Their location changes every two weeks so that each designer gets equal visibility. Whichever designer is in charge of the store can create the atmosphere desired with music or individual decor.

On the opposite side of the collections are the comfy velvet stairs and a unique dressing room made from re-cycled sheets. Before entering the workshop area, there’s a large bookcase exhibiting small independent labels of music CD’s, books, cards, and jewelry collections. The workshop, where everything is within reach and shared equally among the partners, is complete with dressmaking patterns, a cutting table, a sewing machine, and a printing area, since everything at Comité is hand-painted there. Finally, there’s a store room.

Cecilia, what’s your family background? Where did you study and was fashion design your first choice? How did you happen to come to Barcelona?
I’m 28 and from Helsinki. Since the fashion industry in Finland is so small, fashion was only a dream, not really achievable. But when I was young, I started sewing as a hobby. At ten or eleven, I got a sewing machine as a Christmas present so I started sewing for myself and my friends. I never took any classes. After high school, I did a one-year foundation course in Fine Arts, then a two-year degree in Tailoring, then moved with my boyfriend, Roope [also an owner of Comité] to England where I started a B.A. in Fashion at Southampton University. Although the course there was incredible, I felt that the city is just as important as the course work and I didn’t really feel that the city offered anything, as we had the only art gallery in town. So I participated in their exchange programme to come to Barcelona and ended the last two years of my studies at the Escuela de Artes y Tecnicas de la Moda (EATM), which is now the Escola Superior de Disseny (ESDi).

I’m glad that I had a mix of tailoring, patternmaking, and technical skills from Finland and the more commercial aspects from England. From my studies in Spain, I learned to develop my own personal style. I wouldn’t have been happy with only one but the mix was good. During the my time at ESDi, I did a four-month work practice at Antonio Miró and started working there full-time before graduating and before we opened up Comité. Since I came here without any contacts or experience, and got the job because of my skills, it was a better experience than some of my other classmates had, even though it was quite difficult to work for someone when I really wanted to design myself.

During my studies and since then, I’ve presented my collections in eight editions of MerkaFAD [the space sponsored by ModaFAD where young designers can sell their creations to the public]. And since I’ve been consistently selling to returning customers, it was quite easy to open up the shop. Since my dad’s an engineer and my mom’s an interior designer, I guess I have a half-technical and a half-designer side. In the beginning, without any financial help or technical support, I did everything. Although my parents were supportive of my decisions, and didn’t push me into the field, other family members warned me about starting my own business but I think they agreed that ‘everybody always has to try.’

What’s so special about working in Barcelona?
The size of the fashion industry is perfect for me. Sometimes Barcelona is not taken as seriously as Milan or Paris, which are very hard to get into, but for me it’s been quite easy to find my place here. I’m surprised at how they’ve accepted me. The industry here is “más simpatico” [loosely translated loosely as warmer or nicer] than in the big cities. In general, people think that the fashion industry isn’t a real industry, like, for example, the Spanish car industry, but just look at the owner of Zara…!

How did you set-up your business? Tell me about your partners and collaborators?
We set-up Comité in February of 2002; opened in April, so it’s now been about two and a half years. I had a plan to open up a similar type of store in Finland but instead I got the job at Antonio Miró and started working here. Then I was invited to participate in the Young Spanish Designers Fabrics Fair in Italy where I got to know three other designers: one from France, one from Barcelona, and one from Finland, all of them living in Barcelona; we became immediate friends and started thinking about a joint project, then started looking for a place.

We were all more or less at the same level, of the same age, and had participated in MerkaFAD, so I sort of knew them, although we hadn’t studied together. We looked for three months in the Borne area but since prices were too high, we choose the space here in the Raval, where we were the only store of any kind on our street.

We’re just now in the process of changing our structure: Julia (from France), me, and Roope are three of the five founding owners. In February of 2005 we’ll be six designers renting space, with three new designers -- Lucia from Argentina, Pia from Finland, and Alicia from Sweden. Since we’re open everyday but Sunday, each designer will have one day a week to work in the store, attend to clients, use the work space, everything.

I would never have been able to do something like this by myself. It’s given me so many opportunities. The wholesale clients take you more seriously when you have a store and if someone had started a store by yourself, it wouldn’t have gotten so much attention as a group; we’ve been considered the most important young designers’ space in Barcelona. What differentiates us from other stores is that we design ourselves and do everything in the store too – it’s more of a personal approach. Three weeks ago, in the newspaper “El Pais,” they wrote that walking into the store is like walking into someone’s living room!

I know that you have an innovative new space for young designers and artists. Will you say something about that?
Every four to six months, we invite an artist or a designer to do a wall or exhibit accessories, and of course to sell their work during that time. When one of us attends a show or fair and admire someone’s work, we ask them to exhibit. Once chosen, we organize an evening party, like an art gallery opening, for press and friends to promote the new artist. It’s a 50-50 deal. In the last two and a half years, we’ve had designers of purses, shoes, jewelry, and other accessories as collaborators.

Have you seen changes in the Raval in the last few years?
Oh yes. Six years ago, the Borne shopping district was where small shops opened up but now there are the big name stores like Mango and it’s become so expensive. In the last two and a half years, the small shops now “open” in the Raval. On our street, Notariat, there are now many businesses: two bars, one hairdresser, one other clothing store, a pop-designer furniture store, a bookshop, a gift shop, and now Camper will open a hotel and a restaurant. When we moved in, we were the only shop. In general, Spanish clothing stores aren’t doing so well but we are. Most of the people who come into the store know about us from magazines or word of mouth. It’s really good that more stores have opened, and more people are flowing on the street. And of course Barcelona has become more popular: the Sonar Music Festival is particularly important to us, since one of our target groups is the young, culturally-aware crowd, many of whom are interested in the small shops in the area.

Also, there’s been a big change in the neighborhood since the construction of the MACBA (Museu d'Art Contemporani de Barcelona). In 1993, when I was a high school exchange student here, my host family forbade me to enter this area, but of course I came anyway, and saw prostitutes and drug needles everywhere. Since MACBA arrived, every year the neighborhood has become cleaner and more developed but it still maintains its local charm.

Tell me about the collection you’ll be presenting for Circuit ‘Re-do’ during this edition of Barcelona Fashion Week?
This new collection is based on portrait photographs from my family history, some from as far back as the last decades of the 19th century to the present day. From these portraits, I attempt to find the answers to the mystery of who they were. Looking at them, and studying their images, you can analyze what was the image that they offered the outside world. By focusing on the portraits of my family, from their poses, expressions, and gestures, either taken as a whole and from specific details, I’ve been able to create an introverted, calm, and silent collection. Using details underneath other surfaces prints hidden under layers of transparent gauze, or pieces of lace between layers of cotton. I’ve focused on clean lines and ‘cold’ colours. It’s been a pleasure to design an entire collection using my ancestors as inspiration.

How has your style changed within the last few years?
In the beginning, I did everything with re-cycled material, mostly men’s shirts and sheets, but also men’s jackets and coats. Beginning last winter, I’ve designed two collections: one for Pequeños Heroes made solely from re-cycled material and the other under my name, made with traditional fabric. Both have the same theme, colour card, and they complement each other.

Because re-cycled material is so limited, I can only produce a limited number garments and using re-cycled material is also so time-consuming. I have to shop for each piece at markets and shops and cut each piece personally. But in the beginning, it was interesting because I had a dilemma with the fashion industry which pushes you to renew your wardrobe every six months, to consume, consume, and consume. So I really wanted to find a way to work in fashion but maintain my belief in recycling. I also saw that there was a niche for me with recycled fashions since no two pieces are ever exactly alike…

You know, something’s that really important to me is that everything should be sewn in small, local workshops in Barcelona, in an ethically correct manner. That’s a luxury compared to big companies. And although it’s expensive to produce in that way, if I grow into a big business, I would never exploit other people.

Are you comfortable working in Barcelona?
I kind of like being a foreigner here. Because of my Scandinavian side, I have a slightly different perspective of things. When you’re a foreigner, you have your own traditions, but you also know the local customs. You live how you want. You take the best of both worlds and don’t feel like you have to fit into a certain pattern.

What are your plans for the future?
Right now I’m looking for a studio space because we’re outgrowing our space here. We’ve been growing for the last two and a half years, and I’d like everyone to set-up his or her own studio but continue to share the print studio and the cutting table.

Comité is just one part of my business. It’s the only place where you can see the whole collection, but I also sell in Spain, France, Finland, Sweden, and Japan. My long-range plan is to work within larger showrooms. I want my collection to have more international exposure, and of course expand my sales, but I prefer to grow steadily, little by little.

What’s the most important lesson you’ve learned in the process of setting-up and running your business?
I’ve learned to be more demanding, to fight to get things done in my own way. If I acted the way I act here in Barcelona, in Finland, it would be considered disrespectful. In the past, I’ve never had to be so demanding. I’ve sometimes hated it, but I’ve come to realize that I wouldn’t have gotten things done otherwise.

For more information:
Comité
C/Notariat 8
08001 Barcelona
93.317.68.83
Email: pequenosheroes@hotmail.com