Nuria Sardá wants you to show your bra: ‘Today there is more freedom and less prejudice’.

She feels much more relaxed after beginning to see the first fruits of the firm's rebranding process, which began more than three years ago and has been one of the biggest business challenges she has faced. ‘It has been a huge effort, but we had to adapt to the new way our customers consume’, says Nuria Sardá, who welcomes us to the showroom located in the heart of Barcelona's Gràcia district. All the work of her father, the legendary couturier Andrés Sardá, was based on one concept: to be revolutionary. But there is no revolution without evolution and the future of the family lineage is based on this premise.

A change of name - from Andrés Sardá to just Sarda, without an accent -, of website and of way of communicating. How has this transformation come about?

We have gone in search of the essence, what the DNA of the brand wanted to say, and we have updated it to make it more digital, accessible and adapted to all generations. Because from day one, Sarda has been a brand designed for all women. We have always talked about female empowerment. We did it in the sixties in Spain when no one else was talking about it and we will continue to do so now.

You have also lowered the price by more than half.

That's right. Until now we have been much more expensive, an aspect that prevented us from reaching all audiences. One of the most important efforts we have made has been to reduce the price by more than half, improving the processes to the maximum but without losing the quality that characterises us. We have made a big commitment to simplify some processes and thus improve costs.

To paraphrase Miguel de Unamuno, renew or die?

We want to be competitive, but we don't believe in the throwaway philosophy. If a garment costs ten euros, we can imagine everything that goes into it. As in everything, you have to have your limits. We will never give up on quality, ethics and sustainability. Within these parameters we will make the maximum effort to reach the best possible price so that everyone can have a Sarda.

How do you perceive the Made in Spain industry?

I think there are companies that have done things very well. At least being in France I have seen Castañer, Camper and other brands succeed internationally with quality Made in Spain and good distribution. We, in Spain, revolutionised the world of lingerie at the time. In recent years France, Belgium and Germany have been our strongest markets, but now I would like us to reach the United States. This new era of Sarda is also part of this internationalisation process.

‘Underwear has always been linked to the social moment and shows how women live’ Nuria Sardá

They were revolutionary despite the fact that, as far as the lingerie sector is concerned, it has been more difficult in Spain. Is this conservatism still in force?

I think less and less. Obviously there is still a long way to go. But I have seen a great evolution in the sector since I started working in lingerie. We went from the oppressive corset to the No-bra movement of women's liberation in the sixties, and then the push-up bra appeared, a bra that gave more volume to the bust and was a reaffirmation of the here I am. Lingerie has always been closely linked to the social moment and shows how women live.

Also, lingerie was perceived as a provocation for men...

It's all a question of education. It's not that I do something that provokes you, but that one has to do the exercise of re-educating one's gaze. In my father's time this was much more accentuated. Besides, there were two men - he and his designer - with a masculine vision, designing intimate collections for women. Now all this has changed. In the creative department we are all women of very different ages, and have been for many years. We can wear the clothes, we know what we like and what we don't like. It's one thing to address women and another to be women. That's where the real change lies.

What is the revolution of our times?

The boundaries between underwear and outerwear have been blurred. There is much more freedom and less prejudice. A woman can wear a blazer and show her bra underneath. Playing with styles without worrying about what people will say. It is also essential to talk about the size revolution. Today you walk through the streets and you see all kinds of bodies wearing fashion as they see fit and nobody stops to comment on it. In my day it would be unthinkable. We always prioritise comfort and we invest a lot in patterns, shapes and quality of the garments so that each woman can find the one that best suits her, and not the other way around.

Rihanna was one of the first to claim body diversity in Savage x Fenty.

Rihanna is the queen of this. I think there have been two worlds within this sector: one that has been dedicated to size and one that has been dedicated to fashion. And they have never gone hand in hand. Now for the first time they are coming together to make underwear accessible to everyone, allowing every woman to wear as sexy as she wants.

You were focused on fashion...

It's true that there have been times when our sizing hasn't been as wide as we wanted or were able to do. It was precisely in 2008, when we joined the Van de Velde group - they had a much more extensive background in sizes and cups - that we were able to expand much more in this sense. The inclusivity of different bodies and femininities has always been a very important issue for us. In fact, if you look at the historical archive of all the guests invited to Andrés Sardá fashion shows since 2000, you will see that we have never pigeonholed ourselves. Many times we have not achieved the diversity we wanted within the casting, because it is something pre-selected in the fashion weeks, but we try to find that variety among the invited celebrities.

What woman could not be missing on the front row of a Sarda show?

A Najwa Nimri or our great Rossy de Palma. Also Úrsula Corberó, for example, we would love to collaborate with her. Strong women who go their own way and make their own rules. Everyone likes what they do because they are different, but without trying to be. It comes naturally to them.

But now Sarda has dispensed of the fashion shows.

This was necessary. Firstly because the investment of time and effort that this rebranding has entailed did not allow us to focus our attention on anything else. And secondly because we have also changed our way of communicating. This doesn't mean that we will never do a fashion show again, but it will certainly be totally different from what we have done so far.

Final credits:

Photographer: Bèla Adler

Styling: Kati Lanhe

Make-up/hairstyling: Sonia Peña for Kevin Murphy and Guerlain

Model: Tarima Darim (Blow Models)

Coordination: XXL

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