- An Urban Exhibition in the Salamanca District to Celebrate Cortefiel’s 80th Anniversary
- The exhibition route, organized in collaboration with the Madrid City Council, begins at the corner of Serrano and Goya streets and will be open to the public from October 8 to 23.
The central Serrano street hosts a retrospective urban exhibition showcasing how Cortefiel, through fashion and advertising, has evolved alongside the key milestones that have marked Spain’s history. The collection was inaugurated this morning by Cortefiel’s General Director, Marie Castellvi; the exhibition curator, Mario Ximénez; and municipal representatives Óscar Romera, General Coordinator of Economy, Trade, and Consumption, and Olga Ruiz, Director General of Commerce and Hospitality.
The photographic collection features a selection of eight historic advertisements spanning from 1945 to the present, with campaigns from the 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s, 2000s, and 2010s, reinterpreted for today and leveraging their legacy to look toward the future.
There are eight double-sided billboards—on one side, the historic ads from each decade; on the other, their current version showcasing the Fall-Winter 2025 collection.
Marie Castellvi stated that in today’s highly digital world, discovering these pieces and being able to dive into our archives has been a luxury. There is a wealth of brand material, and selecting the most significant creatives that represent the key moments of Spanish society in each decade has been a challenge. During the process, we found archival pieces such as one of the trench coats we manufactured for Yves Saint Laurent, as well as advertisements from the 2000s shot in Los Angeles featuring Spanish top models like Judith Mascó, Nieves Álvarez, and Andrés Velencoso.
Mario Ximénez, exhibition curator and collaborator with Cortefiel, declared, “This exhibition is a celebration of Cortefiel’s legacy, a pioneering brand in advocating democratic fashion adapted to each individual. It brings together eight advertising images that describe the evolution of the brand over these eight decades, as well as the evolution of Spanish society and our consumption patterns.”
Óscar Romera, General Coordinator of Economy, Trade, and Consumption, commented during the exhibition’s inauguration that Cortefiel is part of Madrid’s history, having started in a small shop in the capital and grown from there thanks to its innovation and talent. These words were echoed by Olga Ruiz, Director General of Commerce and Hospitality of the Madrid City Council, who added, “In this magnificent exhibition, we have witnessed the growth of a brand, its generational transition, international expansion, and its ability to adapt to new times.”
The past and the future, legacy and projection, go hand in hand in the journey of a brand that has managed to build its own universe and transcend the expectations of its founders: from a small haberdashery in Madrid to an international brand operating in over forty countries.
