How Spain’s Indie Fashion Scene Nailed Global Growth

During the two-week run of Spanish womenswear brand La Veste’s pop-up in New York City, the brand’s “super fans” — as described by chief executive Sofia García-Gallardo — arrived in its wares from head to toe. Eager to get their hands on a pair of La Veste’s striped pants or one of its scalloped shirts, they ended up selling out several items, including its parasol pants and knit capsule.

The US is an increasingly important market for La Veste: Despite not having a permanent stateside store, 40 to 45 percent of its sales already come from the US market, with the average American order hovering around 2.1 pieces compared to 1.6 in Europe.

The brand is one of a number of independent, digitally native Spanish labels, including jewellery maker Simuero and womenswear label Gimaguas, expanding into new territories and attracting customers with a laidback vibe and flourishes of colour. They’ve opened pop-ups in locations like Paris and Seoul, but many have also started to plant more permanent roots, opening physical retail locations in Paris, London and New York. In March, Spanish womenswear brand Paloma Wool opened its first flagship in SoHo, just a few blocks from where footwear label Flabelus is set to open its own store later this spring.

While lesser-known than some of their European counterparts, like France’s Sézane or Denmark’s Ganni, Spanish brands have been growing more quickly than many of their regional peers. On the fashion wholesale platform Joor, sales of Italian brands declined and French labels posted modest gains in 2024, while Spanish brands, including the likes of Loewe and Castañer, saw their international wholesale business rise 13 percent in the same time frame, according to Amanda McCormick Bacal, Joor’s global head of marketing.

With a population just shy of 50 million, the Spanish market has its limits, and the local audience is often inclined to favour native high street giant Inditex — parent to brands like Zara and Bershka — over independent labels. Unlike their fast-fashion counterparts, local production is at the heart of many of these small brands’ ethos, making it challenging to significantly lower their prices. Domestic sales to Spanish retailers on Joor dropped 16 percent from 2023 to 2024.

Setting their sights further afield is one way for emerging brands to tap into higher spending power while maintaining the integrity of their products. It’s also where they have been able to drum up more organic interest.

“It’s a relaxed atmosphere, being close to the beach, to the sun and then having this culture of leaving on the weekends and trying not to stay in the city too much,” said Blanca Orbaneja, Gimaguas’s art director. “That’s a big part of Spanish culture as opposed to the hustle of bigger cities like Paris, New York, London.”

Sunny Disposition

Spanish labels’ unexpected, bright pieces are a welcome alternative to the minimalist wardrobe staples from many Scandinavian and French brands.

“When set against more uptight clothes, [Spanish brands] created a dynamic that felt fresh,” fashion influencer and writer Leandra Medine Cohen wrote in an email.

The shift aligned with the end of the pandemic, which Rocío Gallardo, founder of Simuero, highlighted as a driver behind people’s need to get out of the house and get closer to friends and nature, which “for Spanish people … it’s our thing,” she said.

The surge in popularity of Spanish style hasn’t stopped. Medine Cohen noted in her Substack newsletter, “The Cereal Aisle,” last year that a number of Spanish brands — including Gimaguas and Maria de la Orden — were hosting pop-ups in New York. While “that voluminous Cecilie Bahnsen dress with New Balance sneakers-look really defined the new, young style identity of the 2010s, this deliberately undone, body exposed, wrinkles unironed, can’t-be-bothered-to-care vibe is now,” she wrote.

As shoppers grow tired of online “cores” and looking like everyone else, these brands have also maintained some of their if-you-know-you-know mystique, rooted in their niche communities and growth driven by word of mouth.

While non-Spaniards will likely associate the country with vacation destinations like Ibiza, Mallorca, Barcelona and the south of Spain, Spanish style isn’t limited to the beach. Another key style born out of Spain is known as “Cayetana,” a look that connotes posh dressing with a playful, romantic twist: Think high-waisted trousers, ruffled white collars, quilted vests and low buns.

Digitally Native — and Personal

The uniting factor behind many of these emerging Spanish brands’ success is the strong online communities they have built.

“They are all digitally native,” said La Veste’s García-Gallardo. “They started when Instagram more or less took power. They launched at the right moment … And also, if one does well, it catches the interest and [people] go to see the other one.”

As these brands move from online to in-store, word of mouth has been a crucial driver. For Flabelus, which has quickly grown its wholesale and retail presence, it was “the first and foremost way to get the brand out there,” said founder Beatriz de los Mozos.

“Someone found us in Mallorca, and she went back to the States and told all her friends, and they were like, ‘Oh my gosh, I love this brand,’” said de los Mozos. “And then they all followed the brand on Instagram, and started seeing the ads and recommended it to friends.”

Unlike French digital-native successes Polène or Sézane, where the founders keep a low profile, Spanish founders often have extroverted, open presences on social media, generating followings in the hundreds of thousands on their personal profiles, which constantly cross-reference their brands. De los Mozos appears in many Flabelus ads herself.

La Veste’s founders, Blanca Miró and María de la Orden, already had established follower bases when they launched the brand together, and wanted to continue to mindfully foster the relationship they had with their communities. According to García-Gallardo, the pair have been selective in terms of gifting and event invitations to ensure content about the brand reaches a curated target audience.

“We could have invited many people that have a lot of impact,” she said. “But we prefer having a person who might have a small community, but really likes and follows the brand.”

For Simuero, the brand’s Instagram focuses on the craftsmanship that goes into each of its pieces. When the account had just 1,000 followers, a Selfridges buyer reached out, leading to its first wholesale account. Stylists followed — including one working for the Kardashians, which helped it gain traction in the US, now its second-largest market after Spain.

Growth has been mostly organic; Gallardo briefly experimented with Instagram ads last year but ultimately pulled back. Instead, hosting pop-ups (it has staged several internationally, with plans for more in London and New York this year) and connecting with its community in-person has been Simuero’s sweet spot.

“There’s nothing like seeing people trying on your rings,” said Gallardo.

She also teased plans to open a studio in Ibiza in two years where shoppers can collaborate on creating bespoke pieces of jewellery with the team, rooted in her goal of stimulating local jobs and craftsmanship.

The brands are all intentional about growth, targeting expansion areas that allow for connecting with specific communities. Many of the brands, like Simuero and La Veste, also produce their wares exclusively in Spain, and controlling expansion enables them to stay close to production.

Gimaguas’ founders are opening their second permanent store in Madrid this month, with plans to open just a few additional brick-and-mortar locations — in addition to their pop-ups — to connect with their core shoppers abroad. La Veste, meanwhile, is focused on controlled growth in department stores like Le Bon Marché and Liberty, known for their curation of emerging labels.

“We don’t want to be overexposed, and we don’t aim to be in every corner of every store,” said García-Gallardo.

Flabelus, on the other hand, has seen wholesale as a cornerstone of its commercial health, with 50 retailers in the US and Europe stocking the brand in its first year of business. Maintaining a balance between their own retail and e-commerce operations is key, however. The brand had opened 15 of its own stores by 2024, with plans for a total of 25 by the end of 2025.

“Growth has to come with profit,” said de los Mozos. “If not, it doesn’t make sense because in the end, you just have something very big, but useless.”