Headed by Sybilla Sorondo Mielzynska, the Sybilla label has emerged within Spanish luxury fashion as a shining star of the industry. Dreaming up an aura of magic, fantasy, poetry, and sensuality around her work – Sybilla pieces are enticingly ethereal, always evolving and pushing the envelope. Over the span of the designer’s 40 year career, her colour code has progressively changed, increasingly opting for more select fabrics, honing in on her artistic mastery and technical prowess.

To celebrate Sybilla’s work, the artist has joined forces with Laura Cerrato Mera to craft up a five-part exhibition, held at the contemporary design space, Sala Canal de Isabel II. Situated in an old canal water tank, over 80 sets of clothing and 80 objects – including garments, catalogues, lavish invitations, and press clippings help to paint the story of Sybilla’s iconic career.

Branching out into five sections, the exhibition traverses the ‘Basting Thread’, ‘Warp Thread’, ‘Weft Thread’, ‘Thread of Time’, and the ‘Thread of Whispers’. They trace her aesthetic evolutions, which sprouted from the explosive ‘Movida Madrileña’ movement after Fransisco Franco’s dictatorship came to a grinding halt. Throughout, visitors are subsumed into the processes, inspiration, and core values that shape this design talent.

Let us give you an overview of each thread. ‘The Basting Thread’ goes back to Sybilla’s roots in the countercultural movement ‘The Madrid Scene’, which was a flourishing hotpot of heady creativity after a decades-long dictatorship. Dreaming up fresh, revolutionary pieces, this is when she was established as a pillar of Spanish design. ‘The Warp Thread’ follows when structure and geometry became synonymous with her work, underlining her art-centred approach to fashion. ‘The Weft Thread’ focuses on Sybilla’s use of fashion as an expressive force, crafting up connections between her creative output and her emotional world. ‘The Thread of Time’ spans her meteoric rise in Madrid to becoming a global phenomenon – considering the ebbs and flows of Sybilla’s place in the fashion industry. While the final thread, ‘Thread of Whispers’, closes out the exhibition by turning to the designer herself. Visitors find themselves in a heart to heart with Sybilla, by means of an intimate video in which she reflects on her expansive career.

Reflecting on The Invisible Thread, the artist notes: “Preparing this exhibition under Laura Cerrato’s guidance has forced me to assess and somehow rationalise my working processes over the years and, through my conversations with her, has helped me understand them. It hasn’t been easy for me, as everything I do tends to be quite spontaneous and unconscious…I do what I like, what comes up at any given moment, and I’m the first to be surprised by the results. Laura has managed to find and explain my creative languages and what drives me to create.”

Visitors are in for an intoxicating picture of sensuality – one that is intelligent, agile, and endlessly surprising. Having opened its doors on the 27th of September, The Invisible Thread is open until the 15th of January 2023 – leaving plenty of time to soak up all Sybilla has to offer.

For more information, and to arrange your visit – head here…