Clemente Hernandez, chief executive officer (CEO) of the jewelry signature Aristocrazy, said at the University of Navarra that the design "is the core topic of the fashion business, and jewelry must adopt their habits, mentality and experience" to adapt to the reality of the market and approach the younger generations, the coveted 'millenials', those born in the last two decades of the twentieth century. "Jewelry can last forever, but it has to change with fashions and seasons," he has defended.

Clemente participated as speaker in the X International Fashion Conference Fashion on the move: rethinking design. His lecture, The impact of design on the fashion business, brought the audience closer to luxury from the perspective of a finance specialist: "What is the reason to buy fashion? Or design, or brand. And how do you make a brand? By inheritance, which takes time, or by design, which is what core topic is for. The design is the most important thing when it comes to buying things that we don't need, that are not essential," he said.

Aristocrazy was born five years ago - "it was crazy, perhaps the worst moment of the deepest recession" - to dedicate itself "to quality, exclusivity and excellence. We wanted to introduce design in jewelry," explained Hernandez, who stresses that for Aristocrazy "the design is our religion, and that's why we design all our jewelry".

That Philosophy has led them to create iconic products, such as the snake, but "the cross is the product that sells best. The design is that we place it horizontally instead of vertically, as we are used to seeing it". Aristocrazy has opened 85 stores in 5 years: 65 in the Iberian Peninsula and the rest in Mexico, Chile, Miami and Guatemala. 

Rethinking the design

The X International Fashion Conference, organized by ISEM Fashion Business School, the School of Communication and the School of Architecture of the University of Navarra, was inaugurated on Wednesday, April 20 with the intervention of Tomás Gómez-Acebo, Vice President Alumni of the academic center, and Teresa Sádaba, director of ISEM Fashion Business School. Sádaba stressed that one of the aims of congress was to rethink the design "because fashion is always in motion and we need to think together".

The first roundtable, entitled "Design the future: future of design studies", was moderated by Thomas Handley, professor at Parsons The New School for Design. Miguel A. Alonso del Val, director of the School of Architecture of the University of Navarra, explained that design "is no longer simply an activity aimed at creating objects, but rather a knowledge that, through creative thinking, is changing the way we understand culture and organizations. It is a new frontier of 21st century society that focuses on quality over quantity". José Teunissen, director of the London College of Fashion, predicted that the future of design would be linked to the development of craftsmanship.

This was followed by a conversation between John Vizzone, director creative of the men's brand Cifonelli; Marva Griffin, curator of the Salone Satellite of the Salone del Mobile in Milan; and Enrique Loewe, honorary president of the Loewe Foundation.

Vizzone explained that his mission statement as Cifonelli's designer is to modernize a European brand with more than 130 years of history. Griffin pointed out the need for governments to support young designers through training programs. Likewise, Enrique Loewe stressed that the ecological topic is decisive at this time: "We live in difficult times and we are being overtaken by events; the important thing is not so much to run as to think".

Next, Valentin Valhonrat, curator of the Museum of the University of Navarra, introduced Teresa Mulet, artist multidisciplinary, who gave a performance in which she reflected on the language of fashion.  

The revolution in men's fashion

In addition to Clemente Hernández's lecture , the second workshop featured presentations by Debbie Smith, director of new projects at Condé Nast; and Hugo Jacomet, founder and publisher of Parisian Gentleman. Debbie Smith analyzed the relationship between fashion and art through the historical covers of Vogue, with photographs of artists such as Salvador Dalí, Caravaggio or Edward Hopper.

Hugo Jacomet described the revolution that men's fashion has undergone in recent years and stressed the importance of the street in fashion: "The idea of the front row does not exist, everyone is part of the front row".

During the X International Fashion Conference, more than 45 papers were presented by researchers and professionals from 14 countries, such as India, Mexico, Turkey, Brazil, Canada and Italy. They analyzed the current status of design and its relationship with culture, communication and business.