2017_10_30_ARQ_conferencia_pelotari_project

Transmitting the culture and capturing the elegance of a pelotari to a simple and functional garment was the goal that young entrepreneurs Laura Herrera and Raquel Rodriguez, founders of Pelotari Project, set themselves. The result of this idea has been the reinvention of traditional Basque garments such as the kaiku, the arrantzales' raincoats or the harrijasotzailes' vests to turn them into multifunctional, urban, modern and elegant garments. Some of their clothes symbolize and pay homage to the three main elements of Basque pelota: the pelota court, the pelota and the pelotari.

In the meeting with the students of Degree at design, organized by the School of Architecture of the University of Navarra, the young entrepreneurs spoke of the complexity and need for coherence when it comes to entrepreneurship, "it's like jumping into a pool, where you don't know if there is water, you pray that there is a little bit. Once you jump in, you have to swim and swim, swim a lot," said Laura Herrera. After years of friendship and a joint project , elarmariodelatele.com, Raquel Rodríguez arrived one day with some old plates of pelotaris: "They had a careful typography, a special aesthetic". They were pure inspiration for her. They both began to dive into the matter and saw how those pieces of clothing, inspiring in themselves, were nowadays. From there, they set out the challenge that today has led them to this fashion concept where they have managed to capture the modern man in multifunctional, elegant and urban garments.

With a clear idea and a lot of enthusiasm, the entrepreneurs began a great process of research that led them to walk through different paths, such as galleries, costume museums, Basque culture, traditional garments, textile innovation, fabrics or new technologies related to the world of fashion. "The fronton opened up to us like a book, its symmetrical lines were inspiring, and we discovered how our logo was hidden in the very word pelotari," said Rodriguez, pointing out the step from conceptualization to materialization. In that sense, the chef Eneko Atxa, who has three Michelin stars, also served as inspiration when it came to conceiving their brand, as he seemed to them to be a character that embodied very well the values they wanted to transmit: modernity, a mixture of tradition and culture, with great personality and faithful to his own style.

During the session, the businesswomen transmitted to the students the coherence and the need for all the small parts that make up a business to be interconnected, from the concept, the execution, the research, the development, the Philosophy and the values, since, for the designers "it is essential to respect and trust in the work of others, coexistence is difficult, but the bonds that are generated are strong, you have to be generous with the other". 

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