CULTURE AND FLAMENCO
The curtain opens. The murmur of a flounce that recreates itself in the curves of time cuts through the air without wanting to. Embroidery that caresses the duende, fringes that fly to the beat of talent. The legend of Lina Sevilla is being born in the tablaos, the bowels of art.
The bailaora Manuela Vargas is one of the first great artists of the sixties who began to dress in Lina’s workshop. Alongside her, other names such as Carmen Sevilla, María Rosa, Merche Esmeralda and later Rocío Jurado, Isabel Pantoja, Lola Flores and Juanita Reina chose Lina Sevilla’s creations for their performance costumes.
Beyond the stage, the global media stage was also dressed by Lina Sevilla. At the 1966 Feria de Abril, the photo of Princess Grace of Monaco leaving the Alfonso XIII Hotel on the arm of Prince Rainier, dressed in a Lina Sevilla dress, went around the world.
Lina has the privilege of making for the princess an outfit that is already a legend of Spanish fashion and craftsmanship. It is a classic dress of the firm, made in white with pink perforated straps.
Gracia de Monaco inaugurates a royal tradition: Lina Sevilla becomes a favourite of the aristocracy and dresses the then Princess Doña Sofía, the Duchess of Alba or the Baroness Thyssen.
Camino del Rocío (1966), starring Carmen Sevilla, is the film that established another silhouette of Lina Sevilla in the collective imagination. Her red dress, with long sleeves and organdy petticoats, is a symbol of femininity that transcends time.
Queen Sofia will rely on Lina on two great occasions: her visit to the Feria de Abril in 1968 and her first Rocío in 1972. Baroness Thyssen, for her part, chose Lina Sevilla for her visit to the Rocío in 2001.
Lina’s relationship with the seventh art continued with the film Carola de día, Carola de noche, by Jaime de Armiñán, starring Pepa Flores, Marisol. The flamenco dress worn by the great Spanish pop star stands out for a new evolution: the length is lowered to the floor (until then they were worn around the ankles) and the waist and neckline are marked.
During the seventies, there was no flamenco artist who did not trust Lina for her costumes.
«Y PA’ LA FERIA UN MANTÓN DE LINA»
– Miguel Poveda, Tanguillos de Triana.
