Pedro Rodríguez

Although born in Valencia, Pedro Rodríguez grew up in Barcelona where his family moved in search of better opportunities when he was barely four years old. At age 10 he began an internship in a tailor shop where he learned the basics of sewing most especially men's formal wear and business suits. In time he became more interested in women fashions and by 1914 he had landed a job in a designer shop and it was probably there he met Ana Maria, a seamstress herself, who would soon become his wife. In 1919 Pedro and Ana Maria open their own couture house where Pedro's designs began attracting ladies from the city's high society circles. However he achieved national and international attention in 1929 with his exhibit at Barcelona's Exhibición Internacional, an important high fashion event. In the 1930s he maintained his reputation as a top designer and enjoyed an intimate, mutual admiration friendship with Cristobal Balenciaga another Spanish fashion leader of the era. In 1936 the Civil War broke out and Pedro closed his shop and moved with his family to Rome, later to Paris and finally to London. He received several offers to settle in those countries where his work was extremely popular but he decided to return to Spain in 1937 opening a haute couture enclave in San Sebastian. When the war was over he reopened his home and couture shop in Barcelona and a few months later he inaugurated another fashion house in Madrid. In 1940 he founded and served as first president of the Spanish Cooperative Couture, an endeavor that would serve to promote Spanish fashions in Europe and America. The Spanish film industry, greatly influenced by Hollywood glamour, asked Pedro to be the costume designer for a few of the greatest productions of the time and he did an splendid job in films like "Tuvo la culpa Adán" (1944) and "Pequeñeces" (1950) but he was more interested in his haute couture activities which soon made him one of the world's top designers with over 700 employees under him at the height of his career. For years he was a favorite with the most powerful ladies of his country like the Duchess of Alba, Carmen Polo de Franco, the Countess of Barcelona, etc. He also dressed international beauties like Ava Gardner, Elizabeth Taylor, Audrey Hepburn, etc. With the rising importance of pret-á-porter fashions, Pedro Rodriguez refused to launch an alternative ready-to-wear economical line of his designs like Channel, Dior, Saint Laurent, etc. had done. He just couldn't understand what was happening in the world of fashions and by 1979 he was forced to close all his shops and retire. He led a very quite existence until his death at age 94. He has not been forgotten in the fashion world and it is said that his legacy has been taken up by designers such as Miguel Elola, Robert Dalmau, Andrés Andreu, Peter Aedo, Marcelo Scarxell, Joaquín Verdú among others.