Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Madrid celebrates its 77th edition in the very heart of the fashion world

The 77th edition of MBFWMadrid, which was presented to the media today, will take place within the context of Madrid Fashion Week, an event that not only includes what is the most important catwalk in our country, but also the Madrid is Fashion project which is organised by ACME with the support of Madrid City Council through its Madrid Fashion Capital programme.

The event was introduced by Concha Díaz de Villegas, Director General of Commerce of Madrid City Council, and attended by Modesto Lomba, President of the Association of Fashion Designers of Spain; Juan Arrizabalaga, Director General of IFEMA MADRID, and Begoña Villacís, Deputy Mayor of Madrid City Council.

During the event, not only was the programme of activities that ACME will be organising in different venues in Madrid the week prior to the MBFWMadrid presented, but also the roster of fashion shows and designers that will be taking part in the Catwalk, as well as a few of its main innovations such as the ‘Morocco, Kingdom of Light’ fashion show or the participation of Mexican designer Lorena Saravia, this year’s international guest firm of the Mercedes-Benz Fashion Talent exchange programme.

In the words of Juan Arrizabalaga, the managing director of IFEMA MADRID: “This is going to be a great edition! We have great designers and a programme of fashion shows that are a unique experience in themselves. That’s why when we were deciding on this year’s programme, we were determined to create different fashion experiences and make them available to the interested public, in line with what catwalks such as New York, London, Paris, Miami and Sydney are doing. The idea is to allow anyone and everyone to enter the magical universe of fashion that revolves around the Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Madrid”.

Here are some of the highlights of the 77th Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Madrid Catwalk

• Organised by IFEMA MADRID, with the support of Madrid City Council, the 77th MBFWMadrid will be taking place from 15 to 19 February with a full programme and an official calendar of fashion shows featuring a total of 42 designers including some of the top names in the fashion world and magnificent collections. *Calendar attached

• OFF fashion shows. Day one, Wednesday 15 February, will be dedicated to the fashion shows that will be taking place in different venues in the city of Madrid, with 9 designers on the line-up.

• The general programme will begin on Friday the 16th in Pavilion 14.1, and will culminate with the presentation of the special L’Oréal Paris fashion show: Walk your worth.

• International drive: a double fashion show entitled ‘Morocco, Kingdom of Light’ will bring the main catwalk to an end on the Saturday. This show will feature the participation of two haute couture designers from Morocco: Maison Artc and Albert Oiknine.

• On Sunday the 19th, the Allianz EGO catwalk will showcase the collection of ten emerging designers, including REPARTO, winners of the 3rd edition of the Allianz EGO Confidence in Fashion award. And not only that, Lorena Saravia, an internationally renowned designer from Mexico, will be the guest designer at this edition thanks to the Mercedes-Benz Fashion Talent exchange programme.

• International guest press programme: journalists from Mexico, Colombia, the United States, Italy, France and Serbia will be in attendance, including the editor-in-chief of L’Officiel Arabia, a well-known journalist and regular follower of other international fashion weeks. HOLA TV! Will also be attending as the official international media.

• Experiences: as an innovation this year, the Catwalk will be carrying out a pilot test to measure how much interest there is in the Catwalk as a cultural experience and event. The idea is to enhance the fashion world’s capacity to attract the general public and to bring the Catwalk closer to new audiences who would otherwise not have access to the presentations. This brings the Catwalk’s strategy in line with other international catwalks such as those of NY, London, Paris, Milan, Miami or Sydney. That’s why the organisers have come up with a really wide range of experiences for this test, beginning at €10 - €5 if you are a student- for a ticket to the Cibelespacio, and rising to €350 to enjoy 10 highly immersive experiences, which in fact sold out just two days after they went on sale, which would seem to indicate that this new initiative has sparked a great deal of interest.

• Awards: The L’Oréal Paris Award for Best Collection and the L’Oréal Paris Award for Best Model will be presented on the Saturday at 7pm. The Allianz EGO Confidence in Fashion Award for the best emerging proposal will be presented on Sunday morning in the Allianz EGO Showroom. And last but not least, on the day the event closes, the Sunday, Mercedes-Benz will honour the best designer with its Mercedes-Benz Fashion Talent Award.

• This edition of MBFWMadrid has received sponsorship from 19 firms - this event would not have been possible without their support. Thanks to them and to the efforts of everyone involved, the Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Madrid continues to be the great bastion of Spanish fashion and to strive for the highest standards. The main sponsors are Mercedes-Benz, L’Oréal Paris and Inditex. Allianz, Iberia, Thompson Madrid and Multiópticas are participating as sponsors; Dorsia Clínicas, AEG, Community of Madrid, Mar de Frades, Martin Miller’s Gin, Málaga de Moda (together with the corporate identity of the Provincial Council of Málaga), ESNE University of Design and Technology, Rowenta, Schweppes, GHD as collaborators, and Morocco as the Official Destination.