The Valencian designer explores love as power and vulnerability, translating historical intensity into a collection where structure and emotion coexist.
At 080 Barcelona Fashion, where immediacy often sets the pace, Les Muses de l’Empereur moves with a different rhythm. Paco Benavente’s latest proposal unfolds through emotion rather than reference, tapping into something far less stable: love at its most obsessive, heightened, and transformative.
Drawing from figures like Napoleon and Joséphine, or Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn, the collection occupies a space where power and vulnerability blur into one another. These aren’t distant historical echoes. They feel close, almost intrusive. There’s a palpable tension felt in letters left unanswered, in gestures capable of reshaping both empires and intimacy.
In the collection, there’s a clarity to the construction, though never at the expense of fluidity. Structured silhouettes, echoing uniforms or ceremonial dress, are softened by fabrics that move with a certain autonomy. Strength and fragility coexist without cancelling each other out. Nothing settles into a single idea, and it’s precisely within that instability that the collection finds its depth.
Craftsmanship remains central too, as expected with Benavente, yet it never overasserts itself. Pattern-making, layering and materiality contribute to a narrative that unfolds gradually, where garments carry memory rather than simply present form. What emerges is a restrained theatricality. Each look a fragment of a larger story that lingers, unresolved.
At a time when fashion often feels accelerated, Paco Benavente stays true to himself and chooses to slow it down. He lets emotion unfold with precision, keeping it all tightly refined, controlled, and no less impactful for it.
You’re presenting your new collection at 080 Barcelona Fashion Week. What inspired this proposal?
This time, it was the letters Napoleon wrote to Joséphine from exile. Those letters revealed a man who seemed unbreakable on the surface, yet inside was a fragile, vulnerable child burning with pain and uncertainty over being separated from his beloved.
Your collections always have a strong narrative element. What story do you want to tell with Les Muses de l’Empereur?
That Benavente is defined by narrative and conceptual proposals, moving away from fleeting trends and connecting with the audience that comes to the show and finds themselves immersed in an atmosphere they become part of.
There’s a very clear mix of tradition and something more contemporary. How do you work with that balance without one overpowering the other?
I think they’re two concepts that dialogue very well with each other. Tradition brings life to the contemporary through its craftsmanship, and the contemporary allows tradition to remain alive by needing it.
Craftsmanship and pattern-making are key in your work. What role have they played in this collection?
I’m somewhat the backbone of the brand. My role, beyond design, is pattern-making, cutting, and construction. I have support in the workshop because doing it alone would be unfeasible, and thanks to my team we cover every department of the brand. The most enjoyable and enriching part is that we all take care of everything, so you’re constantly learning.
Your take on masculinity moves between the romantic, the feminine, and the ethereal. Do you feel it’s still a political gesture today, or has it become part of the everyday?
There’s still a lot of work to be done, and it doesn’t depend on what you wear. Other social factors come into play that go beyond a shirt or a pair of trousers. But if our contribution from fashion is to consolidate these movements and feelings where many people feel sheltered and identified, we’ll keep doing it.
There’s a sense of “luxury,” but from a very human and approachable place. How do you define that concept within the brand?
Today, luxury is the care, love, and soul we put into our work. It may sound a bit cheesy, but it’s true, and it’s what people perceive because they always tell us so. Luxury isn’t inaccessible, nor does it have to come with an outrageous price. Luxury lies in offering the market something you can’t get through mass production.
In a context where everything moves so fast, your process feels more slow and conscious. How do you conceptualize a collection like this?
It’s absolute madness. We’re not a brand defined by minimalism or industrial production. Each garment involves hours of work. Presenting two collections back-to-back has been incredibly stressful, but it’s driven by the need to keep telling stories and growing as a brand, because our goal now is to establish ourselves nationally.
The models were already on the runway when we entered the show. What was the intention behind that performance?
To create an atmosphere where the audience became part of it, and to draw them into the story.
There’s a sense of evolution toward something more refined, without losing the drama. Do you feel you’re honing your language?
Exactly. Both personally and professionally, I feel I’m evolving and engaging with new stimuli that enrich me. I don’t have the same perspective I had a year ago, and I won’t have the same one a year from now.
You also work as a teacher. How does that influence the way you design or think about a collection?
It’s very rewarding. As a vocational training teacher, I think it’s important to stay connected to the professional reality and to offer high-quality content to students who represent the future of this sector.
Would you say you design more with a specific person in mind, or with a more open idea of identity?
It depends. The overall concept is always to represent an identity that an audience can relate to. But there are also specific profiles who inspire me and help shape my creative process as I develop a concept, such as models I’ve worked with regularly.
What would you like people to feel when they see the collection?
That they recognize the different techniques developed as part of the brand’s identity. Benavente is an emerging label and needs to consolidate itself. The first years are about positioning in the market.
What has been the biggest challenge in building a collection like this and bringing it to life in a show like the one we’ve seen?
The limited time we had to develop it. We barely had six months to build the entire idea. And above all, creating a proposal that felt very different from the previous one while still respecting the brand’s aesthetic.
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Images by Angela Ibañez for VEIN MAGAZINE
