Adolfo Dominguez

Early life and education
He was born 1950 in Ourense, Galicia in northern Spain. He studied design and cinematography in Paris, with further studies in London, England.


Fashion business
He took over his father's fashion boutique in Ourense in the early 1970s. He spent the following years developing his own designs, and finally made the big jump with a presentation of his work in Madrid in 1981. He also became the first Spanish designer to open his own brand-name store in Madrid, which soon mushroomed into a chain with outlets across Spain and abroad. Finally it went public (another first for a fashion designer), and became one of the Madrid stock market's hottest properties.


Style
His style is urbane, functional, casual and eminently comfortable, making use of loose, natural fabrics. One of his key marketing strategies has been to avoid distribution through multi-brand shops and target the ultimate consumer directly, reducing delivery time and cost to the buyers.

He was among the first to inject a new, fresh approach in Spanish fashion, spearheading the rise of a generation of new designers.