The massive opening, on September 27, 2022, already predicted the success of the exhibition Sybilla. The invisible thread. Added to this was the aura of mystery that has always surrounded what is, without a doubt, the most enigmatic designer in Spanish fashion.

The exhibition – the largest dedicated to Sybilla in Madrid – has been visited by 49,773 visitors until its closing on January 15, thus becoming the most visited in the history of the Sala Canal de Isabel II.

And since its inauguration, it has had a lot of competition, since fashion lovers also had in the capital, in recent months, the Picasso/Chanel exhibition at the Thyssen-Bornemisza National Museum, about two of the great geniuses of the 21st century. An exhibition that has exceeded 100,000 visitors.

For lovers of the most recent fashion, the one that was made in the capital during the Madrid scenethe Costume Museum has been offering, since the beginning of December, the ambitious retrospective on Antonio Alvarado, which will be open to the public until March 26, 2023.

So that is why the success of the exhibition, curated by Laura Cerrato Mera, which the capital has dedicated to Sybilla Sorondo Mielżyńska (1963). Born in New York, daughter of an Argentine father and a Polish mother, The designer considers herself Spanish, from Madrid and Mallorca by adoption.

And what better place than the old Canal water tank, to show the 160 pieces (80 sets of clothing and 80 documents) that cover the professional career of one of our most international designers (today, she continues presenting collections in Japan, where she has more than 40 points of sale).

Opened in 1987 as a reference exhibition space for samples from the world of fashion, photography and images, it was the perfect place to imagine Sybilla pulling that “invisible thread” that gives coherence to all her work.

Its five-story circular structure, without windows, where the pieces stand out in the semi-darkness, took us into the Sybilla universe through five sections that gave continuity to the title of the exhibition: The thread that weaves, The thread that weaves, The thread that weaves, The thread of time and A thread of voice.

Despite This was not the first exhibition dedicated to him. to the so-called “designer”, who has received recognitions such as the Balenciaga Award, the National Design Award and the Gold Medal for Merit in Fine Arts, among many others, it has been one of the most complete and exhaustive.

Thanks to the collaboration of numerous friends and clients of Sybilla, who have kept her dresses and coats as true treasures, over the course of these forty years, it was possible to gather an enormous amount of garments in perfect condition.

There are from her beginnings as part of La Movida in Madrid, to her leap into international fashion, her second most youthful line, Jocomomola, as well as models from Sybilla Noche and Sybilla Novias.

And in it it has also been possible to see the Spain dress, creation from 1996, one of the icons of the Costume Museum’s collection, a piece of black crêpe that, on the chest, has different geometric shapes joined with nylon thread, with that invisible thread, with which the sample has been sewn.

Almost 50,000 visitors have confirmed their presence the immense interest that the figure of Sybilla arouses, an iconic and unclassifiable designer, recognized as heir to the great Cristóbal Balenciaga. Because her creations, like those of Guetaria’s teacher, last over time like the great classics, which never go out of style.

Although, as curator Laura Cerrato assures in the video summary of the exhibition: “Sybilla is much more than fashion.”

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