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Hi everyone! This is a small post to chat a bit about how the brand is doing! First of all, we want to thank you about the super warm welcome of our new site, and we wanted to make a post to give more context of our current moment!
We are now producing all the items sold during the opening, that contained multiple collections such as Vampire Hunter, Lovecraft and many other! This may cause that we are a bit silent online, specially now in the beginning of the production, where many details must get ready to make sure no materials are missing, fabric printing test go as expected, and all is taken good care of.
The production of items is hard to pull off, specially since many parts are involved. We do all the process in Spain, but we must make sure that material suppliers, fabric printers, sewing atelier, iron and buttoning ateliers and our logistical studio are on communication. We are happy this can be done here in Barcelona, and that saves plenty of time and waste rather than if we made the items overseas, but of course, we are all small companies and we always ask for your patience <3 Thanks for being such a patient and supporter customers!
But there's a deeper reason on why Asylum is taking so long than just the logistics of new pattern making, cotton printing or preorder delivery. I absolutely adore this series. Sorry if that is cheesy or egocentric. It is super important for me. So I wanna give more deepness to the concept, I wanna create new art around it, and not just offering the original versions (which of course will be included).
This is because medical horror has been part of my existence. I designed the series in 2015 and got diagnosed with a chronic illness a bit later so it was like some sort of premonitory print of what was soon to come for me. more than 10 years after that, now that I am more or less used to an ill body (all you can get used, I mean) I have learned so much about health, body-mind connection, how fear and pain work. How hospitals work. How the system works regarding disability. I feel Asylum now more mine than never and I needed to create more art around it. But at the same time, I also feel Asylum is really more yours than ever as well. I recieve multiple message daily, coord pics from all over the world, and even other people have created art around it. I know is something that must be designed carefully, as many of you feel represented by it.
While I feel the old print is so much fun ( since I was a kid I was a movie horror fan and wanted to express that vibe) I feel that now I can not just to enjoy the concept but to understand it.
But today I wanted to explain, why mental hospitals are a huge special interest and why I am taking so long to do this.
It all starts with an abandoned church that was part of an old mental hospital on my neighborhood. When I was a kid, I used to go a lot. I was obsessed by the decay of that church, and not that much on the mental hospital part, as the mental hospital part was partially demolished and it was transformed into the neighborhood's City Hall, so it was renewed and not that decadent.
When I was at highschool, we were asked to make a classwork talking about something of our neighborhood, and I picked that mental hospital. That ended being a huge huge essay, and started investigating a lot about medical history of my city. I got overly obsessed. I met some university cathedratics when I was 15 y.o. just to ask them more about the place. They were so annoyed that a kid wanted all this info for their highschool homework! I also made interviews to old workers of the hospital.
This hospital was created in early 20th century and it was huge on their time. It was called El Mental de Nou Barris (old Hospital de la Santa Creu) It was made because the original hospital that had all the mentally ill people in Barcelona, was by then under a huge decadence and could not handle the amounts of people.
El Mental was part of that medical revolution of the early 20th century, and started to try to cure ill people with science instead of religion. But the human part partially dissapeared with that change, and you could see a super scary big building with hundreds of pabillions and corridors. During the 1970s-80s as it happened in multiple mental institutions, the new pharmacologic treatments and decay on fundings made that hundreds of patients could become ambulatory and the rest could be distributed into other smaller hospitals. This was a worldwide phenomenon, and that is why we find many Victorian Mental Hospitals that get abandones in the 70s-90s, And that made the huge clichés of abandoned enourmous buildings, around the world as a common horror experience that inspirated deeply the horror movies from the 90s-00s, as we now had the scariest and cheapest film locations. And being Spain one of the biggest horror producers, that also impacted me a lot.
So when investigating on that Asylum as a kid, I discovered that before the creation of this enormous building, the original hospital that asked for a bigger building was one created in the medieval times. It was called Hospital de la Santa Creu, and I discovered that building was in the moment I was at highschool, an art school.
When I noticed that that art school made the artistic baccalaureate studies, I did what I could to become an student there. Honestly, studing arts was secondary, the most important for me was to be able to study into the original medieval hospital building. I was accepted into that school. I did the minimum effort on my workclass on my time there, I was just using my time exploring the corridors. It was so fun to be told that for example Antoni Gaudí died in my technology class.
I think now, that was a pretty neurodivergent way of choosing things.
About Asylum Series
But today we wanted to chat a bit about Asylum. It is clearly one of the most asked series to come back in our brand.
Asylum is a one of the first series we made in 2015 and probalby one of the reasons why we wanted to make an egl brand. During this decade we have launched Asylum in multiple cuts and shapes but for this time I wanted to make something more deep. We are not the same brand we were in 2015, and this means we have learned a lot since then and can do better releases in all aspects.
There's a few reasons why the rerelease is taking so long this time. First, as we mentioned, we have learned a lot and this means we can finally include more knowledge: We can now use more techniques and make the first full cotton release of the series! This takes more time.
Also, we are now less limited by pattern making and sewing knowledge. We can now offer Asylum series more types of garment we never had the audacity to make. We can now try different shapes such as bodices or pants!! Yes, we truly want to have a masc version of this print!!
And also, I do not want to launch Asylum until our preorders from the opening are mostly delivered, as, of course, launching now a new series would saturate our ateliers so much!
3 Upper pictures are from Nou Barris " El Mental" and Saint Rafael Church, lower 2 pictures is Hospital de la Santa Creu, Antiga Escola Massana
Medical history is also the story on how we treat ouselves when we are out of society, I've learned many specific details while investigating about Mental Institutions and hospitals that reveal how even floor plans have a lot in common with how our insitutions organize our biologies. Medical History is the story of how we care: Bodies have evolved surviving the priorities of patriarchy. Just like churches have the shape of a cross on their floorplans, antique mental hospitals recreate that labyrinth of the mind, the complications to access care depending how privileged you are. ( Mental institutions had separated pabillions depending on patient's budgets from the most luxurious suite, to the most decadent prison) They are also the story of human exploitation but calling it ocupational therapy, but also increidble examples of self-suffciency by producing all that is needed to live. Independent tiny cities.
It had also gender segregation and moral separation of excluding people by their mental conditions. But they had also positive effects. They had some sort of freedom for people tired of masking, and many examples of patients showed relieved by stopping to pretend they are sane when they don't feel like they are.
So this is not a text about if they are good or bad. They had hundreds of deficiencies and abuses, but I think they can make us learn a lot.
Okay, so long text, sorry! Now let's chat about the future relase of Asylum.
When?
About dates it is kinda hard to let you know. I am expecting December - January, but in terms of production, once something get's delayed it is easy to sum not just days or weeks, but also months. So, for now I can confirm we are on the work, and the release is confirmed, and hopefully if calendar goes smooth, those will be the dates.
Which items?
Here is where we need you! For the original print, we have confirmed FOR SURE a JSK and a skirt. We've noticed that those are the garments you use more and sizing is more comfy to most different bodies.
We also want to confirm tights and some accessories (old and new ones)
The doubt comes with adding extra or new garments: The more variations we add, the longer we take to deliver it to you, but you asked for many many different cuts. So we need to know which one of the 2 you prefer:
These are two options: The original 2015 shoulder-less coat like gown or the 2018 with the leather closures and long sleeves.
This is not just pick one or the other, we also need to know that there's enough interest to make any of them, so we would need you to comment here or on our socials if you wish any of these two, of if not, we may just stick to jsk and skirt.
For the rest of items, we are also thinking on launching a couple of casual items like pants and shirts, but we also need to know your interest on those!!
And finally, as said in the begining of the article, we are also creating new art surrounding the world of Asylum. The new items will be called Generational Trauma, and we are experimenting so much with texture, and maybe some sort of Straightjacket inspirations!! We cannot wait to show you the new prints!!
Please comment your favorite items!!
Magdalena
Violet Fane
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