Interview with Fely Campo: Passion and Craftsmanship in Her Dreaming Collection at Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Madrid 2025

There’s a quiet energy in Fely Campo’s atelier: the sound of scissors slicing through fabric, the soft whisper of repeating patterns, and the certainty of someone who has spent a lifetime translating women’s lives into garments that endure. Just two days before presenting Dreaming on the Madrid runway, the designer speaks with the clarity of someone who knows every thread of her craft—someone who still wakes up each morning with the same curiosity. Above all, Fely defines herself as: “Completely passionate about my work,” and that passion has been the compass guiding a career that began in Salamanca and now stands proudly at Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Madrid—and beyond.

When I ask her about her beginnings, about that moment that pushed her to take the leap, she shares a simple yet powerful scene: “I was fourteen, picking up fabric scraps in a workshop […] and I made myself a dress. Very short, probably very ugly, but different.” That moment became a bridge between her shyness and the world: “That’s when I grew and thought, ‘This is wonderful—I’m going to make myself a dress every week,’” she recalls. That shy but decisive choice shaped the DNA of her work: creation born from touch and experience, rather than fleeting fashion.

Dreaming, the collection that graced the runway on Saturday, September 20, was born precisely from that gesture: from a love of materials, and the desire for garments that walk alongside life. Fely’s eyes light up when she speaks about fabrics: “When I see a fabric, I touch it… for me, that’s a bit like dreaming. What can I do with it? How far can I go with it?” For her, dreaming isn’t an escape—it’s an artisanal act, a project that takes shape in patterns and seams.

That intention reveals itself in the timeless spirit running through the collection. At the heart of Dreaming lies a tension between structure and fluidity: feminine tailoring with a contemporary twist, and flowing pieces that surprise with their lightness. “I’ve used tailoring in a feminine way—well-made, properly fitted garments […] In the final part of the show, I used a difficult, challenging, but wonderful fabric,” she explains. And with the honesty of someone who learns by doing, she adds: “In every Fashion Week collection, I introduce something I haven’t used before—because I can’t always include it in my day-to-day lines.” This drive to experiment is what keeps her work alive.

It’s no coincidence that the visual campaign for the collection draws from the mosaics of a Roman villa. Fely draws a clear metaphor: mosaics are local materials that have lasted centuries; her garments aim for that same ethical and aesthetic durability. “I don’t think my clothes will last for centuries, of course—but they will last a long time,” she says, sharing stories from clients who’ve kept her dresses for twenty or thirty years—and still wear them. That idea of a garment as a companion, not a disguise, is the core of her practice: “It’s about giving hope to help women achieve their dreams,” she affirms.

In her vocabulary, elegance is intimate and unpretentious: “Elegance is when you wear something and it feels like a part of you,” she says. She avoids unnecessary embellishment and pursues minimal patterns that say a lot with very little. That search for “less that speaks more” comes from technique and time: “The more you understand a fabric, the more you understand a pattern… creativity grows with knowledge.” In other words: experience doesn’t limit—it refines.

There’s also a deep philosophy behind her understanding of real women. Fely speaks from observation gathered over decades: she’s dressed generations—brides, women shaped by different social norms, clients who have aged alongside her garments—and she’s witnessed social transformation firsthand. “I’ve seen a radical evolution in women… A bride between 24 and 32 today thinks very differently than she did ten years ago,” she reflects. That’s why her clothes speak to life: they’re respectful of bodies, of age, of real needs: “I ask women to look at themselves and love themselves—a lot—with their whole body, because they are unique,” she insists.

Black holds a deeply personal and symbolic place in her palette: her color of refuge—“The one that hides you a little,” a choice linked to security. But the collection doesn’t stop there: it introduces lime green, toasted orange, and a range that runs from white to beige to black—always restrained, always intentional. And those colors, like the stones of Salamanca that inspire her, express a kind of refined sobriety.

When we speak about challenges—about what it takes to maintain creative consistency over so many decades—her answer is pure tenacity. Starting from a room in her home, the decision to open her first boutique despite a lack of support, the fight to be seen… all those experiences return to remind us that a career is also a battle: “It cost me a decision… a huge one,” she says, recalling the first time she put her name on a door. And with a smile, she adds: “I’ve had a lot of highs and lows over 53 years—but I can say I’m still here.”

Even today, Fely plans years ahead—thinking four or five years into the future—and believes the craft is inexhaustible. “It’s a profession you can’t learn in a single lifetime,” she says with both humility and ambition. And when asked about retirement, her answer is electric: “Do I look like I want to retire? Life will retire me,” she replies. In the meantime, she trains those who will follow her in the workshop—and keeps close that energy, as she says, that keeps her going.

Fely Campo’s collections embody everything she communicates: a woman who transformed her shyness into a way of seeing the world, who learned to build dreams with her hands, and who continues to insist that fashion can be a place of comfort and security. Fely creates garments so women can see themselves, recognize themselves, and celebrate themselves. Her message is both simple and radical: “Look at yourself with kindness” is, at once, an act of resistance—and of freedom.

Yesterday, when her Dreaming collection took to the runway, it wasn’t just another fashion show—it was the continuation of a life devoted to dressing and to giving hope to women searching, through clothing, for something that will walk beside them. Because hope doesn’t expire—it becomes craft, patience, and work done with respect.