Solid essence, honest action

Adolfo Domínguez is a courageous organization. Since the Transition, it has engaged in social debate with boldness and honesty, seeking to understand the signs of the times and provide products imbued with meaning. Recently, with campaigns such as “be older” and “think, then buy,” it has sparked relevant conversations related to overconsumption and invited its audience to rethink their relationship with fashion.

In 2019, following a profound change in management, AD decided to reinforce its commitment to sustainability, an awareness that has always been present in the company but which required a renewed focus and drive. Given the essential, reflective, and spiritual nature of the organization, the process needed to articulate the new momentum had to be profound, multidisciplinary, rigorous, and at the same time poetic, paying attention to the roots, legacy, and different sensibilities that this brand represents. We had the honor of being invited to design and facilitate this process, a unique opportunity to deploy innovative methodologies that do not usually have a place in other types of organizations.

In a fascinating process that began with a reflection on the origin, evolution, and current state of the different cultural and philosophical sources that have nourished the brand throughout its history, an exhaustive investigation was carried out into the values and ethical structure of the organization to respond to today’s challenges, transcending the “classic” views and precepts of sustainability. In an organization that values both rigor and poetry, the work evolved into an exploration of different formats that would allow us to express not only a technical exercise, but also a feeling, the soul of the organization and its desire for projection: metaphors, manifestos, poetic expressions, and different types of philosophical and artistic influences were incorporated and inspired the different stages of this process.

In few places do essence, ethics, and aesthetics go so hand in hand, and in this project, the methodology and richness of the intermediate materials of the process were as relevant as the result itself: a strategy to articulate the organization’s long-term commitment to sustainability. Or, to be more accurate about the nature of the inquiry, we helped AD explore the limits of its own meaning, weaving together solid threads (an authentic essence, a deep ethical sensitivity, a desire to contribute systemic value, and a natural drive to raise the ethical tensions of our time with society) to illuminate part of the path along which this organization will evolve in the coming years.