Imagine a high-fashion shopping day in which you visit some of the most distinguished firms, go to a beautiful art gallery and then have lunch at a gourmet restaurant. Well, stop picturing yourself running around because you can do everything in Darial. Dries Van Notten, Raf Simons, Yohji Yamamoto, JW Anderson or Jil Sander are some of the renown brands selected by Dissamidze and Ignacio Carvajal – the Store Director. And as soon as the store strengthens its base and roots, there will be a selection of beauty products and homeware too.
But Darial doesn’t only offer garments and pieces of furniture; it also has a wide selection of books and magazines the readers can get inspired by and travel from the golden ages of glamour to contemporary days – among them, you will find METAL Magazine on its library’s mirrored shelves. Art is also in every corner, but more especially in the basement, where we find an art gallery space – “The idea is to be an open space for curators to create their own exhibitions”, explains Djaba.
Hungry for more? Le Léopard is the gourmet experience offered at Darial. A restaurant inspired by the classics of Luchino Visconti, decorated with red velvet sofas and details of golden leaves on the ceiling. Following Romain Fornell’s advise, the menu has everything from juicy meats to vegan options as well as classic and natural wines from Vila Viniteca.
It isn’t a surprise, then, that we were looking forward to visiting the store. Djaba and Darial’s team invited us to live the experience and get to know the space first-hand. So, after savouring every bite of a high-class breakfast and dreaming of some coats and pants hanging on my closet instead of on the store, Djaba received me to have an honest talk about facing challenges, designing a fashion collection at the age of 16, Barcelona’s light and the present and future of Darial.