Alejandra Remón

Biography

I have always been very curious, optimistic, and passionate. I really like photography, music, writing, fashion, art... I studied Business Management, Marketing, and International Trade in Pamplona. While I was training, I also worked in a fashion store, and when I finished those studies, I moved to Madrid to start a Master's degree in Window Dressing and Visual Merchandising, which complemented everything I was passionate about: marketing, fashion, and creation.

Upon finishing, I was hired by the Association of Fashion Creators of Spain (ACM), and for many years, while I was working and studying, I wrote a blog where I shared my reflections, always illustrated with photos and my music playlists... Everything that resonated with me at that moment. Later, I was hired by the designers Ailanto, and I worked alongside them for almost eight years. There, I learned a lot about how a fashion collection is generated based on real storytelling and a concept. This has helped me a lot in putting together my books.

A multifaceted artist, noted for various branches, including writing, have you always wanted to be a writer?


When I was 14, I won literary prizes, but I didn't have a role model. Let's say that when you don't have someone who can serve as an inspiration to try to reach that place, it's something you don't imagine, and that which you cannot imagine is something that will always be unattainable.


But writing has always been in my life. I remember that when I was writing the blog, I was in a relationship where that person didn't understand sensitivity based on words or images. That dimmed my creative side a little. Luckily, this relationship ended, and I still felt the need to continue doing what I liked: writing.


How did you evolve on a literary level from the blog to writing your first book?


When I left the blog aside and that relationship ended, I started showing my things on the other network I had at that time: Instagram. And everything started to grow. I shared my texts, my photographs... There was always a quite powerful caption, and a conversation began to emerge, a community that was very attentive to what I was going to share because they saw themselves completely reflected. One day in 2016, I received an email from a small publisher who suddenly gave me the idea of putting everything together and creating a book.


From there, "Cuando nadie mira: cuaderno de desórdenes y contradicciones" ("When No One is Watching: A Notebook of Disorders and Contradictions") was born. What does it symbolize for you?

It is the starting gun. I titled it "When No One is Watching" because I really write when I am alone, in my refuge, which is my home. And, of course, the magic of that book is that I never thought anyone would read it. It is written from the purest humility and sincerity. In a way, I write for myself, and I am lucky that it works, it connects.

"In a way, I write for myself and I am lucky that it works, it connects."

When you write, do you reflect what you carry inside, or are you inspired by the stories of others?

Everything is a personal experience, although it is true that I am a great reader and, in the end, you are inspired by everything. Something very particular to me is that nothing is random; everything has a symbology that at least I know is connected, and that is transmitted. In the end, I think the most beautiful thing about the symbology of art is subjectivity. It's cool because something that you have shaped in a specific way for yourself takes on another perspective for someone else. I think that feeds it, because each book of mine is no longer mine; it belongs to the person who reads it and makes their own transcription, their own reading according to what they are feeling, according to what fulfills them and what it transmits to them.


You have currently written five books; what connection is there between them?

Each one is different and works autonomously, but they all have the same editorial style, a line that is my vision and my way of writing. In this way, I am creating a very personal code because I am in charge of doing both parts: the visual part (the plastic aspect through collages) as well as the written part. I need to work on both with my hands to transmit that energy and create an artistic universe that is not purely decorative. Furthermore, in all the books, there is a lot of work, sensitivity, and enthusiasm.


Regarding photography, how would you define your photographic style?

I have an intimate and spontaneous style in photography. I don't like very staged images. Also, in photography, I usually use myself, but not to show myself off; rather, I try to give the subject of the body a different point of view.

The body is not just a sexual tool. We are not just a body, a pure and explicit image. I try to capture a photograph in which you can see yourself reflected in some way. Because in the foreshortening of an elbow, of a back, you might believe that it is perhaps you, and so that is where you connect. When we show a face, it is already different.

"Each book of mine is no longer mine, it is for the person who reads it and makes their own reading according to what they are feeling."

What does being a multidisciplinary artist mean to you?

When you are multidisciplinary and you are actually good at various disciplines, you live in no-man's-land. To writers, you are not a good enough writer because you illustrate, and to illustrators, you are not a good enough illustrator because you write. And of course, it is not incompatible, but in a way, I think that we love to label things. And it is hard to think that a person can have three labels at once, well. As if it cannot be, one has to lean more on the other... It's very difficult for us.

Long-term, where do you see yourself?

I know and I am aware that I have many more things to tell, and the cool thing, in a way, is that my life and emotional situation is completely different from what it was for many years before. Now I have a partner, I am in love, and it is reciprocated. It is a crazy and new thing for me. I want to seek out that beauty and recount it from my state.

On the plastic side, I think that since my personal universe is so unique and is becoming more and more consolidated, I want new challenges, especially based on photography and collage.

But, ultimately, everything new, everything different is a challenge and it excites me. That is where you can learn things. You cannot learn things about what you already know.

-Relationship with beauty:


What is beauty for you and how do you live it in your projects?

Beauty is anything that makes you feel something. For a creative person, it is the search. Any creative person always seeks the beauty in things. Be it the beauty of a painting, of a photograph, of a word, of a look. Something beautiful, deep down, is something that makes your heart beat, that is something eternal, it is necessary. It is my search engine.


What or who inspires you in your day-to-day life?

Everything. I think that when you are curious and keep your eyes wide open, anything can inspire you. A conversation, a book, news, an exhibition, something. We human beings have the ability to speak and form bonds, and I think it is very important to be willing to listen to others and maintain a conversation, a dialogue, and to soak up knowledge. For example, I always say that I adore older people because they are an inexhaustible source of knowledge, but in the end, I think that any person, from their point of view, can always give you the option to learn something different, and that is cool. But for that, you have to be inclined toward it.


Who are your beauty icons?

I don't have anyone in particular. My reference is my desire to learn. Insatiable curiosity. Everything. Even the most ephemeral things are important to me.


What is the best advice you have been given?

Believe in myself. There is a phrase of mine that I like a lot which is: "Believe in yourself, not so little that you don't trust yourself, and not so much that you don't believe anyone else." I want to believe in myself but knowing where my capabilities and my limits are. What I cannot do is believe that I am above the limits of others. And, of course, make a huge effort. Get filled with fear, then empty yourself, then get filled again... and so on constantly. But enjoy that too.

Beauty Questionnaire:

What is your care routine?

On the outside, I think I do everything. I try to get my facial treatments done every month. Every so often I get my massages. I always try to grant myself "my prizes." Also, I have always done my night routine since I was 24. It is the way I connect with myself. It's just me with myself and there is nothing else. And it might sound spiritual, but it is like doing a meditation for me. I am listening to myself, I am observing, seeing how I am changing; I am keeping a conversation, and on top of that, I am pampering myself. Because I am treating myself well, and it is something I always do every night. It doesn't matter what time it is or who I am with. It is my sacred little moment.


An infallible trick or product

My diet is like, I eat everything when I'm hungry.


How do you take care of your beauty from the inside?

There is one thing I have always loved: dancing at home. It is wonderful and super good. It doesn't matter if you do it well or badly. Dancing for 10 minutes if you are sad, happy... It is assumed that when we move, we make our endorphins change, and I think it is very cool. Sleeping is also very important. I think rest is as necessary as good nutrition. And then writing... Being relaxed, ultimately.


A pending subject (as far as beauty is concerned)

I love trying things. I try everything. I am very curious, and I cannot talk about something I do not know.

A favorite of Alejandra's: