Rojo Piruleta fashion quality

I’ve always been in fashion, this means not only to buy fashion but also to live it.

My very first working experience was as assistant of a really young fashion designer for a really historic Italian fashion brand.

Staying by her side meant a lot for me, because she was in charge of everything, design, production, fashion shows, researches, and I was living with her this day by day, studying at university in the morning, going in the atelier in the afternoon.

The fashion world of that tiny ecosystem of an historic fashion house trying to renovate with a young recently graduated designer impressed me a lot.

I travel and visited the most prestigious textile trade fairs, I learned a lot about the fabrics, I was studying economics, so I didn’t have any knowledge about the fashion world.

When I graduated I didn’t have the chance to work in a big fashion company, I started my career in the digital world, working with startups and advertising agencies.

I have learned a lot from that experience and that’s why I am really interested in connecting with young Spanish designers, I want to know the history of their brand, how they conceived it and how they developed it, because I like the stories behind the brands, more than the product itself, if I trust a entrepreneur I’ll marry the product too.

To me quality is the main point, I always need to touch the fabric and see where it was made from the label, how much cotton in it.

rojo piruleta madrid

When I’ve met Arantxa and Yomara from Rojo Piruleta I was so glad to discover a young Spanish fashion brand focus on quality rather than trends.

Finally a simple idea, making cool t-shirts and sweaters, that will last more than one season, even if none of them is a simple cloth.

It can be a sentence printed, an embroidery sewed on the shoulder like caviar or even a weaving on the hip. Nothing is left to chance. Even if Arantxa and Yomara are not fashion designers, they do design together all the collections of Rojo Piruleta.

They come from a totally different sector, the sanitary, but they have always had the dream of a collection produced by themselves.

They were both already entrepreneurs, so the organizational part, how to set up a company was the easiest part for me, but the research of the right fabric and the right company to print and produce the collections was not that easy.

I believe that when you do something well it is easier to attire people, because of the word of mouth between customers and retailers too.

If you consider how long these products will last compared to the fast seasonal fashion product you won’t need any added reason to start buying Rojo Piruleta.

The thing that impressed me the most, after the quality of the fabric, is for sure the commercial network that Arantxa and Yomara were able to build so quick, with the most famous multi-brand retailer in Madrid (NAC) for example and so many resorts locations, like Pura in Tarifa.

Not to mention that Arantxa and Yomara did not quit their previous jobs for Rojo Piruleta, they maintain both the activities 247, the designer together but then the rest of the tasks are divided into them. And of course they also have a third job, the most beautiful and complicated in the world: being mothers.

What I really liked about them is their planning, they have really clear who they are, what they what to do and especially when, they won’t produce too much or go too fast, they will grow at their own trend, step by step, they will keep the control of the productions, the communication, the design and the sales.

Last but not least I appreciated the fact that both Arantxa and Yomara always wear Rojo Piruleta and that they mix and match them in so many ways, like for example wearing a shirt on the opposite side avoiding the prints using the back side on the front, because they don’t have labels on the back. It’s such a simple thing that was not conceived to be kind of double face but it is really a double face with a simple idea.

Rojo Piruleta is a simple statement for something that we were all missing since Arantxa and Yomara started the brand in 2015, simple t-shirts and sweater with a magic touch of originality.

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drink6 detox

Detox time with drink6

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When you often eat outside and the carbs are always part of your meal, you might feel at a certain point that five letter word whispering at your years: deeeeeetooooooox, deeeeeeetooooooox.

I’ve listened them last week and gave a try to drink6 detox solutions. The name “drink6” is due to the basic pack of 6 juices that you have to consume as your normal daily diet meals.

I chose the 4 juices and 2 soups pack for one day on treatment, but you can choose between a great variety of solutions.

What is the difference between one or more days of drink6?

Well, drink6 is not a diet, you don’t lose weight, detox means to clean up the body, so this is what the program does. More days means more things that can be cleaned up.

From one to five days, the drink6 program is a substitution of the normal daily meals, from breakfast to dinner:

  • One day: if you follow the drink6 plan for one day, the detox plan will work in order to remove all excess toxins;
  • Three days: if you follow the drink6 plan for three days you will of course have the eliminations of the toxins as in the one day plan but three days it’s sufficient to clean also the blood;
  • Five days: this more complete plans adds to the first two results a complete restoration of the immunitary system.

It is not just a matter of drinking the juices, it is important to follow the rules and the order from zumo 1 to zumo 6, as well as the timing. Everything is written on the bottle, you can’t take them in the wrong order.

The most important thing to add is that they are totally 100% natural and fresh juices.

drink6 detox

Between all the different tastes I’ve tried, I have to admit that I was really impressed by the “manzana asada” taste which was number 2, “manzana asada” and pineapple, I’ve never tried a juice with the apple previously cooked and I really enjoyed it.

My second favourite was number 5, I thought there was ginger in it because of the spicy taste, but it is made of lemon, mint, cayena, cucumber and agave, the texture is more thin than the others which makes it very fresh and easier to be drinked.

For me it’s not the first time I do a detox plan, I’ve tried several detox delivery programs, one very similar to drink6, totally made by juices and another one for seven or ten days made by different typologies of food, no juices but lots of quinoa and cereals.

I had to admit that my purpose at that time was not to detox, I bought that planes because everyone was doing it, and for the 10 days plan I really thought I was going to lose some weight but not, anything, and I didn’t appreciate the fact the maybe it was healthier than a diet.

Now it’s different, I really know what a detox is and I hope that this article will be useful if you are considering a detox plan. The drink6 plan can bring you the energy that you need to face up your daily life, feeling healthier and stronger.

A detox plan like drink6 is really a gift to your body and health.

The interesting thing about drink6 is that the company is run by professionals like the CEO Belen Monederos and partnered with Nutrimedic, a specialized clinic with nutrition experts directed by Dr. Conchita Vidales.  

Don’t be surprised that drink6 is the first detox juice brand in Spain, from my experience they worth it, and you if scroll their Instagram profile or their press section with a live storify of all the people posting with the official hashtag and mentions, you will see that I am not the only one thinking that drink6 is the greatest gift you can do for your health.

More information: drink6.

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wetaca madrid menu

Weekly quality food menu by Wetaca

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wetaca madrid menu

I think the world is divided into two macro categories:

  • people who love to cook and pack their lunch box for the day after;
  • people who are unable to plan and cook for the next day.

I belong to the second category, I am the one that has cooked the lunch box the night before like two or three times in the whole life. The very first first time I cooked my food box it was so good that I ate it on the same night, even if I had dinner before.

When you live like me, day by day, you might have some problems, because the alternatives of the homemade lunch box are awful. Everytime I go out from the office to hunt something that needs to be quick-tasty-cheap, most of the time I only get two alternatives that are cheap-terrible or healthy-expensive, and during the lunchtime hours it is even difficult to get something, all the best restaurants and cafeterias are always full.

The worst options in the end are always: supermarket, hamburger, kebab and so on …Then comes the best options which might turn to be the most expensive, and the difference is relevant because it might cost the double. I am talking about the food delivery. I am a huge fan of this kind of service and I have tried all the different providers, and to me it can’t be considered an everyday solution, I always order when I am in a kind of emergency with no time and too much work to handle that doesn’t give me the possibility to go out.

wetaca madrid menu

 

The food delivery service I have just discovered is called WETACA and in my first week of use seems really the perfect match solution of all my problems.

It is a very simple, and innovative way to answer all my problems, and the customer service is super fast.

The order is placed one week before, with all these well prepared food that can last in the fridge for 7 days. The menu is available on the website and changes every week, thursday is the new order day.

You can find a great variety, fish, meat, pasta, rice, from different traditional cuisine, asian, european and american.

The service and the order on the website were very easy to handle. Deciding what I was going to try and order for the first time was not that quick, because there were a lot of interesting choices, and now that I’ve seen three different weeks menu it seems to me that it’s getting always better, I found my top of mind food that I never cooked at home, like the zucchini spaghetti or the mac&cheese.

On Monday morning this huge box rang my bell because that was my delivery choice.

I mean, how cool is to receive a box instead of a bag, it’s like Christmas. What about the funny quote? I loved it!

The packaging is really easy to be stored in the fridge and when you served it you don’t need to change the place, the black microwave dish is elegant and I loved it.

I can firmly state that all the WETACA food I’ve tried so far were really great, don’t even think that you can compare the supermarket gastronomy with them. Every shrimp and every tacos I ate I do believe was a superior quality food, and with that I mean you’ll make a lot of mmmmmmmmmh noise while eating them, because they were so good and not difficult to digest, because we all know that after lunch comes a full time afternoon in the office.

 

The pad thai for example comes in two separate box and need to be mixed if you want to have a uniform result, because there is a lot of sauce and all your noodle deserve it.

The brownie takes just 30 seconds in the microwave to be ready and it’s the same brownie that we usually order in the hypest american bar and pay three times the WETACA one that let me use the proper word: orgasmatic.

Nothing to add, once you try WETACA you never go back, that’s true, I just did my second order and wait to do the third now that I’ve seen the mac&cheese!

wetaca madrid menu

 

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street art madrid

Street art tour in Lavapiés

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I had the chance to discover a new Madrid, a Madrid that I’ve always admired without knowing nothing about it, while when I was living in Milan I could recognize names and techniques of these works of art.

I am talking about the street art surrounding us everyday in Madrid, especially in the Lavapies area.

Three hour street art tour in Madrid with an exceptional guide, Javier from CoolTourSpain.

We met up just outside the Atocha Station, where the tour usually starts. Javier gave us the big picture immediately, and it was not only about the things that we were going to see as different stops, but dividing the tour experience in three main pillars: history, technique and names. It’s funny because it is not an ordinary tour where you listen the speaker like an audio book with a monotone voice. Javier knows how to entertain and make it easier to learn keeping his audience engaged.

In the first stop of the street art tour in madrid we discovered together «La Neomudejar, Museo y centro de artes de Vanguardia». This place is Amazing, a real discovery for me that I am always looking for special art exhibitions. And I need a Spanish word to describe it, it’s «raro», which means unique with something special.

The first pictures here above are all from La Neomudejar, from the outside to the inside, where the main topics developed through the art collection. The freedom of expression that the directors of this Museum have built in these years can give to the invited artists the total freedom to express themselves and their art through taboo topics likes the politics, the media and women.

On the first floor where the permanent collections and the artists in residence laboratories are, I was totally surprised to see a work of art dedicated to Luigi Pirandello. One of the most important Nobels for Literature won in Italy. You can see a picture of a flower wall with different paintings

The street art tour in Madrid moved from Atocha back to Embajadores for the walls of «La Tabacalera», an old cigarette factory reconverted as cultural center. I’ve already been around the wall and inside the Tabacalera for an exhibition in November, but discover each wall one after another with the sneaky information that Javier have collected is a different thing.

The walls on the outside are called «Muros» and have been painted by renewed artists from Spain and from other countries with the topic of the urban nature in 2016. My favourite is the one by Casassola with this naked woman full of flowers.

From the Tabacalera to Campo de la Cebada I started developing a different sensibility to the techniques and the names of the artists, recognizing them in all the different shapes.

We saw, and you can see in the pictures above so many different techniques, that we might even don’t see while walking, like E1000 (read Emil in Spanish) that uses the gates or the house door to reproduce his name buy colouring online a part of the gate.

Last part of the tour at La Cebada was very interesting too, because it’s a place that I know and walk through everyday, without knowing the names of the artists, or how the Cebada works.

I can’t wait to discover more about the street art in Madrid, also because there will be important festivals in the next months, where all the community of this incredible art will be reunited.

For more information about the tour visit Javier Website.

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Vermut mon amour

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I have to admit that in many situations I am attracted by the design of a product instead of the very essence of it. With food for example many times the cover is beautiful but the inside is awful. That’s why the old school vintage food might be better than a new hister packaging.

It rarely happens that I am attracted by the package and than I am not disappointed by the food or drinks. It always happens to me with wine for example, as I don’t have a strong knowledge of the amazing world of winery, I also pick the bottle with the most attractive label.

With Casa Mariol it was completely different. I saw this completely different bottle twice, in bars and restaurant here in Madrid but never tried it. The third time I saw it was at PUM PUM CAFE’. While I was waiting for my matcha latte para llevar I gooogle «Casa Mariol Vermut» and here we are.

I was even more impressed by the story of a famous Spanish product exported in Australia.

I bought a bottle the same day, last floor of the El Corte Ingles, but also available online. And than, right after taking this photos, I’ve tried it.

I love vermut in general, it’s my favourite after work choice, and this one in particular, the vermut negre of Casa Mariol really impressed me. I had it at home with this tortilla caliente casera I took in one of my favourite tapas bar in La Latina.

The taste is very strong but I can’t tell if it’s sweet or not, I can just tell that it’s strong, like if it was concentrate. I suggest to try it at PUM PUM CAFE’ or trust me and buy a bottle, it’s less than 8 €.

vermut madrid vermut madrid vermut madrid

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Grazie

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[This is not a Spanish Restaurant, it’s a gratitude post about an unexpected present I’ve received yesterday]

Spending the xmas Holidays away from home is kind of weird, probably the first time, than it should become more easy.

You know I bought my first serious camera during these holidays, and it was an Amazing xmas present for myself. But Yesterday a courier rang my door with a mystery pack.

Two bottles of Wine were included and a series of instructions on how to serve them properly.

The real deal was the name of the producer, I mean the wine producer, it was called like me, Diana. I guess nothing was left to chance.

Even the name of this first red win was chosen with care. The description of it states:

BONARDA  – The Faithful Companion – Bosco del pozzo
The purple notes of the Croatina grape have developed into a ruby red. We can taste the berries, in particular, blackberries. It now has a more robust body, and there is a persistent aftertaste. Ripa del Ciliegio shows how the most traditional grape of the Oltrepò, usually used for sparkling wines, can also express itself perfectly in this still wine, producing something original and of stature. It is the ideal companion to those more sophisticated dishes.

I know, I am very lucky to have friends like this, and miss a lot the weekends spent together hiking.

 

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MERCADO ANTON MARTIN

Mercado de Antón Martín 

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MERCADO ANTON MARTIN

I love all the Madrid markets, probably I can even start a blog only about food markets.

I don’t know if all my interested is due to my father. He was working in markets selling fruits, and when I was a child I used to reach him sometimes.

It’s a very hard work and I totally respect all the workers that everyday wake up and open their stalls, even if it’s cold, it’s hard and all a lot of the other stalls are closed, it is still a beautiful job.

More information here: Mercado de Antón Martín.

MERCADO ANTON MARTIN MERCADO ANTON MARTIN MERCADO ANTON MARTIN MERCADO ANTON MARTIN MERCADO ANTON MARTIN

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Getting lost at Rastro Madrid

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El Rastro was born in 1740. It is very popolar, on sunday mornings to go and walk around the stalls.

La Latina and Tirso de Molina undergrounds are always full of people direct to the market which is formed mostly by shops that open their doors showing their products on the streets.

Plaza the Cascorro is one of the central points even if you find modern shopping more than antiques. The very old part of the market is where all the tiny streets of La Latina are, there is not a precise route, you just need to get lost in the middle of the Rastro.

 

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Feliz Navidad en Plaza Mayor

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For the first time I went out with my very first professional camera on the afternoon of the the 25th of December, yes, Christmas!

The camera was my xmas gift to myself and Plaza Mayor with all the Christmas stalls, the baloons for the kids and the soap balls was the perfect place to start shooting.

The light was perfect and so different from one picture to another, slowly fading into dark.

[Nikon 1 J5 – 10 – 30 mm]

 

 

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