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Juana Ruiz and Garbiñe Urdampilleta are one of Spain’s best-known designer duos. Their impeccable tailoring and arty chromatics have created a unique but versatile style.

Founded in 1987 in Bilbao, their company Jota + Ge has 650 points of sale all over Europe and they are now exploring the Russian market. The two designers talked with Fashionfromspain.com in the Madrid showroom where they had just presented their autumn/winter 2009/2010 collection, giving their own very personal tribute to Surrealism.

What was the first garment you designed together?
Juana: It was in 1985, a couple of years before we created the company. It was a navy three-quarter-length coat with a leather collar, a kind of redesigned men’s garment, short and highly tailored. It bore all the hallmarks of what was to become the Jote + Ge style, an updated classic look.
Garbiñe: Most designers tend to start with something simpler, like T-shirts and skirts, but we went for a jacket – a garment with sleeves – which made us stand out right from the start.

Your jackets are now one of your signature pieces, even though it’s a garment that needs very precise pattern design.
J.: It’s been the leitmotiv of all our collections: sleeves, coats, structured garments that are so much more complicated than T-shirts or blouses. We’ve always made all kinds of clothes, but designs with sleeves are our mainstay.
G.: Our colleagues call us 'the jacket-makers' because that’s what we like doing most and what marks us out from the rest but we’ve always covered a whole range of women’s needs and we’ve got three different lines: Jota + Ge, Event (for special occasions) and Jeans. We started out with just one Jota + Ge collection with all three styles, but it got so extensive we had to divide it up about six months ago. That way we can reach more customers and different kinds of shop. But jackets are still our best- seller, followed by dresses and coats.

You’re also known for the arty prints on your jackets, trousers and tops. When did you start using them?
J.: Very early on. As we saw it, there were already plenty of plain jackets out there on the market. It was unusual to see sleeved garments with prints or patterns. One day, we saw a picture and thought it would make a perfect print. We asked the manufacturer to produce an exact replica on fabric and, after a struggle, eventually achieved what we were looking for. First we went for the photographic print: if we saw an image that caught our attention, we reproduced it. It went down a treat and was an innovation in printed garments as it wasn’t so common to see photographic images on fabric then as it is now.

“We’ve been able to make our own colours and prints for some time now”

Your clothing is practical, versatile and comfortable, how do you achieve that?
G.: Every season is a new experiment. We’ve always innovated with fabrics because they are the backbone of our collection. It takes us about two and a half months to choose them. When DuPont Lycra was only being used in France, we’d already begun buying it. Nobody knew how to go about using it. It’s a complicated process but we always rise to a challenge. At the time, Lycra was associated with close-fitting garments like sportswear, but we went for the comfort angle. It means you can move around more. It doesn’t get wrinkled either and it makes the fabric last. The disadvantages are the pattern design, tailoring and price, but we’re big fans and we still use it today. In fact, 90% of our fabrics have Lycra in them. It makes them more elastic; although the proportion’s so tiny you hardly notice it. The idea is that you can move freely which is exactly what an active working woman wants.