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The Rodríguez Pineda family founded El Caballo in Seville in 1892 as a small riding equipment shop and workshop. Over the years, they applied their leather working skills to fashion accessories, which soon made an impact on the industry thanks to the quality of the leather and their Andalusian essence.

The recent signing of the young designer Nicolas Vaudelet is just the beginning of the company’s ambitious Nuevos Aires project, which has turned this traditional Spanish company into a reference point for cutting-edge fashion with soul. José Rodríguez Pineda, chief executive officer of El Caballo and a member of the founding family, and creative director Nicolas Vaudelet tell us about the company’s history, achievements and challenges.

Is El Caballo still a family company?
J.R.P. - About 75% of it is, and since 2006 the other 25% has been in the hands of the Lladró-Sala family, one of the proprietors of Lladró, which is also a shareholder in the luxury Spanish jewellery firm Carrera y Carrera. The family’s investment in El Caballo has helped us to take the Nuevos Aires project forward, aimed at updating the product and image of our stores. Over the past three years, we have been trying to breathe new life into the concept and perception of the firm, while still maintaining the roots and essence that have always nourished it. As a result of this breath of fresh air (hence the name nuevos aires, literally ‘new airs’ in Spanish), the style of El Caballo incarnates a rich tradition stretching back 100 years, rooted in Seville and Andalusia, now presented with a new modern and cosmopolitan spin.

Is the company still based at its original headquarters in Seville?
J.R.P. – Our headquarters are still in Calle Antonia Díaz, where my grandfather opened the first shop and workshop in 1892 and where just three people worked; now there are 85 of us. We occupy a building that is highly typical of Seville architecture, which houses financial offices and the flagship El Caballo boutique. The factory, workshop and the company’s other resources are located in a different building that used to be on the outskirts of Seville but is now in the city centre. That’s where our creative director is based, Nicolas Vaudelet, always in close contact with the workshop. We also still use our original logo, although it was retouched a fair bit in the 1950s, when my father ran the company. In the 1990s it was restyled, which you only really notice if you compare it with the older versions. The lines are more curved and contemporary.

“The hunting cartridge belt naturally became a belt and the hunter’s pouch was transformed into a designer bag”

When did the artisan vocation of El Caballo emerge?
J.R.P. – At the end of the 19th century, the store began trading as one of the many saddlers and harness shops in the area that sold farming equipment and items for horses, hence its name [caballo is Spanish for horse]. Although my grandfather was a retailer, he always placed a great deal of emphasis on the workshops and the figure of the master artisan, which is why right from the beginning our products were renowned for their quality. When horses disappeared from agricultural work, many saddlers and harness shops closed down, but we evolved towards hunting and professional horse riding.