A Coruna, Spain: The Origins of Zara

So here I am in the north west of Spain, in a city called A Coruna. It is the place where high street fashion success story, Zara, was born. And so it is something of a pilgrimage to come here. Well it definitely felt like that yesterday when we went to the very first Zara store that ever opened. I had to buy something, just to be able to say it came from the origin, the source. It was very satisfying for this fashionista.

Amancio Ortega founded Zara in 1975, can you believe it. Right here in A Coruna. It seems so incredibly unlikely that this global fashion brand originated in this pretty, ancient place where there are no obvious indicators that would lead you to think that what comes out of here dominates high street style trends in nearly 80 countries around the world. Eighty. The eightieth is going to be South Africa, next month. How awesome is that?

One of the cool stories I heard yesterday was that the name was always intended to be short and easy to say in many languages. But the way they came to Zara, specifically, was due to the founder's obsession with great Spanish literary figure Zoro. He played around with that for a bit and came to Zara. And so we have it today.
I hope you enjoy these posts as I will update you each morning this week with stories from Spain, my shopping and learning about the Zara family. Such a cool way to spend a week in the life of a fashion editor. No?