Ifema, the main Spanish fashion platform responsible for organising events in the fashion industry with around a dozen specialised fairs in Spain, has chosen Charo Izquierdo as its new Director of fashion and beauty fairs held at the Feria de Madrid exhibition complex.

With a degree in Information Sciences from the Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Charo Izquierdo’s long and prestigious career has been based in the sector of fashion communication. She, in fact, is responsible for having launched the first top of the range Spanish weekly woman’s magazine distributed as a newspaper supplement with Yo Dona, while also creating the first, top flight, weekly fashion magazine, Grazia

A great technology enthusiast, already in 2000 she had set up the first women’s magazine on the Internet in Spain, estarguapa.com.

Today, in her new role, Charo Izquierdo will now be managing Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Madrid and MBFWIbiza, and all trade events organised for this sector and sponsored by IFEMA, starting with MOMAD Shoes – the International Footwear and Accessories Trade Show, and MOMAD Metrópolis – the International Fashion Trade Show, and MOMAD Metrópolis – dedicated to apparel.

As the new Director of IFEMA Fashion and Beauty events, do you believe that in the future it will be possible to create further synergies between these two sectors, since already today the Momad Metropolis and Momad Shoes shows are held simultaneously?

It is exactly with the intention of giving life to new and stronger synergies that there was the desire to create within IFEMA a common direction that succeeds in reuniting not only the fairs dedicated to beauty and fashion, but also the Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Madrid fashion shows. This means maintaining a balance between industry and design, which gives us the opportunity to equilibrate and create constant interconnections between production and design both at the fair and on the runway.

You are a woman with a longstanding career in communication: how important is it today, also for a fair, to communicate itself and do it through the new means of communication that are now available?

Communication is essential, because that which is not communicated does not exist. And today communication has changed, in the sense that it goes beyond what is a simple item in a magazine or a press release. Today, communication has expanded to include Social Networks and it is essential for fashion fairs to know how to work with these new tools. To this end, IFEMA is prioritising this new channel for communication, while collaborating with an excellent agency for communication that is specialised in this segment.

At the same time, however, my aim is to make it possible for brands participating in our beauty and fashion fairs to use the network, starting with our websites, which we use to communicate news and present the latest trends. Without forgetting the runway presentations of designers at Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week, where we are working to ensure the network becomes an important tool for communication.

Going more into detail with Momad Shoes, how important are the footwear industry’s ties today with apparel in creating a Total Look?

For some time now, accessories have represented the element that makes the difference in the total look. We could even go so far as to say that accessories are the least accessory-like element in the outfit: rather, they are fundamental, since they are trendsetters and follow the latest trends. But above all they allow for the possibility of personalising fashion trends, because through accessories it is possible to give a more personal interpretation to trends, while making them our very own and reinterpreting them.

What are the strategic priorities for Momad Shoes?

Our priority is to see Momad Shoes become an increasingly important footwear fair, capable of reflecting the reality of the sector and the position that it holds on the industrial panorama and in European fashion. I believe that Spain as the second biggest footwear producer deserves a fair with these characteristics.

The forthcoming September edition of Momad Shoes will also be held in conjunction with Puericultura Madrid: with this synergy, do you intend to further develop the Kids sector at the fair?

It is always possible to develop synergies within IFEMA’s fairs. And obviously the Kids segment is important for our country. We’ll see how the situation evolves.

Made in Spain footwear is known and appreciated on an international level for its unmistakable style and quality: how do you think Momad Shoes can build upon these strengths?

It will be necessary to reinforce those values most typical of Spanish footwear and, in this context, quality is an important factor that makes the difference. From the other end, we have very interesting young companies, along with attentiveness to the issue of sustainability that affects the sector and above all younger realities, and this must all be taken into account.