Dreaming is for everyone: it’s where creativity comes to life and where we go when reality feels too dim. REPARTO’s latest collection, Blacklot, presented at 080 Barcelona Fashion Week, was born from a fascination with dreaming—but also with the cost of dreams. Designed by Margil and Ana, the collection moves through references spanning late Victorian silhouettes, indie sleaze culture, adolescent anxieties and cinematic eeriness, building a world suspended somewhere between romanticism and darkness. At its core, Blacklot reflects on the emotional cost of pursuing creative ambition, and on the fragile yet necessary act of continuing to dream despite uncertainty.
Contradiction is where REPARTO truly shines. Like life itself, the brand is rooted in the romantic irony that every coin has two sides, and that both deserve equal attention. In conversation, Margil and Ana open up about the origins of the label, the cultural references behind Blacklot, the realities of navigating commercial pressures and their hopes for the future—from expanding wholesale to one day showing in London and Paris, while remaining faithful to the spirit that started it all.
The Cold Magazine (CM): Hi Margil and Ana! Congratulations on your latest AW26 show, Blacklot, presented during 080 Barcelona Fashion Week. I’m sure it was an emotional rollercoaster—how do you feel after presenting it?
REPARTO (R): Thank you so much. We’re very happy and, above all, more at ease now that we’re back to our day-to-day routine.
CM: Could you tell us a bit more about Reparto’s origin story? What pushed you to start the brand, and what did you feel was lacking in the fashion landscape at the time?
R: Reparto was born almost as an excuse.
We met during our degree and decided to do our final project together. At the time, creating duos at our uni wasn’t very common, so we push it trough and built the pretext of creating a brand. In reality, what we wanted was to spend our final year of university working together. We had an incredible group of friends, all with very strong opinions about the fashion world. That shared sense of dissatisfaction brought us closer, and we decided to channel it into a collection/brand that would function as a diary of our final year.
Looking back, we believe that ability to transform negative feelings into creative material was, to a large extent, what strengthened our bond
CM: The collection has been developed under the motto “Dreams are expensive, but dreaming is free,” inspired by a quote by Daniel Roseberry. Do the dreams in Blacklot feel hopeful, or are they shaped more by the frustration of what remains out of reach?
R: For us, what’s “expensive” isn’t just economic. It has to do with time, with belonging, with everything you leave behind when you decide to commit to an idea. Dreaming big involves sacrifice. It means pouring your life into something with no guarantees.
At the same time, we wanted to reclaim dreaming as an intimate, almost political space. A place no one else can access or condition. In a context where everything seems to be measured in terms of productivity, we were interested in reminding ourselves that simply dreaming already holds value in itself.
CM: Is “free dreaming” in fashion a genuine possibility or just another illusion the industry creates?
R: As a mental exercise, we believe it should always be possible. It’s actually the foundation of any creative process.
But limits inevitably appear: resources, context, your moment in life. So our way of understanding it is quite pragmatic: first you dream without limits, then you negotiate with reality.
CM: You also drew inspiration from late Victorian and early 20th-century silhouettes for this collection. What attracted you to these references, and how do they resonate with Reparto’s current mood?
R: It came quite organically. We had been working around the idea of death and, shortly after, Ana started reading a book that framed dreams as a possible rehearsal of it. That led us directly to the late 19th century: a time marked by a fascination with the unknown, where science, spirituality, and a certain obsession with the grotesque coexist.
We were especially interested in the figure of the sleepwalking woman, present in the literature and painting of that era. At the same time, Margil found the perfect song for the runway: ‘Somewhere Only We Know’ by Keane, which introduced a more indie layer. As a portrayal of this dreamy place where both of us travel to and where everything is possible.
Unconsciously, we’ve been returning a lot to adolescence lately: a key moment for our creativity, but also for our insecurities, which are one of our main driving forces. Backlot is built precisely at that intersection.
CM: The emo and indie sleaze influences also feel very specific—what do those subcultures represent to you today?
R: More than a literal reference, they function as an emotional archive. We’ve never felt part of a single aesthetic, but we’ve been deeply shaped by the mix of codes that defined our adolescence. We constantly return to that moment because it holds many of our insecurities, but also a large part of our creative sensitivity.
CM: Were there particular cultural references—music, films, or people—that anchored the collection’s aesthetic?
R: Yes, ranging from literature such as Silence is Made Within Me by Ana Blandiana, Dracula by Bram Stoker, or The Time We Have Been Given by Andrea Köhler, to films like ‘Bram Stoker’s Dracula’ by Francis Ford Coppola, ‘Enter the Void’ by Gaspar Noé, ‘Sleepy Hollow’ by Tim Burton, and also ‘Pearl’ by Ti West.
In music, names like Keane or Funkadelic, ear and CoH and figures such as Tumblr-era Mary-Kate Olsen and Ashley Olsen, the queen of indie-sleaze Cory Kennedy, or the photographer Cobra Snake helped shape that imaginary between the nostalgic and the culturally hybrid.
CM: In Blacklot, there’s a push and pull between romanticism and irony—do you feel more drawn to one than the other?
R: We couldn’t choose. REPARTO is born from a love for what we do, but also from our fears and insecurities. We use humor as a form of expression, while remaining deeply romantic when it comes to materializing each concept. In our universe, love and humor constantly coexist. Choosing between them would be like having to choose between Ana or Margi.
CM: Looking back at your earlier collections, what feels most different about your approach to this one?
R: It’s probably the most cohesive one so far. We believe this collection best synthesizes REPARTO’s aesthetic. Little by little, concept and outcome are finding balance. The process has been slow, but we feel we’re reaching a place where we recognize ourselves and feel comfortable.
What you like as a designer doesn’t always match what represents you when you create, and for us it’s been especially complex to find an aesthetic that works on both levels.
CM: What are the core elements of Reparto that you refuse to leave behind, even as the brand evolves?
R: The “distribution” of characters remains central. It’s a structure that allows us to build complex universes, although it also implies an increasing level of demand, both conceptually and aesthetically.
CM: Have external pressures—commercial demands, industry expectations, or audience reception—ever changed the way you design, or how you edit your ideas?
R: Constantly. Right now, we find ourselves constantly searching for formulas that work: garments that are special but sellable, conceptual but accessible, different but recognizable. It’s an ongoing balancing act. And all of this while trying to maintain your essence, without letting the urgency of making the brand sustainable become too visible.
CM: What are new territories that you’re interested in exploring next?
R: We’re focusing on wholesale. The runway is important, but we also understand Reparto as a business project. We’re interested in consolidating that side and continuing to grow in terms of sales and production.
CM: How do you envision Reparto evolving over the next few 5 years?
R: It’s difficult to predict, because five years can hold a lot. From a realistic perspective, our goal is to achieve financial stability and remain firm in the brand’s values.
But if we’re talking about dreaming… our biggest dream is to sell at Dover Street Market, to fully make a living from the brand, to have shown in London and Paris, and most importantly, to still love what we do as much as we did on day one.