Food Meets Fashion At New Annual Festival In Valencia, Spain

Valencia on the east coast of Spain is the country's third largest city (after Madrid and Barcelona) and offers many of the same attractions of these two better known cities. This foodie paradise is the birthplace of paella and offers the ideal city/beach break with its seven kilometers of sandy beaches and 304 days of sunshine annually. The famous Las Fallas fireworks festival every March is a major draw and this year a new festival has been introduced: Clec Fashion and Food festival. Aiming to fill the gap left by the former Valencia fashion week, this new festival includes an additional interesting component where the city’s top chefs collaborate with fashion designers. And hot on the heels of Clec is the annual Valencia Culinary Festival running February-March where local chefs work together to make the city into a big foodie party for Valencianos and visitors. Thirty gastronomic events including special dinners, talks and tastings take place across the city. One of the sold-out events was by chef Alejandro del Toro who brought together chefs who’d all worked together in 1998 at the famous restaurant Martín Berasategui, to recreate a menu from that time.

                                                             

Prom Dresses

The Clec runway shows and events are held at the incredible Santiago Calatrava designed building, Hemispheric, part of the City of Arts and Sciences. An impressive lineup of new and established Spanish designers showed their new collections last month, including Visori, Dominnico, Miquel Suay, Anel Yaos, Siamo Studio, Ágatha Ruiz de la Prada and Francis Montesinos. 404 Studio had also just showed at London Fashion Week as part of the On/Off showcase for emerging designers.