Julián Herrera García - Memoria del Diseño

Julián Herrera García

Designer and couturier

Mula, 1952

Julián Herrera presented his first collection of “costume rehearsals” in the summer of 1979, in an establishment, a glue of modernity, which he founded in Murcia with his sister Pepa: the “Groucho Bar”. Since then and until his retirement in 2017, there have been many contributions to fashion, as we can know thanks to the text by Paco Martínez Almagro and the compilation that follows.

Elegant modernity

During the three stages in which I took up residence in Valencia, first for studies and then for professional reasons, I could not help but compare Murcia, the place where I left, when I was only 17 years old, and the bustling city that welcomed me and I will always consider my home.

I maintained a healthy alternation between two ways of life that I felt were different, and it was in 1979, during one of my stays in Murcia, when I first set foot in a bar that, surprisingly, was much more similar to those I frequented in Valencia than to those that had been operating in Murcia until then.

I knew from that moment that I could no longer leave that space and neither could I leave its owners. I am referring to the “Groucho Bar”, an establishment inaugurated in 1977, the first bar of Murcian modernity, agglutinating a gang of explosive thinkers and elegant creators.

That wonderful project was started by two brothers from Muleño, Julián and Pepa Herrera García, as different as they are complementary.

Pepa, a talkative, funny, unbreakable woman, with a strong and overwhelming personality.

Julian, a person of “unattainable divinity”, only in appearance, for whom I experienced a magnetic attraction. Julián seemed to me an icon of modernity, endowed with great elegance and interior honesty.

The three of us forged our relationship in a natural way, a deep friendship that we maintain to this day.

It was in “Groucho” where Julián presented, for the first time, a collection of “costume rehearsals”, for that summer of 79. A parade where his friends acted as models showing a wardrobe of colorful and original designs. Even then we knew of his greatness as a creator and couturier. In 1982, after closing the pub, Julián took up residence in Ibiza, where he designed and worked for the Stock stores, a task that he combined with designing for individuals.

Six years later, Julián returned to Mula and, with Paco Verdú and two other dressmakers, set up the company Julián Herrera S.A.L., with which he presented ready-to-wear collections for winter at the Lope de Vega de Mula Theatre, and participated in the “Fashion and Design Catwalk” in Murcia, organised at the Romea Theatre within the framework of the “II National Design Conference”. which took place in 1988.

That same year, he was selected by the Institute of Development of the Region of Murcia to attend the “XII San Sebastian Fashion Festival”, which was held at the San Telmo Museum and where he presented his 89/90 winter collection.

He was also invited to participate in the “I Marbella Fashion Contest”.

In 1993, he ended this commercial experience and decided to set up his workshop as a couturier to make ready-to-wear collections for various fashion businesses in the region and, six years later, focus on made-to-order clothing for a good number of regular customers. Until his retirement, in 2017.

I state for the record that it was a great pleasure for me to maintain, from friendship and admiration, a long conversation with Julián at his house in Mula, reviewing his career and searching in oblivion, recovering and ordering his documentary and photographic legacy. Great, Julián!

………
Paco Martínez Almagro
Murcia, March 2025