By Seth Khouri
For Reparto founders Ana Viglione and Margil Pena, BLACKLOT marks a turning point. After seasons spent exploring darker emotional terrain, the Barcelona-based label shifted toward something more playful, using dreams as both an aesthetic and emotional framework. Built from deadstock fabrics, Victorian silhouettes, and references pulled from indie adolescence, the collection moves between fantasy and reality without ever settling fully into either. What emerged was a world of caricatured dreams: lucid, romantic, anxious, glamorous. In conversation with Seth Khouri, Ana and Margil reflect on the slow construction of BLACKLOT, the insecurities that shaped its standout looks, and the tension between creative freedom and commercial survival as an emerging independent label. Beneath the humour and theatricality of the collection sits something more personal: an acknowledgment of sacrifice, obsession, and the uncertainty that comes with pursuing fashion as a life entirely built around dreaming.
SETH KHOURI: Hey Ana and Margil, how are you both?
MARGIL PENA: We’re going great thank you, we’re currently in Madrid visiting the family off the back of fashion week. There’s been a lot that’s been going on prior, so now we’re just chilling.
SK: I’m glad to hear. You’re both originally from Madrid correct?
ANA VIGLIONE: I’m actually from the north of Spain, and Margil is from Mexico, but we both studied together in Madrid, it was there that we created Reparto together. We also showcased during Madrid fashion week for a few seasons before moving to Barcelona and showing here.
SK: Amazing. Let’s dive in. I wanted to start with BLACKLOT, not in terms of what it is as a concept, but when it first became real for you.
MP: All our collections at the beginning of Reparto were fixated around these caricatures of despair. Last season, we tackled the idea of our fears, and titled it “RATED R”. In a way, it was comfortable, it was quite easy to explain the collection and see it materialise. In all, the collection was quite dark. For both of us, we became tired of talking about these obscure concepts, instead we wanted to do something more cutesy, so-to-speak. This led us to the idea of dreaming.
AV: Even though we approached a more playful idea, it still did have heavier undertones. I remember within our preparation for this collection reading something along the lines of sleep is a rehearsal for death. For so many of us, we can view death as something bad, but what if it’s just dreaming forever.
SK: What went into the physical building of this collection?
MP: As a brand, we’re maturing. We’ve started working with consultants for manufacturers to move into the wholesale market, because of this we’ve been going to numerous textile fairs. We grabbed this great cheetah print fabric with sequins from a deadstock provider in Italy, we got our hands on a great roll of cotton jersey. We started picking up all these different fabrics, it felt a lot more responsible and sustainable in its own way.
AV: The aesthetics were a whole different thing. As we centred everything around the idea of dreaming, we became fixated on the Victorian era, they were really obsessed with dreaming and gnosis. We were also thinking about our adolescence. It became a convergence between the two, putting together Victorian silhouettes with the Indie and alternative subcultures that were important in our adolescence.
SK: When you speak about dreams in the collection, it doesn’t feel purely escapist. Were those references coming from something personal, or more from a collective, cultural kind of memory?
MP: It honestly felt like a mix. We weren’t thinking too closely to personal dreams we have as both individuals and a pair in this brand, but more the general space. We wanted to capture all kinds of dreams someone could have. From wet dreams, to lucid, sleep paralysis and so on. We made caricatures of these dreams. We had one look that was a cheetah print dress with a sequined feather boa titled the acceptance speech. We fantastices about the entertainment world and what it would be like to win a prize or go to the Oscars.
SK: Was there a key moment where everything clicked into place while building this?
AV: We had a look titled sleeping beauty, that was the first time it really made sense seeing it materialised.
MP: It’s funny because we really debated including that look. When we were first building it, we were quite insecure of it, not really knowing if it would be received well. Now it’s the most liked within the whole collection. It’s also the opening look which helped introduce this world from the beginning. It was made up of a lace top and cheetah skinny jeans.
AV: The lace top was a dress at first, when we saw it as a top we started playing around with the cheetah skinny jeans. The entire look really launched the aesthetic for the entire collection. We built these pins and badges from upcycled materials from previous collections, even feathers and trash from around the studio. We had a lot of fun with it, we put Chloe Malle, the new editor of American Vogue on one of the pins. We made two pieces, one a dress, the other a skirt, that look like XXL sequins, they’re actually large buttons shaped as sequins.
SK: And with Victorian references especially, there’s always that risk of it feeling like a costume, how did you keep it grounded or contemporary?
AV: For us it’s really important to keep our references conceptual rather than literal. While there are silhouettes and styles we’ve borrowed, it’s more about the feeling or “vibe” of the reference. Our process is also incredibly long and things change so much within it. At first the silhouettes read very strongly Victorian, then they moved into the more underground Indie scene. It’s a big melting pot of influences that helps the aesthetic stay conceptual.
MP: Each collection we tried to take bites of all things that fascinate us, and our own lived experience of things. We take it all and put it in a blender and pour out this ugly smoothie that looks really beautiful to us, it’s what we live for, and what inspires us to keep dreaming.
SK: Have you had to sacrifice a lot for your dreams?
AV: Definitely. It’s so easy to compare to others, especially those who don’t do what we do. We’ve given everything in our lives for these dreams, we’re far from family, it takes all our money, it’s every part of you for your brand.
MP: No one starts off with the assured knowledge that you’ll succeed. We didn’t receive a certificate saying that if we gave everything for Reparto, then Reparto will be the next big thing, no one can assure us of that. It’s like flipping a coin that’s still in the hair, we’re just hoping our bet is the one that pays off. At the same time, we could never leave it.
AV: It’s a drug for us, I don’t understand my life without this. It feels silly because it does take everything but I wouldn’t want anything else. In our adolescence we dreamed of being fashion designers and doing shows and blah, blah, blah. Now that it’s happening, it’s like, fuck, now what? I need to really push it because I’m living in the dream. The sacrifice is worth it.
SK: Do you think fashion still holds space for that open, unfiltered dreaming, or has it become too tired to production and assurance?
AV: It’s really complicated. When we were a little brand, we were so expressive and creative. As we’ve matured, and stepped into wholesale which we shared briefly before, we have needed to shift towards a more commercial approach, it’s the only way to sell. We’ve all seen those documentaries of McQueen and John Galliano and all their crazy, incredible moments, but everybody was broke. Everything was really big and beautiful but they still needed to sell. If this happens in these massive brands, imagine what it’s like for a small Spanish label. The aesthetic of our people is Paloma Wool and Gimaguas, we’re not a country where people go crazy with creative expression.
SK: For those who experienced the collection, what do you hope it left with them?
MP: During one of our fittings, in the lead up, we had a moment of going “oh my god, this is so REPARTO”, we want people to really acknowledge that this is who we are, whether in the aesthetic, colours, fabrics, whatever it may be. This has been our first collection that we’ve really seen our ideas come to life completely. We had this saying around the studio that “the bags under my eyes are so Reparto”, and that is such a Reparto saying. We were talking to a stylist at a party, she saw someone on the street, this super-punk girl, and was like “she was so Reparto”. We want people to see Reparto everywhere, in a girl across the street, in a smell.
SK: Are you thinking about what’s next, or giving yourself a break?
AV: We’re definitely not resting. We’re already thinking about spring/summer ‘27. We want to go to Paris to wholesale, which is like going to the Olympics. We’re excited for what’s next. We want to present a greatest-hits from our time as Reparto.
SK: That’s so wonderful. Thank you both for sitting with me.
MP: Thank you Seth.
AV: It was our pleasure.