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You might not have heard of Abraham Ortūno Perez and his label Abra, but you’ve likely seen his work. His signature spiky shoes and bags have been spotted on stars from Charli XCX to Rosalía; he also designed some of the most viral shoes of the last five years, including Loewe’s cracked egg and balloon heels, JW Anderson’s giant chain loafers and Jacquemus’s double-stacked kitten heels.
Now, after five years designing on a freelance basis, the focus is on growing his own fashion, footwear and accessories brand, which Perez launched in 2020. After presenting off-schedule at Paris Fashion Week for the last three seasons, Abra will make its official on-schedule debut on 1 October with a presentation loosely inspired by TV shows Perez loves from childhood, including Hannah Montana and H20: Just Add Water.
“In a way I’m terrified of [being on the official schedule],” the designer says, speaking from the Fédération de la Haute Couture et de la Mode emerging talent showroom Sphère, a few days pre-show. “It’s a different pressure now because it feels less improvised. I’m happy because it’s a lot of exposure. At the same time, it takes me out of my little bubble.”
In a fashion world obsessed with tongue-in-cheek, pop culture-adjacent fashion, Abra has built a solid foundation over the last four years. The brand’s aesthetic is based on his relationship with his sister and nostalgia for their childhood in the 2000s. “She was a tomboy, playing football, taekwondo and volleyball, and I was the biggest baby doll in town. I only wanted to wear pastel colours and little diamond earrings. And we were best friends,” he says. “We created such a weird fusion of very masculine things with feminine things.” In his work, this translates to oversized sports shorts covered in flowers, sneakers with tiny bows, or kitten heels punctuated with sharp spikes. “It’s that connection between masculinity and femininity. In a fun way.”
This Paris Fashion Week show is an inflection point for the Spanish designer, who wants to scale his business without losing the cool factor of being a cult brand through select concept store stockists. Revenues are currently modest — six figures in 2023 — but sales grew 96 per cent from 2022 to 2023 as the brand secured new buyers. Abra is now in 20 stores including Dover Street Market, Slam Jam and Ssense.
Finding a niche, developing a full label
Perez moved to Paris from Alicante 10 years ago to study fashion design at Institut Français de la Mode. Before he’d even finished his masters, he was tapped by Jacquemus to work freelance on shoe and accessory design from 2015 to 2016. The early co-sign placed Perez on the radar of other clients, including Jonathan Anderson, who first asked him to design shoes in 2019.
With such success working for other brands, he felt inspired to try for himself. “I wanted to show the world what I could do,” he says. “I felt I was wasting some of my [talent], in a way.” He started with a small collection of bags and feminine kitten heels that went up to size 45 (US 12) to make them more accessible for people of all genders (which he’s continued across all Abra footwear). “I did it for people who grew up like I did, who were never able to buy Miu Miu shoes,” he says.
The accessories sold well straight out of the gate — notably the brand’s spiky baguette bags and shoes, still a perennial bestseller. Abra was picked up by Dover Street Market London from the first season, a rare feat for a fledgling label.
Perez launched ready-to-wear last season at his off-schedule presentation, by popular demand. “My stores kept asking me, where are the clothes?” he says. “They wanted the looks from my campaigns, but the clothes weren’t mine, it was just styling!”
Many advised him to do T-shirts. Instead, he came out with a Barbie-inspired collection of Lycra, parachute dresses and lipstick earrings. “I thought, if we’re going to do it, let’s go for the full fantasy.” Stockists including Ssense picked up the ready-to-wear from its first season. (Ssense also has an exclusive of Abra menswear, with its layered three tops in one being a bestseller, the designer says.)
Perez works with a tight-knit team of seven, including his brother and sister, across his Paris office and Spanish atelier, where he still designs shoes for brands including JW Anderson, Jacquemus, Coperni, Rabanne, and Kent Curwen, alongside working on Abra. While juggling the two is a lot of work, it gives him the extra capital to invest in his business.
His own brand is quite different to those he designs for, he says. “Jonathan [Anderson] is so contemporary, it’s intellectual fashion. Jacquemus is very warm, feminine, sexy, earthy; which is also not me. I’m more in between, I would say. I like very fun things, but I don’t go too crazy. I like to make clothes that are really easy to wear.”
Exclusively sold, accessibly priced
While joining the Paris schedule has brought new buyer attention, Perez is conscious of the need to scale gradually to protect its relationships with retailers. “Normally we work with big concept stores. And they are really strict with exclusivities,” he says. “So we [typically] choose one per city, like in Paris we’re in the latest Dover Street Market. For a brand like this, you don’t want to be something you find in every corner, you know what I mean?”
While he wants this level of exclusivity in terms of wholesale, Abra’s positioning is in the contemporary bracket, more aligned with JW Anderson or Jacquemus, to make it accessible for his young consumer base. Shoes are maximum €500, while bags never go above €800. “Nothing will pass €1,000,” the designer says.
He’s learning each season, and rethinking certain design elements to make his pieces more affordable and wearable. For example, when Abra started out, the brand was focused on hardware (notably its spikes). Now, the designer has tried to reduce the hardware slightly, to make the bags lighter and reduce production and shipping costs while keeping prices competitive. He also works with local Spanish suppliers, rather than having to ship skins to Italy. That way, his manufacturers can just “go next door to the next factory and get another skin”.
Wearability is paramount to the success of the brand. And while the pieces may have a bold detail or a twist, they are centred on very wearable silhouettes and fabrics, like T-shirts, ballet flats, jersey and cotton. Perez avoids delicate accessories and clothes. “If I make something super conceptual, you wear it once or twice, or you’re afraid you’re going to ruin it. I don’t want people to buy my bags and treat them like they’re fragile because they’re not.” Abra uses materials that Perez says are “resistant to party girls”, like suede that looks good with wear and tear, and high-quality Spanish leather “you can even take to the beach”.
Abra’s direct-to-consumer business (managed by Perez’s brother) is growing, particularly in Spain, where the brand doesn’t yet have any wholesale stockists. With almost 35,000 followers on Instagram, Perez is something of a local influencer, which “has helped a lot” with raising awareness, he says. “The direct business is going so well. Before, I didn’t have enough money to buy my own stock, but little by little it’s getting better and better.”
After three sell-out pop-ups across Madrid and Paris, with “lines down the street”, Perez is keen to open his own store, akin to the concept spaces he loves around the world. “I really want to create a bit of community in Paris. If I have a shop, there’s going to be coffee. I want my people to hang out with us, you know?”
Eventually, the designer would love to have the support of a big luxury group to help him with materials, development and business advice. “There are limitations as a small brand,” he says. “I’m very proud of what I do. But it could go so much further if we have someone very smart advising us and helping us build a proper team.”
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