It is one of the most emblematic places of Madrid, the Broadway of this city. It’s Gran Via, and this year is celebrating it’s 100th birthday. Although its official birthdate is on April 4, during all 2010 Madrid is celebrating a lot of events commemorating the Gran Via.

It is the street that never sleeps. A frantic way. A street constantly moving. Gran Via offers a whole world of opportunities. In its two kilometers, you can take a coffee, eat in any restaurant, enjoy the best musicals, theatres, cinemas, coffee shops and get lost in its amazing stores or simply take a picture in some of its mythical builings like the Capitol, at Callao square and the famous corner of Schweppes, one of the untouchable advertising icons of the capital of Spain.

Gran Via has been also the stage chosen by several spanish directors to shoot some sequences of their movies, like Alejandro Amenabar with Abre los Ojos, or Santiago Segura, hanging out from a modernist building on El dia de la bestia. Gran Via was the first witness of the movida madrilena, a famous social movement in the 80′s.

Because of its anniversary it has been celebrating various concerts: El Sueno de Morfeo, Nek, Shanon Corr, Georgina, Carlos Baute and Marta Sanchez or Alex Ubago have been the ones who rattled the young people of Madrid in an exceptional day, because, only for one day, the traffic was closed and all of us could walk through the roadway. Something unique and exceptional in a street full of life.

The street style are really diverse, because there are looks for every kind of taste. From stylist young people dressed with the current season trends like flower printed dresses, navy shirts or mini-shorts with spot tights, to the most punk styles with leggings, leather jackets and hats. A whole universe of fashion, where everyone dare with anything. And you, do you want to come to Gran Via?

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And me with a hat!Madrid seems like an oven. We’re in June and no one can walk comfortable through the streets without melting down. Termometers start being close to 30 Celsius degrees. Lucky us, we don’t know how are 40 degrees yet, this fact is terrible just thinking about how to wear. Everyday I wake up to go to the University, and I think what can I wear to avoid arriving home stressed because of the hot weather.

In this moment, I don’t care about my look. I only see a clear fact: me and my hat to the end of the world. The hat is the most comfortable accessory for these summer days, also because I try to avoid any potential sunstroke on my long way to the University. At the same time, you’re avoiding the rays of the sun on the head, which produce headache, and you feel more fresh.

The point is how to combine it.

The choice could be a fine blouse, summer likely, to be fresh and comfortable at the same time. Soft blouse, warm and pastel colours, to combine with shorts in pink or mallow tones. And we must have a thin leather belt.

If we don’t want a blouse we can choose a top. For the vintage lovers this combination would be their favourite, the same like me. White crude top, necklace of your choice, in this look it’s better to be tiny more than opened. We combine it with a high waist shorts and printed flowers and we’ll have a perfect look.

Just add a little handbag complemented with several accessories, bracelet or necklaces, to have a fresh idea.

If I choose a top but I prefer something larger, to avoid short measures, sometimes I prefer a black pirate pants and a top, spotted or mini-flowers printed. To all of this I add a pretty vintage glasses and I get my look for other fresher days.

Even though, for the cooler days, specially at night, we’ll have to think in covering with a little jacket or, even better, with a flower printed jacket. We can combine it with high waist shorts, washed like blue and with a little top and a gorgeous necklace.

Do not forget giving an original touch to our tights and our feet too, with a beige colour peep toes.

At last, if we’re tired of the hat, we can forget it. Take a good number of globes and think fresh. I tested it but I didn’t succeed, but if anyone of you got it, tell us how you did. I wish to know this answer!

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The former traditions of Spain are famous because of this fact… they’re former, specially in MadridOnce per year, on San Isidro day, we recover our most traditional style, and we dress up of chulapos and chulapas, the typical former dress of the city. It is one of the funniest weekends I have with my friends, dressed like a long time ago.

Retro or vintage styles are a simple photocopies of this. A transfer badly printed on us. We are the real chulapas from Madrid, and on San Isidro we are seen in the streets like our great-grandmothers did in the past, those who had a style. But it isn’t easy wearing a costume like that. Everything has a trick. There are variations on the look of a chulapa from Madrid.

The best costumes are those made for the event, like everything. Some time ago, me and my friends we decided making a custom according to our measures, because we don’t only wear it on San Isidro’s day, in the half of May, but on the Verbena de La Paloma, celebrated on August 15th, as well.

It is hopeless to think to the times when we were young and our mothers dressed us with this typical costumes. Nowadays, the story has changed, and for the best. Now we continue wearing them, but we decide our own party. In special, for La Paloma holidays, where there’s not a lot of people that meet in Madrid on summer because it’s very hot, and they go out to the streets to celebrate the party.

But, what is a chulapa from Madrid costume made of? Very easy. It is a set made of a tight spot skirt, designed to define the shape. It looks amazing. Then, we add a traditional scarf on the head, but knotted at the neck. White always, combined with a dress in red and white. A white blouse must be. And as a final detail: a red or white flower in the head.

But anybody thinks that this is reserved to the elderly… in a short time, being dressed of chulapa from Madrid will be the new trend. You will see, time to time. Designer Maria Escote has bet for this costumes at the Cibeles Fashion Week. Give out any of our costumes to Lady GaGa, you’ll see how she wear it. At the moment, I’m dressed with it and I’m going to dance a chotis (popular dance) and the GaGa’s made famous single Telephone at the same time. Nobody can say we don’t have art!

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My favourite area in Madrid is Fuencarral street. My whole world is there: shopping, pleasant surroundings, good stores, the best clothes, the latest styles, the most advanced trends, and the best friends… who are lucky to live in that zone, in old houses adapted to the top styles nowadays.

When I enter to Fuencarral street from Gran Via, another of the most special streets in Madrid, it’s like entering into a new world in another city. Beside it’s Chueca, slightly above it’s Tribunal, and if you continue walking thru, you will find Malasana. Three neighbourhoods where life is different, music changes, the bars and the atmosphere are as cosmopolitan as you could imagine.

Lucky me, Fuencarral had just been set only for pedestrians, and now you don’t have to walk through the little sidewalk, where on rush days you had to walk dodging everyone. The street ever had looked as beautiful as now…

At the moment, everything looks more beautiful. With this change, the stores seems as new, and the few cafes or restaurants that are at the beginning of the street are now more visible. But if you wish to take a coffee or something like that, after a good shopping evening, I recommend you going to Malasana (if you like an offhand plan) or going to Chueca (if you are looking for a modern plan).

After visiting the stores of this street, you have to stop at Mercado de Fuencarral. At the moment, it’s different from the past, but there are a lot of stores inside, offering the trendiest clothes of the new season. You can find everything: complements, T shirts, dresses, sweatshirts… and shoes! There are special reserved spaces with all the models.

Just before the market, walking up from Gran Via, we have a little square where we can take a coffee after a hard shopping evening. But, in the rush days, it’s like an impossible mission.

Your clothing style doesn’t mind at all. Fuencarral has from Hip Hop clothes and japanese trends, passing through laylike fashion, that I personally love, Indie style (perfect for the concerts I use to go), and if you want to dress more stylish, you can, because there is no one ruling style, everything is mixed.

I remember have seen the most striking styles in this street. My favourite was a woman with pink dyed hair who looked good with her dressing style. She looked very good. I don’t know how she did yet. A mistery.

That’s the magic of Fuencarral, where everyone is unique and special. You have to go!

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A very busy but wonderful day begins in Madrid, we can expect many surprises: walks, partying, music, shopping. The capital of Spain has many neighborhoods, areas and secret corners, worthy of being mentioned.My journey begins with a ride in the Salamanca district, one of the most chic of Madrid that reminds me of the magic Notting Hill district of London. I was attracted by its streets, the colors of the houses, without forgetting the sobriety of London. Notting Hill is one of the most fashionable districts of London, famous for its Carnival, for its boutiques, its beautiful Victorian houses, restaurants and its famous Portobello Road market, the favorite of Londoners. Notting Hill, which is a neighborhood where many celebrities have moved, has always been a party place, filled with bars and clubs.

From there I go to Madrid’s Golden Mile, the shopping hub of the most exclusive shops and where the smallest thing can become the most expensive. Without doubt, my favorite hobby. Here you breathe a good but select atmosphere. An area that brings me one of my best memories of Paris, in particular La Rue Faubourg Saint Honore in Paris and the Champs Elysees. Where glamour is untouchable, it is just in the air. Along its two kilometers there are shops of fashion brands such as Chanel, Christian Dior, Jean Paul Gaultier, Louis Vuitton, Hermes, Salvatore Ferragamo, Yves Saint Laurent… The rich and famous buy their clothes and accessories there.

And after a day of walking and shopping, what better choice than a fun time. Where? In the Latina area, for drinks and beers. An area with lots of atmosphere and a concentration of young people, ideal for canas y tapas, the most typical Spanish leisure pursuit, nothing else in the world compares to it. I sit on a terrace and relax listening to classical music; my mind takes me to the Latin Quarter of Paris. Located a few meters from Notre Dame and across the Seine river, it is one of Paris busiest places especially in the evening. In the small streets and alleys there are bars and restaurants from all over the world and for all budgets, not to mention the traditional pubs in the Parisian fashion style.

Walking the streets of Madrid, I realize that every corner has different bands and genders, representative of all cultures and ideas.
And to top off a fantastic day of leisure I go to Gran Via, full of noise, people, cars… the very center of Madrid. I have some theater tickets to see the musical Chicago.

It reminds me of the last time I saw a musical. It was on Broadway, the wide avenue that runs along the entire island of Manhattan in New York to see the great spectacle of Mamma Mia!

I leave the wonderful musical and the noise continues at downtown. Madrid never sleeps.

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