The Man Behind the Scenes Dressing the 'Spanish Beyoncé'

Gustavo Adolfo Tarí's face may not grace fashion magazines, nor his name headline news, but his skilled hands have crafted some of the most spectacular and recognizable outfits for Shakira, Rosalía, Karol G, Bad Gyal, and Nathy Peluso. His needlework has earned him industry acclaim, making him a favorite among costume designers and stylists for dressing celebrities at concerts, editorials, and red carpets. Recently, Melody, Spain's Eurovision representative, has joined this illustrious list.

Hailing from a family of artisans in Torrellano, Elche, Gustavo transitioned from working in film tailoring while creating his own collections to founding his costume design company in 2013 in Barcelona. Stylists flock to rent his prized garments or place orders. One of his most talked-about pieces was the mirrored mini-dress worn by Amaia to perform 'Love on the Brain' by Rihanna on 'Operación Triunfo'. It was deemed her best outfit, with the Alicante designer's work compared to that of the great Paco Rabanne.

A celebrated dress that has been overshadowed in the public imagination by Melody's Eurovision styling. In an interview with this newspaper, Tarí expressed his excitement about dressing the Spanish representative after passing RTVE's selection. "I started collaborating with her at the Benidorm Fest, then made clothes for some events and the music video." A milestone considering it's the first time for the international contest that a "costume and show designer is chosen, whereas in previous years it was always fashion. And truly, this is a grand show."

Achieving the final result required teamwork. "I make a proposal, and then there's an artistic director who has to refine it, as they know how the visuals, the staging, everything will be. Then Melody, of course, and also her brother, who is her manager, and the stylist, Almudena Ruiz. The cool thing for me about this project," he adds, "is that I've managed to make everyone happy. I've achieved what I wanted, the artistic director has what they want, as do Melody and Almudena."

The performance styling is summarized in two parts. The first dress is a silk and velvet design with black jet crystal inlays, inspired by "a classic diva, something more avant-garde due to the silhouette." The piece is accompanied by a wide-brimmed Cordovan hat with crystals, though the spotlight is on the four-meter-long by three-meter-wide train, "in which," the artisan explains, "I used a hundred meters of organdy." A train that caused some headaches: "When I had half, having used 50 meters already purchased, another 50 meters were needed. And then, of course, it was a drama because we couldn't find it anywhere until we found a shop in Seville that had it from the same manufacturer. Otherwise, the tone changes. We couldn't use two different blacks. A coincidence that it had to come from Melody's homeland," Tarí comments.

The second part, inspired by "a current diva, who could be our Beyoncé, our diva from here," focuses on a silver bodysuit entirely hand-embroidered, fringe by fringe, stone by stone. About 15,000 in total, sewn by himself. "Imagine, I spent eleven days with the bodysuit in Spain and then five days in Basel. While she was performing, I kept sewing to make the final touches."

Despite the ordeal with the train and the bodysuit, the greatest challenge was technically ensuring that "the black dress could be removed in no time, with those shoulder pads, those hips... It's complicated, with all those shapes, to take off a dress so quickly." Something he has done for other artists. "If you look at Shakira's tour, the first look she wears, by Versace, is all held together with magnets that we've sewn. But these are magnets that, in Melody's case, need to be strong enough to hold but also weak enough to open quickly."

Despite the hard work, he was aware that criticism would come. "They criticized Chanel, who was impeccable. She looked incredible," he assures, praising Palomo Spain's design. "Everyone can have an opinion, but if you know even a little about costumes, you know there's a lot of work behind this," he says, pointing out some comments, one of them "in an article from a very famous magazine."