A women’s shirtmaking workshop opened in Barcelona in 1978. Nearly half a century later the same name turns over 17 million euros a year and shows on the city’s main fashion platform.
Covering Barcelona means covering what gets made here, and this label earns its article. With qualifications, because the distance between a brand’s own story and the trade press record is usually where the interesting part sits.
Simorra basics
Founded 1978 by Javier Simorra · 2021 revenue 17 million euros · Network 30 stores and 30 concessions
In Barcelona Turó Parc, Rosselló, L’Illa Diagonal and Rambla de Catalunya 72 · Head office Carrer de Còrsega, 222
Almost fifty years covers several distinct lives inside one label.
One point of accuracy: the brand’s own websites disagree on when the Dimas family arrived. The Spanish site says 2016, the Mexican one 2006. I take the first, being the home market.
The shirtmaking workshop behind all of it
Javier Simorra learned the trade at home. His father worked as a Barcelona couturier with his own bespoke tailoring workshop, and that background produced the decision in 1978 to build a label joining that level of finish with a production method closer to ready-to-wear.
It explains why he started with women’s shirts rather than anything else. A shirt exposes the pattern more than any other garment, and it is still the first thing I pick up in one of their stores.
International expansion followed in 1998. The head office remains at Carrer de Còrsega, 222, with over forty people working there, a few blocks from the galleries you can visit for free.
Finding the label is straightforward once you know the addresses, since the network runs wider than street presence suggests.
| Where | What it is | Detail |
|---|---|---|
| Turó Parc | Own store | The longest-running in the city |
| Rambla de Catalunya, 72 | Own store | Opened 2023, prime retail |
| Carrer Rosselló | Own store | Eixample, near head office |
| L’Illa Diagonal | Own store | Shopping centre, longer hours |
| Sant Cugat | Own store | Outside the city |
| El Corte Inglés Plaça Catalunya | Concession | One of 30 across Spain |
What separates the clothes from chain retail
Pattern and fabric, in that order. Simorra describes its work as architectural design, which in practice means defined structures and constructed volumes rather than flat garments.
Its 080 Barcelona Fashion collections have featured pleated nappa leather imitating fish scales, jacquards with plant reliefs, handcrafted organza worked in three dimensions and iridescent shell-like fabrics. None of that comes off a standard catalogue.
The practical difference is something you handle in store. Well-resolved darts and fabric with body register in the hand before the label does, the same test I use on produce at the markets where I shop.
The sustainability pitch, checked
This section needs care, because the label positions itself against fast consumption and that claim deserves testing.
Documented: worked fabrics, an owned network of 8 outlets extending the commercial life of stock, and collections built for several generations, which points towards longevity rather than turnover.
The qualifier: according to Modaes, a trade publication covering the sector, the company keeps less than half its production in Spain and works with suppliers in China, Turkey and Pakistan. It designs in Barcelona and manufactures substantially elsewhere, like most of the industry.
On the record
- Design and head office in Barcelona since 1978
- Technical and handcrafted fabrics in collection
- Eight outlets extending stock life
- Consistent presence at 080 Barcelona Fashion
- A company structure, not a small atelier
Worth qualifying
- Under half of production sits in Spain
- Suppliers in China, Turkey and Pakistan
- No public traceability certification
- Contradictory dates across its own sites
- High prices with no published cost breakdown
Nothing in the right column makes the brand a problem. It tells you what you are buying: Catalan design with international production, which is not the same as local manufacturing.
What it costs and when buying makes sense
This is design-led fashion and it does not compete with chains on price. A garment costs several times its high street equivalent, which is the trade-off for a 47-year-old label working fabrics at this level.
The gap narrows at the 8 outlet stores across Spain, including the one at Sant Quirze, where campaigns apply further discounts on already reduced prices.
My rule for this kind of purchase is simple: it works on wardrobe staples you will wear for years, not on the seasonal piece. The same logic I apply to permanent jewellery, where cheap steel outlasts expensive silver.
The month you walk in changes the price of the identical garment substantially.
Their outlets have run extra reductions on already reduced prices during specific July campaigns. For a wardrobe staple, that is the window.
4 parts of the story I do not buy
That it proves Barcelona still manufactures. Barcelona designs, and that alone carries weight. Manufacturing is substantially offshore, and saying so takes nothing away from the rest.
Cost-per-wear as an answer to everything. It holds if you genuinely wear the garment for a decade. It collapses if you buy on impulse in the sales.
The line about fabric as a vehicle for emotion. That is the tagline and it appears in every press release. The clothes stand up without it.
Collection names as proof of roots. Arrels and Texere evoke origin and weaving, but a name is not a supply chain.
How to read a label before buying it
Check head office against factory. They are different things and rarely the same country.
Handle the fabric. Fastest test available and it needs no fashion knowledge.
Look for an outlet network. A brand giving stock a second commercial life differs meaningfully from one destroying surplus.
Find the revenue figure. A 17-million-euro company is not an artisan workshop, and knowing that calibrates the messaging. Same filter I use to separate a real bodega from a themed bar.
The bulk of the business runs through multi-brand stockists rather than own-name stores. That explains why the label appears rarely on the street and often inside other people’s shops.
Simorra has designed in Barcelona for 47 years. That much is true and it counts, whatever the care label says.
Know another Catalan label worth writing about? I am interested in the ones making things carefully and the ones that have been here for decades. Message me on Instagram @barcelonainspira.
Keep exploring Barcelona with me
More corners and plans I write about here: the facts behind the Gothic Quarter, where to eat well and cheap, and the full run of Catalan brands, culture and plans.
Who founded Simorra and when
Javier Simorra founded it in Barcelona in 1978 as a workshop specialising in women’s shirtmaking. He learned the trade from his father, a Barcelona couturier who made bespoke suits. International expansion began in 1998 and the Dimas family joined the creative direction in 2016.
Where can you buy Simorra in Barcelona
Four stores across the city, at Turó Parc, Carrer Rosselló, the L’Illa Diagonal shopping centre and Rambla de Catalunya 72, plus one in Sant Cugat. There is also a concession inside El Corte Inglés at Plaça Catalunya, and the brand sells online.
How much revenue does Simorra generate
It closed 2021 with 17 million euros according to figures published by trade outlet Modaes, already above pre-pandemic levels. The company runs around 30 stores, 30 El Corte Inglés concessions, 8 outlets and roughly 200 multi-brand stockists worldwide.
Where are Simorra clothes manufactured
Design happens in Barcelona, where the company is headquartered on Carrer de Còrsega. Production is spread out, and according to Modaes the company keeps less than half its manufacturing in Spain, working with suppliers in China, Turkey and Pakistan among others.
Is Simorra expensive
It is design-led fashion with worked fabrics, sitting in the upper prêt-à-porter bracket rather than competing on price with chains. Eight outlet stores across Spain and seasonal sale campaigns are where the gap narrows considerably against high street pricing.
Where can you see Simorra on the runway
The label shows every season at 080 Barcelona Fashion, the Catalan fashion platform, and has also presented at Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Madrid. The 080 website publishes each collection description alongside runway images, which is the easiest way to follow it.
