Has lived through the world.Has traveled the other medium.Has done business in the two parties.But Luis Negri (Argentina, 53 years) says that the decision to settle in Madrid comes out directly from the heart."Because there is no place to live like Madrid," he has bright eyes, this creator of luxury bags today, sitting at a coffee in a fluffic armchair of the bright central courtyard of the Palace Hotel.It will have only four years in the capital, but it is clear that it has been done with the best of it.
Negri's is an unusual life that has given as fruit an unusual profession of artisan roots.Born near Dusseldorf, Germany, where his father came to carry out practices with a prestigious doctor, with nine months he returned to Argentina from his parents."Today I am already a bit of all sides," this quiet and talkative man smiles, who says that one of the things he likes most about his life and his trade is "to meet new people and learn from her": "Some melife has changed, allows me to absorb things and learn a vision outside of myself ".
What really changed life was a profession that chose.Luis Negri is Malletier, that is, teacher and trunks manufacturer.He studied economics, but he knew it was only the basis for something else."As a child I learned to play the violin and still study it," he explains.The music was very present at home: his brother is a professional violinist.And when he studied, in a casual way, inspiration came.“In the typical boys conversations of 17, 18 years of‘ Let's see how I can look for my life ’.My brother had come from Paris to study and brought a French case.In Argentina there was nothing like that and he told me why he didn't.I started there ".The thing did not happen badly, but it remained in an experiment.But then he decided to follow his brother, who was in a professional conservatory in Lübeck, Germany.“I went there with 22, 23 years.He did not speak German.Looking for my life, because they didn't give me work anywhere, I said: ‘I'm going to make a violin case".He began to teach Spanish to survive and with a handful of dollars turned into German frames made a case.It took more than three months because he made all the molds with his own hands and the textile was picked up with a family sewing machine.A student from the conservatory bought it and, although well paid, he did not stop giving him some penalty.“I looked at the tickets and my baby who left with him...I rearmed and thought about investing it and doing two more, "he recalls.
Those two samples that he made with what he won managed to place them in a prestigious London store thanks to a conservatory contact.“In two weeks they called me, that they had sold one to an Arab client for 3.000 euros.Suddenly it was rich!With that money I bought my first industrial sewing machine and I already put my little workshop, "he explains."All this background is the one that makes you a professional today, that is, to dominate the materials you work with".
Negri account that would have "loved to work with a professional manufacturer"."But I had to experience everything alone".That made him open a first workshop in Germany, go through Valencia, return to his native Argentina, reside a time in Cremona (Italy) - of the Stradivarius -, live a season in Vigo...until set in Madrid."I'm sorry I didn't know Spain before," he acknowledges.It was in Buenos Aires when the first steps in fashion arrived: his cases for converted violins on wine bottles.From there came the orders and the idea of converting them into bags.
“In the violin case, the star is the violin.But the bag itself is magical.Allows creative freedom without limits, "he explains.Theirs are small boxes, micromaleins, lined with the most sumptuous skins coming from all over the world and with details such as a mirror inside the lid, very careful hardware or golden corners.Their careful baulettos, as they call them, are light, weigh only 400 grams (although it also manufactures a larger format) and in them it is necessary.Prices range from 475 to more than 8.500 euros.He, more than for seasons, has preferred to create for themes, which gives him more creative freedom."The obligation to make collections lies quality and imagination, lack depth," he says.The next one, for example, will be based on Louis XIV, with light to get out of this darkness: "I need feathers, brightness, red, gold, white".Negri has three children of 15, 14 and seven years of whom the older wants to follow their steps, although he sees them more aimed "to management or creativity"."But not to crafts: that will die with me".
When his business was consolidated, the Argentine decided to open a store in Claudio Coello, near Ortega and Gasset, with a craft factory below where he organized workshops with friends and clients.That was at the end of 2017.In March 2020, as the contract expired and the pandemic stalked, decided to close it.In these months he has seen that the business online settled, that people lost their fear of buying luxury.But he already has his eye on a couple of premises to reopen, "although you have to wait for the right moment".That is why for now he has offices in the tables and a ship in Alcorcón that serves him “as a workshop, room, office...".In addition, in his plans of the next five years he foresees stores in London or New York with local partners. Pero su base seguiría en Madrid: “Es difícil encontrar un sitio mejor para vivir".
