Have you ever dreamed of styling for a fashion magazine? Discover how Natalia Bengoechea became one of Spain’s most influential fashion managers and follow her journey to becoming the fashion director of S Moda, the magazine of El País newspaper.
You might not have heard much about her because she’s discreet, shy, and stays away from the media, but she was the art director for the VOGUE covers featuring Naomi Campbell and Kim Kardashian in Spain. Now she sounds more familiar, right?
When we spoke with her and mentioned we wanted to know how her love story with magazines began, she was very candid and told us everything. She wanted to be a fashion stylist!
Over 20 years ago, she was certain her vocation was to work in magazines but didn’t know how to achieve it. So, she started studying at the “Centro Superior de Diseño de Moda” in Madrid. Back then, there were no university degrees or specialized courses like the “Master in Fashion. Communication and Management” at ESCO in Granada.
She interned at Vanidad magazine and worked there for four years “for the love of art.” She learned a lot and confirmed her passion for fashion magazines, having to take on other jobs to make a living and turn her vocation into her profession. It didn’t take long for Wallpaper and other New York magazines with fashion sections to recruit her. She also collaborated with some Asian magazines and started working remotely for Spain with El Mundo magazine and Woman magazine for their covers and main editorials. Her dream came true.
She spent several years fully immersed in these collaborations until June 2000, when Yolanda Sacristán was appointed director of VOGUE Spain and decided to make a radical change to the magazine by introducing international top models, with Natalia acting as a liaison and collaborating on the covers from NY. Incredible, isn’t it?
In 2001, after the attacks in New York, she made a very important decision: to return to Europe, specifically to Paris, where she would go behind the scenes and cover all the major fashion shows of PFW. She opened new markets, contacted British VOGUE, and established truly influential contacts, as important as Anna Harvey (Lady Di’s stylist). What a marvel to mingle with the pinnacle of the fashion world!
If we think about it, Natalia was knowledgeable and a disseminator of absolutely all upcoming trends in Paris. Who could speak about what was really in or out at that time? VOGUE Spain was clear and incorporated her into their team to work for three years as the trendsetter of the moment.
In May 2005, Charo Izquierdo founded Yo Dona and called Natalia to launch a Saturday magazine that would be unique, incomparable, without competition, and, of course, the representative at all levels of fashion and women in Spain, becoming her right-hand woman since then.
In 2011, S Moda was launched, which, with the giant Condé Nast, joined El País newspaper and energized content through social media, including low-cost fashion for the first time in a fashion magazine. Perhaps from this moment, fashion became indisputably the quintessential female reading and gained fashionista followers who consumed at least two different publications per month.
Although you might already be amazed by this lightning summary of Natalia Bengoechea’s professional life, there’s still an important change you should know about that has marked her career from 2015 to the present. S Moda decided to become independent and incorporate her as fashion director with production entirely “made in Spain.” In short, to carry out styling, artistic direction, photography, wardrobe, makeup… absolutely everything created and produced in Spain.
Congratulations on your perseverance and good work, Natalia Bengoechea! We will continue learning from you because it’s clear that if you want something, you just have to go for it. It takes a lot of effort, sleepless nights, and loving what you do.
If you want to see and learn from her work, you can follow her personal editorials in S Moda.
Note: All photographs have been provided by Natalia Bengoechea for the fashion TV program Taranteologie of La Guía de Moda, presented by Esther Filantrópica.
