The brand's pieces are irreverent, blending streetwear with Brechtian theatricality and the conceptualism of avant-garde movements like Fluxus.
Basta speaks with Karlo, founder and creative director, about his journey so far, the conception of his latest collection, and the future of the brand.
By Iker veiga
Creative direction - Karlo Módenes ( @karlomodenes ) & Claudia Rodríguez (@claaaurod)
Photography - Sergio Simón (@52sergios)
Styling and Make-up and Hair - Francisco Munch (@franciscomunch)
Styling Assistant - Héctor Martín (@hctrmrtn)
Model - Ariel Sánchez (@a__riel___)
Creative Direction - Karlo Módenes ( @karlomodenes )
Direction assistant and casting - Claudia Rodríguez (@claaaurod)
Photography - Élia Lorente (@elia_lorente)
Styling and Make-up and Hair - Francisco Munch (@franciscomunch) & Ana de la Fuente (@anadelafuente.muah) & Noa Teixidó Castro (@vampire.ira) & Jose Esteban (@balero.ess)
Models - Emma Zetterwall (@kawcasian) & Bisous Violets (@bisous.violets) & Naw Berenguer (@nawberenguer) & Aitana Jacobs (@mx.tarantula)
Creative direction - Karlo Módenes ( @karlomodenes ) & Claudia Rodríguez (@claaaurod)
Photography - Sergio Simón (@52sergios)
Styling and Make-up and Hair - Francisco Munch (@franciscomunch)
Styling Assistant - Héctor Martín (@hctrmrtn)
Model - Ariel Sánchez (@a__riel___)
Karlo: Since I was very young, I have had a strong connection with the fashion world. At 12, I would spend my days sketching designs. I couldn’t wait to get home so I could draw, and that’s when I created what could be considered my first artbook and design book. Later on, I chose to pursue an arts-focused high school diploma, and once I finished, I moved to Madrid to study fashion design.
I think my fascination with tailoring stems from participating in my hometown's carnival—a celebration that is very meaningful to me. Each year, I felt an unstoppable urge to create and design new characters and make a different costume to wear. No one in my family had ever worked in fashion, but I remember spending entire nights sewing costumes with my mother for carnival. I suppose that was my first real contact with garment-making, which is now a core part of my creative work.
Basta: There's something very authentic about Karlo Módenes—a direct biographical link between the brand and yourself, even down to the name. Did you start the brand as a way to explore your own identity? How do you balance your authenticity and the theatricality you explore in your shows?
Karlo: I didn’t start the brand with a conscious intention of exploring my identity, but over time I’ve realized that’s exactly what’s happening. Without fully planning it, the brand has become a reflection of me. Karlo Módenes is 100% me: my values, my aesthetics, my way of expressing myself. As the brand evolves, I keep discovering new facets of who I am.
I see the theatricality in my shows not as a contradiction but as a natural extension of who I am. I’m already quite a performative person. Those who know me and who attended my first show say they see me in every character that walks down the runway. That’s just who I am: eccentric, extroverted, fun, and clearly inclined toward risk-taking.
Basta: You’ve mentioned performance art before, and you often speak about the influence the Fluxus group has had on your artistic vision. How did you discover their work? Why are you interested in exploring the intersection between happenings and fashion?
Karlo: My connection with Fluxus came about in a rather magical way: through the Vostell Museum, located very close to my grandparents’ and father's village. I discovered their work when visiting that museum in Extremadura at around 18 years old, and that’s when I immersed myself in their way of understanding art as ritual and a break from convention. I immediately felt a deep connection to their vision.
Since then, I’ve tried to revive those values and bring them into the present. Even though Fluxus originated in the '60s and '70s, their approach to creation as an active process still influences the artistic community around me—many of my closest friends, each in their own discipline, also draw inspiration from their work. But beyond influencing my projects, Fluxus has become a kind of life philosophy, my way of existing in the world.
Basta: What other artists and/or designers inspire you?
Karlo: I’m mostly inspired by the people around me: my friends, collaborators, and artists I discover online. I think there’s so much talent in everyday life, in emerging voices that aren’t always in the media spotlight.
But if I had to name one designer who has especially impacted me, it would be Elsa Schiaparelli. I think she was a very “real” figure—way ahead of her time. All her friends were part of the avant-garde, and she knew how to incorporate that world into her fashion vision. I’m inspired by her ability to dialogue with other disciplines, her boldness, and of course, the fact that she was a woman in a time when that came with added challenges.
Outside of fashion and the visual arts, I also find a lot of inspiration in cumbia singers. There’s so much expressiveness, popular force, and an aesthetic that really stimulates me creatively in that music genre.
Basta: Let’s focus more on the “Who Is the Killer?” collection. How did the concept come about?
Karlo: I’ve always loved true crime. I’m fascinated by the fact that these are real stories, often told without filters in TV shows, films, or documentaries. I’m struck by how they are narrated in such detailed ways—with arguments, evidence, and reconstructions. But even more so, I’m intrigued by the public’s morbid curiosity, this collective desire to know, to see. It’s wild and bizarre that it becomes entertainment.
With “Who Is the Killer?” I wanted to explore that tension between darkness and popularity, between crime and spectacle—bringing it even into a more everyday or comedic space, almost like a board game, like Clue. From the moment I proposed the concept to the team, it felt ideal for our debut: it had mystery, characters, aesthetics, narrative… It allowed us to introduce key elements of our textile universe like trench coats and tailoring, and combine them with theatricality, play, and text. Everything fit just right.
Photo courtesy of Madrid Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week
Model - Héctor Fuertes (@hectorfuertes)
Karlo: Even if it’s not obvious, many of the main characters were portrayed by close friends. They were present from the very start of the process and experienced the development of the collection almost from the inside. Naturally, as I was designing each character, I found myself doing it with them in mind—their personalities, gestures, energy. So, the casting was largely organic.
From there, we did a lot of characterization work to ensure everyone visually matched their role. Let’s not forget this all happened within a fashion show format at Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week, and our goal was to fill the runway with 16 or 17 people who genuinely looked like murder suspects.
The makeup and styling team did an incredible job creating that atmosphere. The models in my shows aren’t just bodies wearing clothes: they’re performers, characters who activate the concept and help tell the story. Set design, lighting, costume—all of it must function as one mechanism to bring the narrative experience, which defines how I understand fashion, to life.
Basta: About one of the potential killers... I’m surprised such an important role could fall on the “simplest” garment in the collection—that all the focus and narrative weight ends up on a T-shirt. How did you come up with the idea for that to be the final clue, and why a T-shirt?
Karlo: Every character in the collection could have been the killer. Each one had little hints or details that created doubt and confusion, precisely to make the game more intriguing and keep the audience in suspense. But the killer as a character is more ethereal, more symbolic—it’s the one in the blue checkered dress.
The character you’re referring to specifically is the NPC—a “non-playable character,” a secondary figure who isn’t actively part of the narrative but, because of that, became the center of suspicion. That was intentional: giving that character the T-shirt, such a simple garment, was a way of subverting the logic of the show.
We wanted to prove that a T-shirt could carry as much conceptual weight as a garment we spent months crafting in the studio. It was a way of valuing not just the show's finale but also everything related to performance art, symbolism, and the importance of small gestures. The tiniest action—a T-shirt—could, in the end, be the decisive clue.
Basta: I see that you always pay attention to audience interaction, and you refer to the show as a “game.” You require the viewer to pay close attention. It’s a way of inviting the audience to participate in the spectacle. Do you see fashion as something that should be more active and accessible?
Karlo: Yes, I think fashion shouldn’t be limited to passive observation. I want the viewer to engage with what they see—to interpret, question, even play with it. I like building narratives that demand a certain level of attention because that also creates a deeper connection to the concept.
I try to open up my concepts to the audience by building layers of meaning into my shows and collections—from the music and staging to the characters, symbols, and visual clues. Everything is designed so that the experience is as active as possible, like an invitation to discover and complete the message.
Basta: What do you think is missing in Spain’s art and fashion scene today? And what do you think we excel at?
Karlo: I think Spain lacks structural support and visibility for emerging fashion. There’s a lot of talent, but it’s often hard to find stable platforms to showcase and fund it. I also feel there’s some resistance to backing bolder or more unconventional proposals.
That said, I also think we’re in a moment of great energy. There’s a generation of designers, artists, and collectives who are carving out powerful paths with strong identities and no fear of blending disciplines. That’s where we really shine: in our ability to experiment, to create discourse, and to be honest in our creative process.
Creative direction - Karlo Módenes ( @karlomodenes ) & Claudia Rodríguez (@claaaurod)
Photography - Sergio Simón (@52sergios)
Styling and Make-up and Hair - Francisco Munch (@franciscomunch)
Styling Assistant - Héctor Martín (@hctrmrtn)
Model - Ariel Sánchez (@a__riel___)
Karlo: Balancing artistic and commercial aspects is something I’m learning to manage with each collection. Karlo Módenes started from a very artistic, performative place—but I’m also aware of the need to build a sustainable brand for the long term.
In that sense, I’m interested in developing products that retain the brand’s conceptual and aesthetic identity but can also fit into the market. It’s not about sacrificing the narrative but translating it into different formats—from sculptural one-off pieces to more functional garments that still tell a story.
Basta: How do you see KM’s future? What can we expect from the brand?
Karlo: We’re working on our second collection—an intense but enriching process. We’re expanding the types of garments we make, which is a significant creative and technical challenge. But more than that, we feel it’s time to level up and take everything we do to a new stage.
Looking ahead, we’ll continue exploring performance art, which is one of our foundational pillars. But we’ll also delve deeper into the other values that define our creative universe. We want to keep discovering and solidifying our true identity as a brand—from an increasingly clear, mature, and personal place.
Photo courtesy of Madrid Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week
Model - Janina Tati (@janina_tati)
Creative direction - Karlo Módenes ( @karlomodenes ) & Claudia Rodríguez (@claaaurod)
Photography - Sergio Simón (@52sergios)
Styling and Make-up and Hair - Francisco Munch (@franciscomunch)
Styling Assistant - Héctor Martín (@hctrmrtn)
Model - Ariel Sánchez (@a__riel___)
Photo courtesy of Madrid Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week
Model - Ririko Ishizuka (@ririkoishizuka)
Credits
Creative direction - Karlo Módenes ( @karlomodenes ) & Claudia Rodríguez (@claaaurod)
Photography - Sergio Simón (@52sergios)
Styling and Make-up and Hair - Francisco Munch (@franciscomunch)
Styling Assistant - Héctor Martín (@hctrmrtn)
Model - Ariel Sánchez (@a__riel___)
Creative direction - Karlo Módenes ( @karlomodenes ) & Claudia Rodríguez (@claaaurod)
Photography - Sergio Simón (@52sergios)
Styling and Make-up and Hair - Francisco Munch (@franciscomunch)
Styling Assistant - Héctor Martín (@hctrmrtn)
Model - Ariel Sánchez (@a__riel___)
Photo courtesy of Madrid Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week
Model - Musidora (@musidor4)
Creative direction - Karlo Módenes ( @karlomodenes ) & Claudia Rodríguez (@claaaurod)
Photography - Sergio Simón (@52sergios)
Styling and Make-up and Hair - Francisco Munch (@franciscomunch)
Styling Assistant - Héctor Martín (@hctrmrtn)
Model - Ariel Sánchez (@a__riel___)
Interview by Iker Veiga for Basta Magazine
Instagram - @karlomodenes
Web - https://karlomodenes.com/