Adorable Story #5: an interview with Fosca Bertran
We fly to the beautiful Balearic Islands to learn more about Ibiza in the 70s and the Bertran family
Adorable Times interviews Fosca Bertran
Q: Dear Fosca, I am Alberto from Milan and I am the curator of @adorabletimes . Our paths crossed over Instagram because I recently posted a beautiful poolside photo by Slim Aarons taken in Ibiza and, amazingly, you noticed that you are in it! Can you tell our readers more about this photo? Where was it taken?
Fosca Bertran: This was my parents house in Roca Llisa, Ibiza, on the Balearic Islands, in Spain. At the time, my parents' house was the largest private house in the Island.
We must consider that Ibiza in the 70s was very different from what it is now: the Island was much less crowded and, even if it may seems impossible now, at the time there were absolutely no social layers... high class people, VIPs and even royalties would mix with everybody else on the island and this was completely normal. It is obviously very different now.
Q: How did your parents meet Slim Aarons?
FB: I was ten years old at the time and I remember that somebody called my father over the phone on behalf of an English or American magazine because Slim Aarons wanted to take some shoots at our house and so they arranged for Slim Aarons to visit us soon after that phone call.
Q: Was the photoshoot staged by Slim Aarons?
FB: No, nothing was planned in the photoshoot, but when Slim Aarons arrived both me, my mum and my sister Fiona were wearing in pink. It was just a coincidence. Once he saw us, Slim Aarons liked us so much wearing pink — also because of the matching pink Bougainvillea we had at the time in our garden — and so he started shooting us around the house.
Nothing was prepared, nothing was staged: I was playing with my dog Camilla, I remember, and after the photoshoot Slim Aarons eventually had lunch with us at our house!
Q: That's wonderful Fosca! Can you tell us a bit more about your parents?
FB: My father was Joaquin Bertran from Barcelona and my mother was Vera Spezia from Milan, his second wife. This house was our summer house but also the house were my parents would stay together out of the big city crowds. My father bought that house in the 50s when Ibiza was absolutely not known on the world scene: this house was originally an old farm-house on Roca Llisa, near a golf course. He also bought a plot of land nearby and added the swimming pool that you can see on Slim Aarons’ photo.
Q: What are your memories of Ibiza at the time?
FB: This was the house were my parents could live together, it was the house of their love, at the beginning of their relationship. We moved there when I was 8 and we lived there for 4 years. At the time I went to a French school that my mother opened on the island: it was the first French School in Ibiza and in the 70s there were not many schools on the island at all!
Q: What happened after those four years in Ibiza?
FB: My parents eventually got married and we moved to Paris: we moved a lot in those years and we lived a bit of a nomadic life across Europe. After a few years in Paris, we moved to Madrid, but Ibiza remained "our place".
Q: Wonderful: do you have any further details that you would like to share about that house?
FB: Yes, the cypresses are not a typical tree of the Balearic Islands. My father planted the cypresses that you can see on the Slim Aarons photo because he saw them in Tuscany and loved them so much.
Our Ibiza house on Roca Llisa has been sold 20 years ago and the new owners changed it completely and Roca Llisa became the huge compound it is today.
Q: Do you still go to Ibiza?
FB: Even though my parents have passed away, we still go to Ibiza for our holidays. I personally live in Valencia since the last 3 years, albeit my father's family is originally from Barcelona.
Q: Fosca, thank you for your time and for sharing these wonderful memories that I am sure our readers will appreciate! One more thing: what about your life today?
FB: I am a fashion designer and you can see my work at foscabertran.com . Today, Ibiza is still my inspiration for my design work, together with India.
For my business, Ibiza as an island was unfortunately too inconvenient and that's why I moved to Valencia, right in front of the Balearic Islands.
Q: Have you always worked as a designer?
FB: I am originally an interior designer and I studied interior design in Milan, Italy. I was working in Ibiza as an interior designer for 12 years. Then I started creating these long scarfs inspired by my mum's Indian sari collection. While I was working and selling my scarfs in Ibiza I met a person who at the time was working for Karl Lagerfeld and he asked me to do a first show of my scarfs with Karl Lagerfeld. After 10 years in Ibiza, I moved to Paris for my scarf business and then I expanded it by designing rugs and other things that you can see on my website.
Q: That’s fantastic. I personally love Ibiza and I will go there on holiday in September. Is late summer a good time to spend there a few days?
FB: Indeed! The best time of the year to go to Ibiza is in June and September and also February because the almond trees blossom!
Alberto: thank you again Fosca for your time and I hope our paths will cross again in the future!
What a transporting tale. I feel like I went back in time and got experience the slower sweeter Ibiza of the 1970's.