Fernando Bonastre
Born in the night of the North of Spain, Fernando BONASTRE de CELIS is a man rooted in the mysteries of his homeland. Here, where mountain meets the ocean, the Celtic people of Cantabria once worshipped the sun, erecting sacred, man-sized stellae in its honor - monuments to the good star.
With eyes to the sky, forever dreaming of an ideal future - utopia has been an obsession of his since childhood - he soon established a passion for the futuristic visions of modernist architecture, pure lines, brute structure, forming the fundament of his own rigorous and sculptural aesthetics.
After a stint studying design in Madrid, he pursued his passion to Paris, the cradle of the bold and future-facing fashion he admired. Soon versed in the art of Couture and its secrets, he worked alongside such masters as Christian Lacroix and Claude Montana, who passed on to him his great love of leather.
The idea to create his own brand came to him on a cold winter day in a single flash, a vision. BONASTRE was born soon after, at the dawn of 2011, sealing the company’s official papers on the day of a total eclipse of the sun.
His mission? To create new codes for leather goods and craft space for a new kind of freedom – towards utopia!
Just two years later, he inaugurated the brand’s Parisian flagship store in le Haut-Marais, rue du Perche. Growing internationally at a steady pace, selling his signature designs among the most exclusive retailers worldwide, he simultaneously established prestigious partnerships, designing and developing collections of leather goods for a number of illustrious brands, including Lemaire since 2017 and, most recently, Marine Serre.