They approached the loom for the first time in 1984, out of personal curiosity: they loved that world, and they delved deeper into it alongside various master craftsmen, researching and working on individual and collective projects until, in 2004, they founded Belategui Regueiro, making this art a means of livelihood that they are passionate about and into which they have poured all their hopes and dreams.
Belategui is the second surname of Oscar’s mother (she has at least seven more of that kind) and Regueiro is the second surname of Luisa’s mother (who also has seven more of her own). Their brand is a direct tribute to their mothers and to the surnames that are lost because they do not appear in documents, but which they carry with them and are part of their essence, because their mothers are in what they are, and it is also a way of reclaiming the role of women.
Belategui Regueiro create garments, fashion accessories, and decorations made with fabrics that they weave on wooden looms, because yes: they weave as it has always been done, with their hands, and they use the fibers that have always been used in Galicia: wool and linen… but also all those materials that they can obtain, some more conventional than others: silk, alpaca, bamboo, neoprene, paper, cotton, rubber…
They like challenges (put them to the test!) which is why they pay special attention to research to incorporate those materials into the textile creation process, fusing them with more commonly used ones to achieve contemporary textures and finishes in textile art, providing solutions that they integrate into their designs while adapting to modern times without losing their essence.
Some of the garments Belategui Regueiro weave are dyed with natural dyes, such as indigo, using various techniques. They do botanical printing (in English, ecoprint) with leaves from plants and trees, and flowers that they collect from their surroundings (which are rural, rugged, bucolic, and pastoral), something that was used in all civilizations to color or print (or both) their fabrics.
They also use 19th-century photographic techniques to print shapes found in nature or those that occur to them on their fabrics, which are part of their creative process. All of this serves to create authentic pieces of textile art. Living pieces to be lived
Their way of seeing life and working keeps them in constant search of creating useful, comfortable, versatile, timeless, and innovative designs for people who seek quality and unique, non-mass-produced products. People who like to know who, where, and how the pieces they wear are made.
One of their objectives is the dissemination of textile art by participating in various events: exhibitions and conferences, and by teaching classes and giving demonstrations in various settings: rural women, educational centers or fashion schools.