Elio Berenguer Úbeda, known as Elio Berhanyer (20 February 1929 – 24 January 2019) was a Spanish fashion designer who gained several prizes in his career. His designs were worn by actresses such as

Ava Gardner Ava Lavinia Gardner (December 24, 1922 – January 25, 1990) was an American actress. She first signed a contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in 1941 and appeared mainly in small roles until she drew critics' attention in 1946 with her perform ...

and

Cyd Charisse Cyd Charisse (born Tula Ellice Finklea; March 8, 1922 – June 17, 2008) was an American actress and dancer. After recovering from polio as a child and studying ballet, Charisse entered films in the 1940s. Her roles usually featured her abilit ...

and royals like

Queen Sofía Queen or QUEEN may refer to: Monarchy * Queen regnant, a female monarch of a Kingdom ** List of queens regnant * Queen consort, the wife of a reigning king * Queen dowager, the widow of a king * Queen mother, a queen dowager who is the mother ...

and Infanta Pilar.

Early life

Berhanyer was born in Córdoba,

Andalusia Andalusia (, ; es, Andalucía ) is the southernmost Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community in Peninsular Spain. It is the most populous and the second-largest autonomous community in the country. It is officially recognised as a ...

on 20 February 1929. His father was executed by Nationalist faction at the beginning of the

Spanish Civil War The Spanish Civil War ( es, Guerra Civil Española)) or The Revolution ( es, La Revolución, link=no) among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War ( es, Cuarta Guerra Carlista, link=no) among Carlists, and The Rebellion ( es, La Rebelión, lin ...

. He then moved with his aunt to

Seville Seville (; es, Sevilla, ) is the capital and largest city of the Spanish autonomous community of Andalusia and the province of Seville. It is situated on the lower reaches of the River Guadalquivir, in the southwest of the Iberian Peninsula ...

and later with his uncle, where together with his cousin started to draw the firsts designs. At the age of 17 moved to

Madrid Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the second-largest city in the European Union (EU), and ...

Career

In 1956, Berhanyer began working as a seamster. After four years of doing this, he opened up his own shop in the cities of Madrid and Barcelona. His name spread quickly and he quickly won the Cadillac House Award for being the best designer of the year. He had a collection that gained recognition in order to win this award. He had upon occasion represented Spain in the International Fashion Week. He has also designed uniforms for Iberia airline,

RTVE The Corporación de Radio y Televisión Española, S.A. (; ), known as Radiotelevisión Española or RTVE, is the state-owned public corporation that assumed in 2007 the indirect management of the Spanish public radio and television service know ...

and the hostesses for the

1982 FIFA World Cup The 1982 FIFA World Cup was the 12th FIFA World Cup, a quadrennial Association football, football tournament for men's senior national teams, and was played in Spain between 13 June and 11 July 1982. The tournament was won by Italy national foo ...

. He taught Fashion at the University of Córdoba. In 2013, Televisión Española presented a documentary about his career as a design teacher. He died in

on 24 January 2019 at the age of 89.

Awards

*Gold Medal for Merit in Fine Arts (2002) *National Cristóbal Balenciaga Award *Premio Campioni (Italy) *National Fashion Design Award (2011)

References

External links

* 1929 births 2019 deaths Spanish fashion designers People from Córdoba, Spain {{fashion-bio-stub