Sandhya Garg — The Love Gaudí Collection
Love Gaudí: Why Barcelona's Broken Tiles Make Good Dresses
Trencadís · Stained Glass · Klimt's Gold · 12 Pieces · XS–3XL
Quick Answer
Love Gaudí draws on Antoni Gaudí's Barcelona and Gustav Klimt's Vienna — two versions of Art Nouveau from the same few decades around 1900. The idea at its centre is trencadís, Gaudí's broken-tile mosaic, which exists for a practical reason: a flat tile cannot cover a curved surface, so he broke tiles into fragments that could. Flat cloth has exactly the same problem against a body, which is why the collection is built in velvet that moulds, lace that layers, and fabric pieced together like mosaic. 2026 marks one hundred years since Gaudí's death.
Gaudí is often quoted as saying that the straight line belongs to men and the curve belongs to God. Walk through Barcelona — the Sagrada Família, Casa Batlló, Park Güell — and you understand what he meant. There is almost nothing straight in any of it.
What interests me as a designer is less the beauty than the problem he had to solve to make those curves colourful, because it turns out to be my problem too.
Pieced fabric, stained-glass velvet and hand-dyed lace — three ways the collection answers the same question Gaudí asked of tile.
Trencadís: A Flat Tile Cannot Follow a Curve
Gaudí's architecture is curved in every direction at once — benches that undulate, chimneys that twist, a roof like the spine of a dragon. Conventional square tiles could not cover any of it. So he and his collaborators broke ceramic into fragments, often using offcuts and broken pieces, and set them into those surfaces like a mosaic. The Catalan name is trencadís, from trencar, to break.
This is exactly the dressmaker's problem. A length of cloth is flat. A body is not. You cannot lay a flat plane over a curved form without it buckling — so a dress is cut into pieces, darted, seamed and shaped until the flat becomes round. Every garment you own is, in that sense, a small trencadís. Gaudí just made the joins the point.
Zellij — the Fes answer
Precise, geometric, hand-cut shapes that tile a flat wall perfectly. Order imposed on a surface. The basis of our Fes Fantasy collection.
Trencadís — the Barcelona answer
Irregular broken fragments that follow a curved surface wherever it goes. Order found in the surface rather than imposed on it. The basis of this one.
Every dress is a small trencadís — flat cloth broken into pieces until it can follow a curve. Gaudí simply made the joins the point.
Barcelona and Vienna, Same Decades
Art Nouveau went by a different name in every city. In Barcelona it was Modernisme; in Vienna, the Secession, whose most famous painter was Gustav Klimt. They share a period — roughly 1890 to the First World War — and a conviction that decoration belongs everywhere, not only in galleries.
They also share a motif: the whiplash line, the long S-curve that snaps back on itself like a cracked whip, which runs through Art Nouveau ironwork, posters and print. You will find it in the Belle maxi below. And Klimt's gold — built up in layers of leaf and pattern — is the reason this collection includes lace worked in colour blocks rather than a single flat shade.
The Collection · Twelve Pieces · Stock Verified Today
The Love Gaudí Collection
Velvet, lace, pieced mosaic and cotton. A limited edition — several pieces are down to their last few, and each card says so.
Stained Glass — Velvet That Holds Light Like the Sagrada Família
Trencadís & the Whiplash Line
Klimt's Vienna — Lace Worked in Layers
Barcelona by Day — Cotton, Kaftans & the Beach
Limited edition · sizes shown on each card are what remain today · Made to measure if yours has gone
Seeing It for Yourself
Seven of Gaudí's works are inscribed together as a UNESCO World Heritage Site — the listing, with its account of why they matter, is at UNESCO's Works of Antoni Gaudí. If you go to Barcelona, go to Park Güell early: the trencadís benches and the mosaic dragon at the entrance are the clearest demonstration anywhere of broken tile following a curve. And see the Sagrada Família in the late afternoon, when the west-facing glass turns the interior orange and red.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is trencadís?
A mosaic technique of broken ceramic fragments, used extensively by Antoni Gaudí and his collaborators in Barcelona. It exists for a practical reason: flat tiles cannot cover curved surfaces, but irregular fragments can follow any curve. The name comes from the Catalan trencar, to break.
How does Art Nouveau relate to fashion?
Art Nouveau — Modernisme in Barcelona, the Secession in Vienna — held that decoration belongs in everyday objects, not only in galleries. Its signature is the whiplash line, a long S-curve that snaps back on itself, and it drew heavily on plants and flowers. Both translate naturally into print, lace and draped cloth.
Why pair Gaudí with Klimt?
They worked in the same decades on two versions of the same movement — Gaudí in Barcelona, Klimt in Vienna — and both built rich surfaces out of many small parts: Gaudí from tile fragments, Klimt from layered blocks of pattern and gold. The collection uses velvet for the first and colour-blocked lace for the second.
Why is velvet used so much in this collection?
Because its pile catches and returns light with depth rather than shine, much as stained glass does. It also moulds to curves more willingly than a flat-woven cloth. More on how it behaves — and how to care for it — in our guide to velvet.
When did Gaudí die?
On 10 June 1926, in Barcelona, which makes 2026 the centenary of his death. The Sagrada Família, which he worked on for more than four decades, was left unfinished and has been under construction ever since.
Will the collection be restocked?
It is a limited edition, so sizes are not reordered once they go — several pieces are down to their last one or two. If your size has sold out, made to measure is available.
Keep Reading
The Companion
Fes Fantasy & Zellij
The flat-wall answer to the same question.
Fabric
Velvet, and the Nap
How it holds light, and how to care for it.
Inside the Studio
How a Drawing Becomes a Dress
Fifteen to twenty iterations, by eye.
Wearing It
Dressing for Close Range
Where velvet and lace get seen properly.
About the Writer
Sandhya Garg is a Project Runway Season 13 designer who won two challenges on the show and presented her collection at Mercedes-Benz New York Fashion Week. She studied womenswear and textile design at London College of Fashion and worked at Alexander McQueen, Gucci, Liberty London, and Alice Temperley. Her prints are drawn by hand from travel and art history — featured in Marie Claire, Elle, Cosmopolitan and Vogue online, in sizes XS–3XL with made to measure available.
Project Runway · Vogue · Marie Claire · XS–3XL
The curve belongs to everyone.
Sandhya Garg is a Los Angeles boutique creating limited-edition artisanal dresses in original hand-drawn prints, hand embroidery and heritage textiles. Sizes XS–3XL, shipped from Scottsdale within 1–3 days.
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