Puig’s José Manuel Albesa talks taste
My personal style signifiers are Levi’s 501s, loose pale-blue cotton shirts, espadrilles, my wedding ring and a collection of bracelets from the kids and my travels. I never wear a watch – I prefer not to know what time it is. In summer, I replace the jeans with Dries Van Noten trousers; I love the lightness of the fabrics and the patterns. The last thing I bought and loved was a thin brass box from the 1970s by the Italian designer Gabriella Crespi. I bought it just for decorative purposes. I love to visit antiques dealers; I can wander for hours around El Rastro de Madrid, Le Puces de Saint-Ouen in Paris, Kloosterstraat in Antwerp, Pimlico Road in London and Via Maggio in Florence. The place that means a lot to me is our holiday home in Provence, near the village of Eygalières. We rented a house there just before lockdown, ended up extending one week to four months, then I bought a house there on the spot. I love landscaping the garden and deciding what to plant with our gardener; si