A creative brain like Josep’s is an anomaly. Steered into architecture by his parents, the then young Spaniard abandoned a future of skyscrapers in exchange for fashion, launching his own label in 1991. In 2008 he was invited by the Chambre Syndicale de la Haute Couture to present at Paris Couture Fashion Week. When Delpozo’s eponymous designer died in 2011, Font was summoned by Grupo Perfumes y Diseño, who had acquired the label, tasked with elevating the little known but respected label to a globally respected fashion house.

Very few fashion labels make that leap, but when Delpozo debuted on the New York Fashion Week schedule in February 2012 the industry was blown away; feminine trouser suits, A-line tulle dresses and headscarves delicately knotted around the models’ heads were reminiscent of a bygone era, with just the right amount of modernity, and his architectural approach to shapes and cuts made Delpozo’s show buzz-worthy that spring.

Fast forward to 2017, and Josep’s imagination is as overactive and eager to create as ever. As a child, he remembers being intrigued by aesthetic; “I was always very vocal about my opinions in fashion and interiors and my mother encouraged me to express my creative vision. I remember once she wore a beautiful red gown that might very well have sparked my desire to be a fashion designer.” A scroll through Font’s Instagram (which boasts a following of 136K) is like peering into the 49-year-old’s mind, a beautifully curated gallery offering snapshots of his life and inspirations.

“Taking what has influenced me and physically putting it together is so important. It helps me to build and develop the ideas that will ultimately inform the collection,” he says of his Instagram and mood-boards. He looks to French film (“Jacques Demy’s movies are great”), artist Jean-Michel Basquiat, listens to French musicians Charles Trenet or Edith Piaf, finds inspiration in nature, in his travels, “I escape to L’Empordà for inspiration - a northern region of Catalunya, where nature, the views, the beach near the forest, the traditional homes, gives me peace.

Five years into his tenure at the fashion house, he has exchanged sleek trouser suits for billowing gowns and cocoon coats in jewel tones. "The color palette and the fabrics along with the volume and shapes - everything must always be balanced within a collection, but each season I try to push my team and myself further under the aesthetic that I’ve developed around silhouette, color and fabric." This season’s inspiration, he says, came from Hungarian painter József Rippl-Rónai and Swiss sculptor Max Bill, two artists from different nationalities, eras and media, but fusing their aesthetics together defined the FW17 collection.

“I took the spirituality of Rippl-Rónai’s colour palette, boosted it with Klein blue, ivory and amber and then fused them with the organic silhouettes from Max Bill’s abstract sculptures. Circular volumes became my focus this season. Rippl-Rónai’s diffused brushstrokes inspired the floral print for the knitwear and embroideries.” That’s quite a mouthful; in truth, the collection must be seen to be truly savoured. It’s a celebration for the senses. The journey that informs Font’s vision is a collage of all kinds of everything. The result is nothing short of art.