It is the wet season, “the perfect for me”, admits Lourdes Leoz, an umbrella maker from Bilbao.
For forty years, Lourdes has been in control of a enterprise that sells and fixes umbrellas. It is without doubt one of the few that survive within the nation and the one one that’s nonetheless open within the Biscayan capital.
Umbrella store Leoz, at Belosticalle 25, was based by Lourdes’ grandfather in 1933. “He began out as an apprentice and errand boy in one other on Calle Correos. When the proprietor left him, her household didn’t proceed with the shop and provided to maintain the instruments. They are the identical ones that he makes use of immediately to restore umbrellas. I work with some actual jewels with a number of historical past”, he admits.
Years later, it will be his father who can be in control of the workshop retailer. Meanwhile, Lourdes was absorbing a job to which she was destined, regardless of how a lot her father or mother tried to keep away from it.
“I wished him to review. He did Secretariat and Administration. The similar day I completed I requested her if she may begin and till now. I knew that I used to be going to be good at it as a result of I’m very useful, ”she says.
It was his father who gave him the very best recommendation, maybe the important thing, in order that a number of generations of Bilbao proceed to entrust him with the restore of their umbrellas: “Work and repair them as in the event that they have been for you”. And he follows it to the letter.
“More and extra are recycled”
Cane umbrella, pocket umbrella, costlier or for all sorts of pockets. The regular ones and for particular events equivalent to weddings or communions. At Umbrella Shop Leoz there are umbrellas for all tastes.
But, above all, high quality and getting larger.
“Customers might want them extra discreet or full of colours to brighten up a wet day, however what they’re in search of is that they cowl them nicely, that they shield them and that they final,” he says.
“What I would like is for them to get alongside extra intently. It would not matter how a lot time he spends on them. I prefer to advise them and that they depart completely satisfied. I clarify their traits, I take heed to them to know which one fits them. I stand up, dress, and are available to the shop to take pleasure in myself and I do it by chatting with them. I do know I’m nonetheless right here due to this and phrase of mouth. This work fills me with life, ”he admits.
Lourdes Leoz behind the counter, surrounded by umbrellas. REDACTION NIUS
At the again of the umbrella store is the restore store, the place Lourdes dedicates time to damaged umbrellas when there are not any prospects.
“I’m sorry {that a} good umbrella is thrown away. I modify the deal with, the damaged rods, the torn material. There was a time when extra was purchased however these days so much is recycled. People are extra conscious. I additionally often, how do you say?, customise some, in accordance with the preferences of their proprietor. The downside is that whether it is from a few years in the past, the spare elements are not manufactured”, he acknowledges.
The oldest umbrella that has handed by means of his fingers could also be about 100 years outdated and he saved it as a result of it was a present. “You do not know the way excited it made me. A lady got here, the niece of a woman who was going to enter a residence. This outdated lady, single, had inherited it from her mom, who had purchased it from my grandfather! She instructed me that the girl had commissioned her to offer it to me as a result of I might know how you can worth it. It is valuable, made from silk, wool and a silver deal with. I nearly cried with emotion, ”he says.
This yr, Lourdes reaches retirement age however will proceed to be energetic till “the illnesses come.” She would be the final Leoz to proceed to run the shop. There isn’t any aid, I are not looking for my youngsters to proceed right here. It’s unhappy, however I do not see a lot of a future for it, ”she laments.