FASHION designer David Delfín has died aged 46 after losing his 18-month battle with cancer, barely five months after his closest friend, actress and model Bimba Bosè, passed away.
Delfín was diagnosed with three massive malignant stage-three brain tumours in January 2016 after reporting extreme pains in his leg whilst visiting his family for New Year in Marbella, and two were removed, but the third was inoperable and had to be treated with chemotherapy and radiotherapy.
He was briefly in remission until March this year - although the tumour had not disappeared, it had shrunk sufficiently to allow him a better quality of life, but three months ago it flared up again and proved resistant to treatment.
His mother and fellow fashion designer María González, who moved to Madrid to help David's husband Pablo Sáez, a Galicia-born photographer, care for him, said her son declined very sharply, losing speech, coordination and memory, and being largely confined to a wheelchair.
She and Pablo believe David's rapid worsening was largely brought on by the death of Bimba Bosè, 41, his muse and best friend, whose own fight against metastatic breast cancer ended in January.
Since losing Bimba, David and his ex-boyfriend Gorka Postigo – with whom he remained good friends - designed T-shirts with her face on them (second picture) to raise money for cancer research and care, which are still available for sale on his website.
Delfín's health bore up enough for him to design and release his SS16 and AW16 ranges, mostly menswear but with some womenswear and exotic handbags, but was unable to create a spring-summer 2017 range due to his declining condition.
He lived long enough to find out he had won the National Fashion Design Prize 2016 for his last-ever collection, premièred at the Madrid Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week in February – but as these prizes are normally presented in summer, it will be too late for him to collect it in person.
Delfín has graced most of the prominent international catwalks in London, Paris, Madrid, Valencia, New York, Milan and Barcelona since his shock début at Cibeles Fashion Week in 2002 when his models entered the catwalk with bags over their heads and ropes around their necks.
He said he had been inspired by the paintings of Magritte and the dark post-censorship films of arthouse Spanish director Luis Buñuel.
Delfín started out his career as a painter rather than a designer back in 1999, but then graduated to using Army surplus wear as a 'canvas' for his creations.
He shot to global fame in 2009 with his first non-Spanish catwalk show at New York Fashion Week, and has won several awards, including the 2003 and 2007 Shangay Express magazine prizes and the L'Oréal Award for Best Fashion Range at Madrid Fashion Week in 2012.
Bimba's uncle, pop legend Miguel Bosè - a one-man 'album factory' who has been on the music scene for over 38 years – paid tribute to Delfín on Twitter, saying: “My friend, my colleague, my brother, my inspiration. Give Bimba a big kiss from me when you see her.”
