“Who’s looking forward to summer?” The question in @mtc_mariateresacampos’ last post received trolling as an answer. The picture, published in March 2018, shows some pumps with a tropical print and a pin-up look; in the comments atrocities. The Instagram account that promoted María Teresa Campos’ shoe collection has since remained silent. And it is still there, frozen in time, metaphorical witness to its own creator. Someone must have told him: Cobbler, your shoes.
Of all the professional successes of the journalist and presenter who died this Tuesday in Madrid at the age of 82, MTC is the only one that was not. An ambitious shoe line (under the financial auspices of Teteco SL, an audiovisual production company then linked to the family and investigated by the Ministry of Finance in 2014) that collided with socio-commercial reality. It was launched with great enthusiasm in 2016, lasted one year, only two seasons, and was sold in El Corte Inglés de Castellana, in Madrid and in its hometown of Málaga. And it was advertised “for all types of women of all ages,” conveniently supported/advised by her influential granddaughter Alejandra Rubio, it said. Curious: The journalist, who managed to reach the majority of the female audience and sensitize them to current information, including politics, did not, however, succeed in getting them to put themselves in her shoes. What it’s like to go through life enthroned in a few Manolos while forcing some fields on the others.
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“María Teresa, please make the heels lower”, “María Teresa, are they comfortable?”, “María Teresa, I can’t buy them, I wear size 37 if you are of good will and give them to me”, the follower wrote to her at the beginning when the community manager replied with “Thank you, greetings”. Of all the factors that explain the shoe debacle amounting to almost 175,000 euros in prohibitive losses, including a low public image as of 2018 – between the outbursts of arrogance after the departure from Telecinco and the bickering of the family clan – at the same time about the class jump, that they never wanted to get involved with. It also doesn’t hurt to admit it: no, Campos wasn’t his audience. She never was, not when she appeared as the red (socialist, republican, feminist) counterpart to Encarna Sánchez, or when she shamelessly trashed Jesús Hermida, let alone when she was crowned queen of cathodic mornings in the 1990s (on public television for the first time) . , later in the former friendship chain). Although the outfits would be daring.
Of course, the Malaga journalist’s communication skills also included handling her clothing. She conveyed the type of average woman, ascribed to the conventions of good dressing (and better styling), daring in colors and patterns without pushing the boundaries, elegant in her own way and, at a certain moment, ambitious professionally. The tailored suits, shoulder-padded blazers, and Chanelista boxy jackets were a constant as she competed with her male counterparts on screen and executives in the offices, the power-dressing choice of every woman who had to work in the workplace . Liberal working environment at least until the end of the 1990s. In this way, it might be easy to identify yourself and look in the mirror; Deep down, not at all.
From left to right: Rocío Carrasco, María Teresa Campos, Carmen Borrego and Terelu Campos, at the presentation of the journalist’s shoe collection in January 2016. Antonio Quilez 0711 CORDON PRESS ( / Cordon Press / Cordon Press)
That Campos buys her tailored tailors, her floral dresses and her polka dot blouses from Dafnis is only a guess, although it is known about her friendship with María Rosa Salvador, the founder of the legendary boutique and sewing workshop on Madrid’s promenade in Havana – with a branch in Marbella – who dressed the wealthy ladies of the national jet for almost four decades. What is clear is the presentation of renowned international brands and designers that it exhibited, especially due to its unbeatable leadership in television mornings in the early 2000s. It is said that every time she attended the season premiere, she dressed for the occasion with his fetish label Dolce & Gabbana.
Maria Teresa Campos with her brother Francisco Campos, founder of Radio Juventud Málaga, in an undated picture. Europa Press / ContactoPhoto
Maria Teresa Campos, in an undated image. Rafa Samano (Cover/Getty Images)
TV presenter María Teresa Campos, 1990. Gianni Ferrari (Getty Images)
From left, journalists Paloma Gómez Borrero, Rosa Villacastín, María Teresa Campos and Carmen Rigalt in “Esta es su casa”, a program broadcast by TVE between 1990 and 1991. R. BLANCO (EFE)
María Teresa Campos with her daughter Terelu, in the Telecinco program “Día a día”, 2003.Telecinco
Jane Fonda is interviewed by María Teresa Campos in the Antena 3 program “Cada día” in 2005. Promotional photo
María Teresa Campos, in 2008, when she presented “The Critical View” on Telecinco.Telecinco
Actress Lina Morgan hugs María Teresa Campos in “Día a día”, a program broadcast on Telecinco between September 16, 1996 and December 22, 2004. Europa Press / ContactoPhoto
María Teresa Campos, portrayed in Madrid in 2013.Gorka Lejarcegi
Mariano Rajoy visits the Telecinco program “What a happy time” with María Teresa Campos in 2015.
Comedian Edmundo “Bigote” Arrocet with María Teresa Campos, at an event in Malaga in 2017.Daniel Perez (Getty Images)
María Teresa Campos, during an interview at the Telecinco studios in 2015.Claudio Alvarez
When she agreed to be photographed for the special Fabulosas of All Ages of the Spanish edition of Harper’s Bazaar in June 2015, she showed up wearing her own clothes: a top and capri pants from the Italian brand. For them, it was an exclusive adaptation of this summer’s capsule collection, inspired by the motifs of majolica ceramics (or majolica ceramics) from the Sicilian city of Caltagirone. This finally revealed what had always been an open secret, at least among the stylists’ union: that the presenter present near the house was a VIP of luxury fashion. These total looks that once went unnoticed on red carpets and photo ops (from Missoni to John Galliano) were suddenly being identified on celebrity websites. Then came “Las Campos,” the reality documentary in which she starred alongside her daughters Terelu Campos and Carmen Borrego with two episodes between 2016 and 2018, and fashionista María Teresa was convicted.
The last we heard of the journalist’s extraordinary wardrobe was that she had two dressing rooms conveniently set up to store them in her apartment in Aravaca, where she moved in early 2022. Two dressing rooms, two, in addition to her own room for her huge shoe collection, there are plenty of Chaneles, Pradas, Jimmychoos and especially Manolos. In the reality show she had already proudly shown how she lived in the fabulous villa in Las Rozas. He also didn’t mind spending more than 3,000 euros at a time in a shoe store (gifts for his daughters in New York). What was missing to perceive her as definitely detached/detached from the audience she had cultivated. Your privilege, of course. But let’s not be fooled: María Teresa Campos has always been closer to Imelda Marcos than Carrie Bradshaw in her shoe obsession. The things of power.