Goodbye to the Asturian decorator Jaime Fierro

María José IGLESIAS

Jaime González-Fierro Guerra-Zunzunegui, known throughout Madrid as Jaime Fierro, is already part of the history of Spanish decoration as one of the interior designers who have influenced the aesthetic change of the great houses of Spain. His powerful clients thanked him for the last time last Wednesday, filling the enormous church of La Concepción, on Goya Street in Madrid. Television celebrities and great names from finance and nobility came together to say goodbye to their main decorator, who died on March 6.

Infanta Elena was not missing – her last outing before dying was to supervise the construction of her new house – and Jaime Marichalar was missed.

When the Duke and Duchess of Lugo settled in Spain, they lived in a duplex located in a building in Fierro, on Ortega y Gasset Street. When they moved to another apartment nearby, Fierro also designed the interiors.

He grew up surrounded by works of art. One of his favorite places was the castle, in San Juan de la Arena, the summer residence of his grandfather, the Asturian-Leonese businessman Ildefonso González-Fierro Ordóñez, who made his fortune around the Port of Saint Stephen. His children were born in Oviedo. Arturo, Jaime's father, now deceased, was president of Fasa-Renault. With his brothers, Ignacio and Alfonso, he was in charge of managing the family empire that is today run by Guillermo Fierro, cousin of the deceased and remarried to Lucrecia Botín-Saenz de Sautola.

Cuqui Fierro, Jaime's aunt and godmother, was seen very sad in the official farewell to the magician of impeccably ornate environments, who turned around the private rooms of the Zarzuela, decorated the Orfila hotel in Madrid, the houses of Trapote and even the apartment of Felipe González and Begoña García Vaquero.

Fernando Fernández Tapias, José María García, Ramón Calderón, Isabel Preysler, María Teresa Campos and her daughter Terelu and Isabel Pantoja were also his clients. It was common to see him having dinner at Lucio with Nati Abascal and Jaime Marichalar. Jaime Fierro was the one who introduced the former model and the Duke of Lugo. Fierro loved art auctions and antiques. He learned to appreciate them as a child, in his grandfather's mansion, in the Plaza del Marqués de Salamanca.