In 1845 he wrote his short story about a hot-blooded woman who turns her affections from a soldier to a bullfighter and then is murdered by her spurned lover. Bizet's operatic adaptation in 1875 established Carmen as the Spanish archetype. It was at this same time, between 1848 and 1860 that Seville's Feria was getting underway as a carnival for costume and amusement. Seville's Gitanos , selling rosemary, newspapers and flowers, still wear colourful skirts and shawls, it appears, to purposefully distinguish themselves. These Feria dresses are special.
Women often make their own, with fabric stores stocking hundreds of fabrics for the sole purpose.
Ruffles are at times long and loose, and other years very narrow and tight, with lace at the trim, or woven ribbons, scalloping, uneven hems, zig zag or gathered and rippling. And not one dress is a duplicate. Each day over 500,000 people come to the Feria grounds. The dress is most often reserved for the daytime, and after dusk the women return home to change their clothes, or cover themselves with a tablecloth-sized silk embroidered wrap, exquisitely crafted and more subtle and elegant in design. The shoes are always dressy, even the youngest girls, who seem the most perfect candidates for enjoying the tradition of the dress, wear heeled mary janes that peek from under the masses of fabric and bud ankles and calves when the girls turn in their dances.