The only thing religious about Santa Gloria, as Luis de Javier called his fall outing, was its name. Stripped of all spiritual connotations, the clothes honored his Iberian roots by way of flamenco and “puro Spanish sex.”

By that, the designer said he meant strength, sensuality, and the fire of his homeland’s traditional dance as it has been reinvented for present-day audiences by the artist Rocío Molina, whose show he caught in Barcelona last year. A DM exchange followed, and a new friendship blossomed.

“I never thought my muse would come in the form of a contemporary dancer, but here’s this amazing figure making her way in a man’s world and I thought, if I am going to make this women’s collection, I need to hear from her,” he said during a showroom presentation.

De Javier has been swamped of late, what with dressing Lady Gaga for Saturday Night Live just last week, Beyoncé for the Cowboy Carter tour, and a slew of private customers. Now, he said, he wants to see how he can transpose that level of exposure into a commercial reality. While the main event won’t be revealed until next Paris Fashion Week, he’s warming up with a 25-look collection done entirely in black, the better to bring together old-world heritage and contemporary design, streetwear and high-end clothes, rebirth and revolution, he said.

Starting with ideas about what Molina might want to wear onstage and off, he offered plenty of jersey, denim, and leather with flourishes of fringe here and there but nary a polka dot in sight. In their stead came torero signatures—a “biker matador” bolero, a tasseled jacket in waxed denim, knit, and leather, slim cropped trousers—and a racy homage to Cordoba leather craftsmanship, now revisited in laser-engraved jersey or leather with exotic dancers slipped into arabesque motifs.

A flamenco dress in black jersey came with a tonal rope cord worked into a rosette and that stripper motif lasered on the bust. “It’s a little black dress, but with Spanish flair,” the designer offered. A coat in ripped-and-stitched tulle fit right in with the furry outerwear trend, while a heavy a cocoon coat further amped up drama with a train, and the designer was so pleased with his mean stiletto boot—the “matador ballerina”—that he ordered a pair in his own size.

Not that these pieces are meant to be costume. “I wanted to produce things that I would put money into,” de Javier said, holding up a black t-shirt that spun to reveal a scooped back, and a column dress based on the same idea. Denim pants were worked with a bold zipper on the legs so that they could be worn three ways: as a cigarette pant, split open, or half-split, depending on how much leg you want to show. In the same spirit, a bomber was designed to be reversible. “I’m not delusional,” the designer said. “They have to get their money’s worth.”