FEATURED CREATIVE | CARLOS TORRETTA
Carlos
Torretta
El Salvawhore
Madrid-born · son of designer Roberto Torretta · Fine Arts & PR, Pace University, New York
Long before the model agencies and the headlines, he kept a moody fashion moodboard: found images, his own Contax film, and a deep love of image-making. This is that conversation, from 2011.
In 2011, just before his career as a top model agent took off at Society Management in New York, and long before he married Marta Ortega, heiress of Inditex, I interviewed Carlos Torretta, a Madrid-born creative who had quietly launched a visual diary titled El Salvawhore, a moody, curated inspiration blog blending fashion, art and raw photographic expression.
The site, which operated more like a digital moodboard, showcased a mix of found images and Carlos’s own photography, nodding to legends like Juergen Teller and Helmut Newton, while offering a glimpse into his aesthetic world. He grew up surrounded by creativity. His father, Roberto Torretta, is one of Spain’s most influential fashion designers. After moving to the US for boarding school, Carlos immersed himself in fashion and art circles that shaped his own visual language, and launching El Salvawhore was, in many ways, a seamless next step.
“I have always been fascinated by post-production and visual storytelling. I thought the blog might help other creatives spark ideas.”
“Living in New York, I am constantly surrounded by artists: photographers, stylists, musicians, designers. I felt the need for a personal outlet to process all that inspiration. My girlfriend at the time was a fashion consultant, always digging through magazines, books and websites, and it rubbed off on me. I started collecting images obsessively, and eventually I thought, why not share them? A lot of the content is imagery I have sourced, but I also shoot with my Contax T2, so there are plenty of original photos in there too.”
“It is actually a joke that stuck. My best friend, the photographer Max Snow, played a prank on me once by posting my number on a male dating site, just to get a laugh. He needed a name for the profile and, since he always teases me about being from El Salvador, which I am not, I am Spanish and Argentinian, he came up with El Salvawhore. I ended up loving it. It felt irreverent and memorable, and somehow fit the tone of the blog perfectly.”
A prank. Max Snow posted his number on a dating site as a joke, needed a profile name, and riffed on teasing him for being from El Salvador. He is not. He is Spanish and Argentinian. The name stuck, and he loved it.
“Definitely my heritage. Being both Spanish and Argentinian has shaped my taste and interests. I am drawn to the contrast between elegance and grit, tradition and modernity. Things like bullfights, gauchos, flamenco culture, and military or equestrian references often creep into my moodboards. Fashion is a big influence too. I love unexpected pairings, like a Balenciaga heel next to a hunting scene. That kind of tension feels exciting to me.”
“The contrast between elegance and grit, tradition and modernity.”
His go-to sites back then, a proper time capsule of the golden age of style blogs:
More than a blog, El Salvawhore was a time capsule of creative impulses, raw, referential, and rooted in a deep love for fashion and image-making. Carlos Torretta may have transitioned into a high-profile role within the fashion industry, but his early blog remains a great reminder of how personal archives can become a canvas for bigger dreams.
Carlos has known the fashion world since childhood, through his father, the acclaimed Argentine designer Roberto Torretta, based in Spain. His own path was never about making clothes, but about working with models. A Fine Arts and PR graduate of Pace University in New York, he spent four years as a representative at The Society Management, a division of the prestigious Elite Model and one of the best modeling agencies in the world, before moving into a new role.
From that New York agency, whose roster has included Adriana Lima, Alexina Graham and Amilna Estevao, Carlos went on to guide the careers of notable style and runway figures, among them Kendall Jenner, whom he discreetly accompanied to Barcelona when she was the guest star at a Mango store opening. His name later became linked with Marta Ortega, heiress to the Inditex empire and daughter of Amancio Ortega. Before that, he had briefly dated the supermodel Sigrid Agren, and his longest and best-known relationship was with the stylist and it-girl Victoria Traina, daughter of John Traina and the novelist Danielle Steel. In 2017, he became director of the agency in Spain.
Antakly Projects, originally Ninu Nina, has been in conversation with the most inspiring voices in art, photography, design and culture since 2003. Interview by Leila Antakly, first published in 2011. Some moodboards outlast the blogs that held them.
© the respective owners. With thanks to Carlos, and to El Salvawhore, wherever it lives now.
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Raw, referential, and irreverent. ✦
© Luis Sevillano Jose Tomas en las ventas.San Isidro 2008
An image from Elsalvawhore
