80s and 90s crushes: from Spanish cinema to PRYCA catalogues

Victoria Abril and the catalogues: the crushes that awakened a generation

Before the internet solved everything with a click, collective awakening came through cinema, television and the clothing catalogue that arrived at home. A nostalgic conversation has brought back the names that marked Spanish preteens of the 80s and 90s: from Victoria Abril to Yvonne Reyes, not forgetting PRYCA's summer catalogue. This is no minor phenomenon: these references explain how sensual culture was built in an era of public prudishness.

Cinema and television, the first windows

The big and small screens were the first shop window. Actresses like Ana Álvarez and Victoria Abril, with roles that defied the prudishness of the era, became icons. Lighter references were also part of the mix: the children's show Megatrix, the models of Maxi Tuning and, later, Russian actress Natasha Yarovenko, who took over the role in 2007-2008.

The clothing catalogue: everyday eroticism

The most surprising part is the role of catalogues. Venca, delivered door to door, and PRYCA's famous summer catalogue, with its swimsuits and bikinis, appear as first crushes. For a generation with no access to explicit content, those pages had an enormous power of suggestion. They were not specialist magazines, but they worked as a trigger for curiosity.

From the second-hand magazine to the digital era

Around 1997, a second-hand Playboy was a treasure. Today a teenager has unlimited access from their phone. The contrast explains part of the nostalgia, and also the doubts about how awakening, the relationship with the body and the construction of desire are changing.

There is no consensus on the matter. But one thing is clear: the crushes of puberty were a product of the media offer of their time. And in that offer coexisted the film actress, the model from the TV show and the page of a catalogue kept under the bed. Perhaps that is why the memory remains so vivid.