The designer is fuming. He perches on a chair in his Madrid studio, puffing hard on a Marlboro, and scrutinises the gray-and-peach strapless gown before him.

“Horrendous! I don’t like this one at all,” he mutters in Spanish. “Get it out of here,” he orders an assistant, furiously sketching a new silhouette. Then a model saunters in wearing an emerald green number with an empire waist and an embroidered lace bodice. The designer relaxes. This one will do. It needs some tweaking—a ruffle in back, a different necklace—but it makes the cut for his next show.

“I know what I want,” he says. Elio Berhanyer, the grandfather of Spanish fashion, is one of the few survivors of Spain’s bygone era of haute couture—he belongs to the avant-garde generation of André Courrèges and Pierre Cardin.

In September, Madrid Fashion Week will pay tribute to 50 years of Berhanyer’s creations with a special show. Earlier this year, the Museum of Costume in Madrid featured 100 crepe and satin gowns worn by Spanish actresses and aristocrats.

Many Spanish fashion critics now ignore the latest offerings of this energetic octogenarian, and some younger designers think he is old-fashioned. But he still has a loyal following in haute couture. The fashion historian Pedro Mansilla calls him a “forgotten hero” of Spanish style.

At the height of his fame in the 1970s, Berhanyer designed dresses for American department stores like Bergdorf Goodman, Bonwit Teller. His look—architectonic like Balenciaga but lighter, flirtier with the space-age sleekness—appeared on the covers of Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar. He dressed actresses like Ava Gardner and Cyd Charisse, and Queen Sofia of Spain on her first official trips abroad.

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