Portugal Fashion Week – SS2017
Between Lisbon and Porto
Portugal Fashion, the most important fashion event in Portugal, celebrated its 39th edition in October between Lisbon and Porto, with proposals for Spring-Summer 2017: 36 fashion shows, divided among venues of great historical importance, collections by 17 designers, 2 designing duos, 5 ready-to-wear labels, 6 footwear labels, 10 young creative talents (Beatriz Bettencourt, Olimpia Davide, Eduardo Amorim, Maria Kobrock, Inés Torcato, David Catalàn, Sara Maia, Pedro Neto, UN T e Klar), 3 new stylists, and 3 leading Portuguese fashion schools EMP, ESAD and MODATEX) . Never, as in this edition, has attention been given to the new generation. A sign that Portugal is heading towards the promising direction where it supports these young creative geniuses, in view of a stylistic evolution that rewards emerging designers.
The Bloom platform, coordinated by Miguel Floor and dedicated to up-and-coming talents, was held separately from the main catwalk and was the star of an entire calendar day, with the Porto CTT Palace turned into an ad hoc venue, where the proposals by these new talents was presented. Not only did the designers featured in Bloom present on the catwalk, but so did students from the three leading fashion schools in the country: ESAD, EMP, and Modatex. To complete the event, contemporary Portuguese music concerts and bands made the fashion shows a real celebration of urban culture, with various artistic facets.
The collections by Portuguese designers stand out because of their very personal and contemporary sense of fashion and style, contaminated by the input of a country that boasts a charming and unique beauty. From knitwear worked with complex textures by Susana Bettencourt, to the contemporary bon-ton of Anabela Baldaque, from the sophisticated African-inspired graphic elements designed by Miguel Vieira, to the futuristic silhouettes of Luis Buchinho, without forgetting Katty Xiomara’s pieces inspired by the Indian Ocean and the seductive minimalism of Fatima Lopes, moving across Carlos Gil ’s mix of traditional and classical elements, and also the artwork version of knitwear by Pe De Chumbo.
A fashion week of creativity, in support of young talents and the indispensable compromise between inventiveness and the commercial marketability of the collections, in perfect balance between poetry and positive feedback from an increasingly demanding market. Today, the group of Portuguese designers appears mature and aware and possesses a definite identity with a recognizable stylistic approach and an international appeal.
Beatriz Bettencourt
Beatriz Bettencourt, born in Porto in 1994, studied Visual Arts and graduated in Fashion Design from the Art and Design High School. A finalist in the Bloom competition, Beatriz has already produced several designs for dance performances, and made her debut on the catwalks of Portugal Fashion in the ESAD collective show, presenting an easy, casual collection with a young urban feel. She is currently an apprentice at Throttleman, where she designs collections in collaboration with its creative designer.
Olimpia Davide
Born in 1994 in Porto, Olimpia Davide graduated in Fashion Design from the Higher Institute of Art and Design. She debuted in 2016 with an individual show at Portugal Fashion’s Bloom, after having taken part in the event both through ESAD, as well as within the Bloom competition, and also received an award in the Modtíssimo PFN competition in 2015. With an interesting personal style, she plays on asymmetries and deconstructions.
Eduardo Amorim
Born in 1992, in Santa Maria de Lamas, Eduardo Amorim graduated in Fashion Design from the Art and Design High School. He won the ACTE MODA ITALIA RMI competition in 2014 and won fourth place in the last edition of Portugal Fashion’s Bloom, with a collection that is contemporary and spot-on, interpreting the must-haves of the season in a fresh and personal manner.
Maria Kobrock
Born in Aveiro in 1993, the German-Portuguese designer, Maria Kobrock, studied fashion design and printing and draping techniques at the ESMOD – International Fashion Design and Business School – in Berlin, followed by an intensive course on shoe design at the Gudi Fashion School in Porto. Prior to this, Maria worked for the Ayres Bespoke Taulo studio in Porto, for Lidija Kolovrat in Lisbon, and for Katty Xiomara in Porto. Her creations represent a culmination of her experiences. Whimsical and colorful garments, with abstract prints and workmanship that favors overlapping and cut-out effects.
Inés Torcato
Born in Porto, Inés Torcato graduated in Fashion Design from the ESAD Matosinhos in 2014, after attending the Soares dos Reis Art School and the Faculty of Fine Arts of the University of Porto, which had a great influence on the aesthetics and the experimental language of her work. In 2013, she won second prize at Nespresso Designer and, the following year, she won first prize at the “L’Aiguille d’Or”, organized by Atelier des Createurs. In the same year, she presented her collection at Bloom during Portugal Fashion. In 2015, Ines won for “Best Collection”, assigned by the public, and “Best Pair of Women’s Shoes” at the AcrobActic competition with her “Ícaro” collection, which was then exhibited in the Anabela Baldaque store in Lisbon. In 2016, she won second place in Portugal Fashion’s Bloom, in addition to the Vogue Award, awarded by the public at the Porto Fashion Film Festival with the film, “Icarus.”
David Catalàn
David Catalàn received his degree in interior design from the School of Arts in Corella, and later continued on to the La Rioja School of Design and the Higher Institute of Art and Design in Matosinhos, where he obtained a degree in Fashion and Clothing Design. He is among one of the finalists in the Bloom competition, also thanks to the professional experience he gained through an internship with Maria Gambina and to a period as assistant to Júlio Torcato. He later became creative director of his own label and fashion designer for Denim Blue. David was selected winner for best collection in New RootsAW13 and won first place at the “Muestra Nacional de Jovenes Diseñadores”, as well as the Mediterranean Fashion Award.
Sara Maia
Born in Porto in 1989, the young designer, Sara Maia, began her academic career in the fashion industry by attending fashion school in Porto. She finished her studies in 2008, and moved to the Citex, where she completed her training in 2011 and started to work with various designers in the national fashion scene, until the year that followed, when she won the first young designers’ award at Bloom in Portugal Fashion, and then moved to London, where she worked for various brands, including Marques’Almeida, Aitor Throup, and Maharishi, thanks to her meticulous approach in tailoring and her attention towards detail in creating garments with a contemporary look and impeccable in their volumes and cuts.
Pedro Neto
Pedro Neto is a womenswear and accessories brand based in Porto, founded in 2013 by the same Pedro Neto who, after attending fashion school in Porto in 2010 – he was selected to participate in Portugal Fashion with his project last year, inspired by Keith Arnatt’s book, “Self Burial” – catalyzing the media’s attention. He continued his fashion design studies in another school in Porto, then presented his work in the Bloom platform at Portugal Fashion Week. He was named “emerging new talent for 2015”, thanks to the maturity he reached in his work, appearing on various media, such as Vogue Portugal, and receiving excellent feedback for his sexy, sophisticated style that plays on asymmetrical cuts, deconstructions, and silhouettes that look towards the future . He, again, received mention for “2016’s Young New Talent”, and was subsequently invited to present his work at London Fashion Week.
UN T
The UN T brand stems from the creativity of Thiago Silva and Joana Cardinale who, after earning a degree in Fashion Design from the Modatex institute in Porto, they dedicated themselves to their label, emerging from a mutual interest in the visual arts, with the main objective of using unusual and reused materials and developing a new vision of formal constructions that are uniquely handmade. UN T is a mix of an avant-garde aesthetic and an avant-garde approach that is based on concepts of beauty and sustainability, becoming one of the most innovative and interesting brands of the new generation. Futuristic garments that, in some cases, lose their physiognomy to become works of art.
Klar
KLAR is a young, innovative, and sophisticated brand that oscillates between the use of technology and sustainability. Alexandre Marrafeiro, Andreia Oliveira, and Tiago Carneiro are the brand’s designers, and their creations produce a personal inventive universe where ideas and shapes are transformed and engage the body in a conceptual experience. Bringing together these different experiences, individual backgrounds, and singular perspectives in the field of fashion, design, and visual arts, KLAR creates and translates this universe for a new audience. Through the pragmatic use of technology and collaborations within various fields, they blend past and future in their collections, along with clean motifs, ceremonial traditions, and ancestral tribes, through a direct and sophisticated aesthetic, which creates an urban and very modern wardrobe.
EMP – Escola de Moda do Porto – promotes creativity and innovation in the works of its students, increasing their skills and qualifications according to the current needs of the textile and fashion industries through providing up-to-date practical and technological know-how, capable of offering students the appropriate tools for expressing their creativity, but also with the perspective of entering the working world.
The courses offered seek in providing students with innovative solutions and meeting the needs of a large and rapidly changing market, in combination with controlling technological and production tools, actual demands and skills management, from conception to production, in a complete and thorough training process that aims towards acquiring a consciousness that is capable of shaping new agents in the field.
The Modatex Institute – Professional Training Centre for the Textile, Apparel, and Wool Industry – was founded in 2011 on the basis of an agreement between the Institute of Employment and Professional Training (IEFP, IP), the Textile and Clothing Association of Portugal (ATP), the National Association of Clothing Manufacturers (ANIVEC / APIV), and the National Association of Wool Industries (ANIL) .This national Center, based in Porto with branches in Lisbon and Covilhã, centers in Vila das Aves and Barcelos, and offices in Pinhel, Lousada, and Marco de Canaveses, aims towards improving strategic and operative training in the sector, in order to respond more effectively to the qualification needs and to the improvement and re-training of individuals and organizations, as well as towards providing close technical support to all stakeholders in the textile and clothing industry. The partnership between Modatex and Portugal Fashion was founded in 2011 and, since then, several finalists have had the opportunity to experience the entire process through the presentation of a collection in a fashion show: from designing the pieces to their production, without neglecting all the logistics associated with it. The end result usually culminates in a fashion show within the Bloom platform of Portugal Fashion.
