In its 51st edition, Portugal Fashion opened to the city and traced a fashion route in the heart of Porto. ESAP – Porto Artistic School, Monastery of S. Bento da Vitória, Museum of Natural History and Science of the University of Porto, Alfândega do Porto, Palácio da Bolsa, Oficina do Ferro, Mercado do Bolhão, Soares […]
In its 51st edition, Portugal Fashion opened to the city and traced a fashion route in the heart of Porto. ESAP – Porto Artistic School, Monastery of S. Bento da Vitória, Museum of Natural History and Science of the University of Porto, Alfândega do Porto, Palácio da Bolsa, Oficina do Ferro, Mercado do Bolhão, Soares dos Reis National Museum and Passeio dos Clérigos were the stopping points of an itinerary with more than 40 parades and presentations, which spread throughout the city the main trends for the next hot season.
The 51st Portugal Fashion spring/summer 2023 kicked off with an official ceremony on the 11th and continued with four days of fashion shows from the 12th to the 15th of October. Agatha Ruiz de la Prada was the special guest of this edition, where the new collections of 66 designers and brands were revealed, including Alexandra Moura, Alves/Gonçalves, David Catalán, Decenio by Gonçalo Peixoto (debuting at the event), Diogo Miranda, Estelita Mendonça, Fly London, Hugo Costa, Katty Xiomara, Luís Onofre, Maria Gambina, Marques’Almeida, Miguel Vieira, Pé de Chumbo, Pedro Pedro, Sophia Kah and Susana Bettencourt.
The fashion event organized by ANJE – National Association of Young Entrepreneurs – left its comfort zone and ventured into nine emblematic spaces of Porto, reinforcing its relationship with the city where it was born and established itself. Portugal Fashion, in this edition, no longer has a nerve center, usually the Alfândega do Porto, to bet on an itinerant runway, which travels through the downtown area of the city in a symbiosis between fashion, architecture, culture and cosmopolitanism. The fashion shows gain renewed scenery every day, a circumstance that accentuates the scenographic component of the event and creates an interactive dynamic with the city. The runway occupied public spaces and even the street, resulting in a greater involvement with the urban dynamics of Porto. A route with different aesthetic coordinates is thus created in the city: from author fashion to commercial lines, including proposals from young designers and collections of African creators, under the CANEX project.
“The organization of fashion shows in monumental buildings, with contemporary architecture or eminently urban, as in this edition of Portugal Fashion, allows a more refined scenographic work. This work reinforces the spectacular dimension and the promotional capacity of the parades and allows creators and brands to better express their authorial language and their aesthetic universes. This itinerancy and opening to the city was an old ambition of ours”, explains Portugal Fashion’s director, Mónica Neto.
The relocation of the parades of this 51st edition is also explained in light of the recent creation of the FASHION RE.PORT Committee, a think tank that brings together the key players in the fashion ecosystem of Porto and the North region. The idea of this committee is, from a rigorous characterization of the fashion industry at local and regional level, to define strategies and launch challenges for the development of the ecosystem, nationally and internationally. The FASHION RE.PORT Committee is composed of several entities (municipalities, industry associations, public agencies, businesses and other stakeholders in the sector), and is led by the Municipality of Porto and Portugal Fashion, which strengthened their institutional partnership.
“This edition is also a tribute to Porto, Portugal Fashion’s hometown. We wanted to strengthen the relationship of complicity between Portugal Fashion and the city of Porto, with parades in symbolic spaces of its renewed and lively historic center. Not least because the event now has, and even better, a closer collaboration with the Porto City Council, which, as part of its strategy to boost the city’s economy and support its creative industries, sees the Portugal Fashion as an element of local and regional affirmation”, adds Mónica Neto.
The Porto City Hall was the main institutional partner of this 51st Portugal Fashion, which also had the support of Afreximbank (through the CANEX project), Mota Engil Africa and other private sponsors. This set of partners and support allowed to mitigate the absence of community funding for the event, an unprecedented fact in the 26 years of Portugal Fashion’s history.
“Once the event’s application to Compete 2020 was exhausted and it was not possible, in time, to reinforce the funds under the same program, Portugal Fashion was a victim of the hiatus that usually occurs between the end of a community support framework and the operationalization of a new community framework. And so, for the first time in its history, Portugal Fashion did not receive community funding as a project to promote the competitiveness and internationalization of the national economy, as it demonstrably is”, clarifies Mónica Neto.
Agatha witnessed the quality of the made in Portugal
After the opening cocktail of the event, on the 11th, the 51st Portugal Fashion planned for the next four days, from 12th to 15th October, 41 shows/presentations, involving 66 designers and brands. Of these, 17 are international but with activity or business prospects in Portugal in the areas of design, production and marketing of fashion. Highlight for the show, as a special guest, Agatha Ruiz de la Prada, on the 12th by 22h00, at the Monastery of São Bento da Vitória. The participation of the Spanish designer was inserted in a new heading of the event, entitled: “Made in Portugal Special Guest”. In this section, Portugal Fashion honors major international designers who produce their collections in Portugal, thus promoting the excellence of the national textile and clothing industry and the
made in Portugal in general. About 90% of the production of Agatha Ruiz de la Prada’s brand, namely her fashion lines for children, women and home, is made in Portugal. This speaks well of the designer’s confidence in our textile and clothing industry, which guarantees her a high quality end product. “It is important to produce in trusted places and Portugal is trusted,” said Agatha Ruiz de la Prada in an interview.
Agatha Ruiz de la Prada (Madrid 1960) is one of the greatest designers of all time, having distinguished herself by perfectly reconciling the industrial and commercial side of her work with the creative side, thus meeting the founding principle of Portugal Fashion: to bring the industry and creativity together. The Agatha Ruiz de la Prada brand includes more than 100 licenses for fashion accessories and other products. Ceramic tiles, bedding and household linen, books, pet articles, perfumes and stationery are examples of the many products
are examples of the many products bearing her brand name that are sold in Agatha Ruiz de la Prada stores and in multi-brand stores around the world.
On the other hand, the designer awarded the 2017 National Fashion Design Award by the Spanish Ministry of Education, Culture and Sport makes her creations true works of art and crosses her creative work with multiple artistic expressions. Moreover, her creations have been exhibited in galleries and museums and the designer has been responsible for closet and sets for theater, opera and dance. It is also important to remember that in 2011 the Agatha Ruiz de la Prada Foundation was created, an entity that preserves and disseminates the personal, documentary and creative legacy that the designer built during her remarkable journey of over thirty years in the world of fashion and art.
Still on the international side, the 3rd edition of CANEX Presents Africa @ Portugal Fashion deserves a particular reference. This event brought together ten designers and brands of African origin, in some cases inserted in the Bloom runway, dedicated to young designers. The CANEX program (acronym for Creative Africa Nexus) results from a partnership between ANJE, through Portugal Fashion, and the African export-import bank Afreximbank, aiming to promote the African textile and clothing industry in our country. The CANEX Presents Africa @ Portugal Fashion works as a development platform for emerging African designers, providing them with the strengthening of skills through mentoring by Portuguese industry experts, as well as opportunities to access the market through specialized support in production, sales and marketing.
Program brings together designer fashion and commercial lines
But it is the shows of creators and national brands in the fashion industry (clothing, footwear and accessories) that dominated the programming of this 51st edition of Portugal Fashion. It was possible to see the collections for next season by Alexandra Moura, Alves/Gonçalves, Carolina Sobral, David Catalán, Davii, Decenio by Gonçalo Peixoto, Diogo Miranda, Estelita Mendonça, Hugo Costa, Katty Xiomara, Luís Onofre, Maria Gambina, Marques’Almeida, Miguel Vieira, NOPIN, Nuno Miguel Ramos, Pé de Chumbo, Pedro Pedro, Sophia Kah and Susana Bettencourt. There were also shows of young designers on the Bloom runway, this time with four national designers and brands (Maria Carlos Batista, Diogo Van der Sandt, AHCOR and HUARTE) and five African designers and brands. The promotion of new fashion talents was also made with the final of the international contest of new talents Rebelpin by ACTE (12th, at 18h30, in the Monastery of São Bento da Vitória) and with the final of the Bloom Portugal Fashion competition powered by Zeitreel Sonae (13th, at 18h00, in the Customs House of Porto).
Also of note are the presentations and promotional events with the menswear duo Ernest W. Baker (13th, at 1:30pm, in the brand’s studio), with Obsidian by Cláudia Vieira, Gabriela Pinheiro and Raquel Vasconcelos (13th, at 7:30pm, at Mira Mira, World of Wine, in Gaia), and at the Wrong Weather store (15th, at 9pm). Also worth mentioning is the official Sanjo X Portugal Fashion party at Pérola Negra nightclub, starting at 11:30 PM on the 14th, and the “Chefes no Bolhão” lunch, on the 15th, at Mercado do Bolhão.
This edition also included the traditional Portugal Fashion Showroom, where the collections of the designers and brands that participated in the event could be seen. This time, the showroom gained a street showcase, in Rua das Carmelitas, in a partnership that involved the chain Marques Soares and Tranoï, Portugal Fashion’s trade show partner. In addition, El Corte Inglés Gaia Porto hosted a pop up with creations from designers of Portugal Fashion.
Finally, it is also worth mentioning the usual parade with footwear and accessories brands, in which the quality, creativity and sophistication of the Made in Portugal products in these sectors of the fashion industry are clearly shown. The collections of Ambitious, Felmini, Fly London, J. Reinaldo, Leather Goods by Belcinto, Nobrand, and Rufel have taken to the runway on the 13th at 21h30.
As already mentioned, Portugal Fashion is a fashion event organized for 26 years by ANJE and that, in this edition, had the support of the Porto City Hall, Afreximbank (through the CANEX project), Mota Engil Africa and other private sponsors.
