ModaLisboa CORE took place last weekend in Lisbon. ModaLisboa is a multidisciplinary project focused on the promotion and development of Portuguese fashion design. Founded in 1991, in partnership with Lisbon Municipality, it is a platform that brings together fashion shows, conferences, workshops, mentoring and exhibitions, designed for national and international audiences and markets. modalisboa.pt // @lisboafashionweek
It has a clear mission of raising awareness in the community for sustainability, inclusion and transparency, and it promotes the growth of fashion in Portugal through partnerships with the industry and continued work in conjunction with sectorial associations. Here are our 7 fave designers from ModaLisboa CORE:
1. CALL ME GORGEOUS BY LUÍS BORGES
BIG BANG is the great expansion. The definitive creation of the Call Me Gorgeous universe.
The definitive creation of a transparent time where the sky explodes with colour. The construction of a space where the theory of evolution is finally realised in uniqueness, where each and everyone can grow to be a constellation.
With a collection that ventures to other corners of the cosmos, with new materials, new shades, new sparkles and a design that detaches itself from earthly limitations, Call Me Gorgeous presents a Fashion Show of stories and personalities: in each one, a new Big Bang. Because time is not infinite, we’re the ones who can create space.
Acknowledgements: Carol Roquete, Griffehairstyle, Showpress.
www.instagram.com/luisborgesoficial
2. FILIPE AUGUSTO
Filipe Augusto’s FW23 collection is a continuation of SS23, developed under a contemporary perspective of some elements of traditional Portuguese clothing, with details that focus on buttoning using knots, more frequently in pieces such as the scarf and aprons.
You can see the richness in colours -— black, yellow, pink, blue —, prints and textures, highlighting once again the visual identity that the brand has been presenting as a reference to Portuguese culture. The materials come from the reuse of leftovers from past collections and others from headstock. www.instagram.com/filipeaugusto_studio
3. LUÍS CARVALHO
TOUCH
Based on touch, skin and the shapes of our body, the next cold season’s collection is born: TOUCH.
The artist Caroline Walls, who based her work on the movement of the female form, is the inspiration for the moulding of organic and fluid shapes, in a mix of skin tones that unite us in one piece. The brand’s DNA is always present in straight and oversized lines, amplified by the creation of several layers, in a collection built mostly without gender. Black, honey brown, sand, ecru, khaki green and grey are worked in materials such as woven, brocade, taffeta, twill and poplin.
Hair: Helena Vaz Pereira/Griffehairstyle.
Make-up: Antónia Rosa Atelier.
www.instagram.com/luiscarvalhoofficial
4. MUSTIQUE
Mustique is a fashion brand founded in Lisbon by two childhood friends – Vera Caldeira and Pedro Ferraz. Through colourful pieces and almost surrealist imagery, the boundaries between irreverence and sophistication are redefined. All collections are produced in Portugal.
MUSTIQUE WORLD
What is Mustique made of? A journey through the universe of the brand that seeks the unusual in the everyday and vice versa, exploring the threshold between fantasy and reality. Ideas are dressed up or take shape in idyllic settings, where mushrooms bloom and clouds pass slowly between the colours of the rainbow.
5. VALENTIM QUARESMA
MITHOLOGY, a collection inspired by mythological references. Post-destructive compositions and textures using manual textile manipulation techniques, in wool, polyester, suede, leather, and colours such as black, brown, grey and gold.
The vision of the future present in the jewellery is in dialogue with the dress codes of the Victorian era. www.instagram.com/valentimquaresma
6. NUNO GAMA
CATRINETA
We boarded this ship, at Gare Marítima de Alcântara, through the panels of Almada Negreiros, in a challenge of another journey, made of the opportunity of evolution between the brand and the rhythm of our clients, in the incessant perception of well-being in life and love for our nature.
We swing the silhouettes in codes of vintage elegance, in the valorization and counterposition of shapes/volumes, of menswear codes.
From back to the sea blues, we sighted the sand tones of Portuguese beaches so that, at twilight, we can find the soul that, in beautiful colours, transforms itself. We gave wind to natural, organic fabrics, recycled or reinterpreted in new techniques and new structures, in tasty bicolours or contrasting ones, thus calming wind and sea.
At the presentation for his spring/summer 2023 collection, Nuno Gama celebrated 30 years of registering his brand. www.instagram.com/ateliernunogama
7. BÉHEN
THE GOD OF SMALL THINGS
A restless search for the beauty of Small Things in materials and techniques that cross timelines and remind us of the ephemerality of life, of people. Even the ones that were supposed to be forever.
One, none, many Gods. All of them, or their absence, point directly to the vulnerability of the human condition: love. The one that insists on being independent of time and, therefore, can only be represented in detail: bare feet by the sea, metal flowers, ancestral techniques that are experimented over the technology of materials.
He was the God of Small Things: The wind hitting the cob, climbing the wooden stairs, the stirring of the winter vest and the simple act of crossing a leg. That love can only be all times at the same time.
BÉHEN’s AW23 collection returns to the exploration of traditional techniques such as Madeira embroidery; Glass embroidery from Viana do Castelo; São Jorge weaving; Chita de Alcobaça; Digital Print over Linen; Tinwork; Rattling Art; Laser cut; Textile manipulations; Arraiolos embroidery. The materials range from Linen, Lycra, Cotton, Wool, Brass, Metal, Fake Fur or Sherpa, to tech innovations Cork Leather, Grape Leather.
Special thanks to Jorge Barros. For having seen and captured the beauty of Small Things, for photographing Portugal and its festivals and traditions with the magic and sensitivity of someone who knows that time runs out.
