All Image Credit Portugal Fashion Week, Portugal Fashion on Facebook and Participating Designers
Portugal Fashion Week celebrated 50 years of feisty fashion with an impressive 30 designers showing their collections live on the runway. It was HOT with new talent, the energy was palpable, the enthusiasm unstoppable! And if there’s one trend that was overriding at this Autumn Winter 2022/3 fashion week, it was COLOUR! Colours were unapologetic, they were bright, they were everywhere – as if designers had enough of the past couple of years’ inoffensive loungewear for cosying up in the obscurity of one’s own home! It was a refreshing affair, to say the least, the addition of the presence of a contingent of African designers – who never shy away from colour added to the va va voom! It was an ode to parties and dinners outdoors, to days at the Mediterranean and evening celebrations at rooftop restaurants and city cafes.
The Alfândega do Porto, with its stunningly scenic views of the Douro River and the hills of Lisbon, hosted this event once again. Apart from the live shows there were discussions, showrooms and launches, and parties! All events were very well attended – no empty seats to be found anywhere!
There was an epic fashion trail throughout the city, with catwalks in places other than the Alfândega such as Diogo Miranda’s runway, the Ernest W Baker’s installation at the Ateneu Comercial do Porto and the inauguration of the exhibition Portugal Pop, A Moda em Portugues 1970-2020 at the Casa do Design in Matosinhos. Here at least 40 sensational designers shaping the history of fashion in Portugal were strutting their stuff. To boot, to visitors and locals alike, the city of Lisbon looked spectacular from the vantage point of all these scenic portals.
‘Incubator platform’ Bloom once again promoted young design talent such as David Catalán, Estelita Mendonça, Hugo Costa, Inês Torcato, Susana Bettencourt, Unflower and the young designer Carolina Sobral. Creative Africa Nexus (CANEX) focused on promoting African designers, 8 of which were represented at Portugal Fashion Week. There were forums dedicated to jewellery and footwear, bags and leather goods with shows by Luís Onofre, amongst others. Fashion schools took to the opportunity to showcase the work of their students and promote fashion education in Portugal, all to an impressively high standard. Hair and beauty wizards created their own fantastic sideshows to the main events.
We’ve struggled to contain the collection of goodies in this article – the talent was so inspiring and vast it was an almost impossible task to single out just a few. Join us for a snapshot of this hugely inspiring fashion week.
VIVA VIVACIOUS COLOUR!
Colour, delicious colour, was the signature of this Autumn Winter 2022/3 fashion bonanza. Colours were vibrant and unashamedly vivid – from brightest primaries – reds, blues, greens, yellows … to neons of all shades and saturated ‘off-shades’ like chartreuse, lavender, poison green and petrol blue. If one was to single out one shade that popped up in many places, it was ORANGE! From peach melba to tangerine and rust, life-giving, warm, optimistic, extroverted and flamboyant shades of orange were the stars of the show. Colour blocking and the combining of unusual colour palettes (e.g. red and green which should ‘never be seen!’) worked very well, as did the quirky combination of red and pink as seen in various collections.
OLE TACTILE TEXTURE!
Texture provided the tactile and crafty element that was so prevalent in Portugal Fashion Week 2022/3 for Fall. Knitwear and crocheted pieces adorned many of the collections, as did macramé, patchwork and embroidery, to fabulous effect. These hand-crafted specialities gave pieces a sense of individuality and a touch of the hand-made. Many collections had a decidedly ‘slow-fashion’ feel to them, often thanks to the exquisite textured details that embellished either entire garments or strategic parts thereof. Fused lace effects, bold fabric weaving, origami folding techniques, faux fur, bubble padding and even metallic knitting were seen in the offerings – all extremely inspiring and inviting to the touch!
OLE SURFACE PATTERNS!
From tie-dyed ‘cow patterns’ to classic leopard print, from tartan to plaid, from polka dots to stripes, textile surfaces were vibrant, youthful and characterful – a far cry from the somewhat stayed ‘mature’ and mostly black collections we’ve seen in previous fashion capitals this season! Interesting looks came about with designers boldly mixing different prints, or mixing prints with weaves in ‘clashing’ and non-traditional combinations. Leather insets created unique pieces with memorable surface patterns. Equally, ingenious patchwork inlays made many of the garments into one-off heirlooms, as did the creative application of oversized lettering and overt branding.
MALLEABLE METALLICS
Shimmery shine never quite loses its everlasting allure and in Portugal Fashion Week Fall 2022/3 metallics came in all shades – from silver and gold to rust and chocolate, teal and petrol blue, and they were sizzlingly hot! Even leather and faux leather got the metallics treatment – to fabulous effect – and some ensembles featured a double or treble dose of metallics. The ingenious combination of woven woollens or knits with metallics offered very interesting contrasts.
CLASSIC (BUT WITH A TWIST)
The classic certainly got a good dose of the avant-garde from various designers. Classic sportwear got cropped, chopped, deconstructed and elongated, classic tailoring got quirky additions, asymmetry and slashes for effect. Classic British tailoring featured in many of the collections, but oftentimes these were modified by these forward-thinking designers to take on novel shapes.
We’ll leave you with a last look, one that sums up the festive spirit at these Fall 2022/3 collections: a bit of texture, some surface embellishments, scalloped edges, padding, plaid, tartan and innovative hair and beauty, COLOUR, COLOUR, COLOUR!
Adeus, goodbye until next time!
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