By Contributor
Images Courtesy of Portugal Fashion
March 19, 2015
Porto, Portugal – From March 25 – 28 and under the “Reflector” theme, Portugal Fashion will celebrate 20 years of promoting Portuguese fashion, textiles and manufacturing sectors with the organization of the 36th edition of its catwalk shows. In the year that it celebrates 20 years of existence and after an intense international campaign with stopovers in Madrid, London and Paris, the project by ANJE – National Association of Young Entrepreneurs promises to continue to amaze in the national territory, betting once more on a national format with interactive stopovers in the cities of Lisbon and Porto. Once again the capital will welcome the first day of the fashion shows, while the “invicta” (Porto) remains the headquarters of the calendar. Portugal Fashion thus maintains the logic of connection with the cities and dispersal of the runways, following the organisational method of the big international fashion weeks. However, the announcement of the spaces involved is a secret to be revealed only closer to the event.
Miguel Vieira
Portugal Fashion was born in 1995 and has, over the past two decades, gained a culture of creativity focused on fashion. Over these last 20 years, and thanks to the project, it has gained new audiences, developed new technical skills, created new professional opportunities, produced new goods and services, generated new perspectives of internationalisation and imposed new promotional routes in the world of fashion. Furthermore, due to its experience in organising events and developing strategies for the promotion of the international row, Portugal Fashion has managed to promote a closer and more fruitful relationship between the industrial fabric and designers. It has played a key role in launching new talents, namely through the Bloom platform which today takes on the mission to launch, on a global scale, the young talents of Portuguese fashion.
Mafalda Fonseca
To mirror this 20-year path by means of the creative traits of national designers is the purpose of the 36th PORTUGAL FASHION REFLECTOR. The concept of this edition thus takes us back to the idea of a developing agent, which disseminates creativity, shapes, textures and colours. The various runways of Portugal Fashion will be, over the four days of the event, the multiple faces of a mirror, responsible for spreading trends for the upcoming winter, sending out creative reflections in different directions. The goal is to trigger a movement that involves sectoral players, economic operators and urban communities as a whole.
The protagonists of this movement will be, as always, the designers. Prominent names like Fátima Lopes, Storytailors, Katty Xiomara, Luís Buchinho, Miguel Vieira, Luís Onofre, Diogo Miranda and Susana Bettencourt will join national brands such as Dielmar, Tm Collection, Lion of Porches or Vicri. In the increasingly internationalized Bloom Space, the young designers will prove the full potential of innovation and renewal of the sector. On its 36th edition, Portugal Fashion will again devote a good part of its program to fashion shows by young designers, reiterating its strategic vocation for discovering, supporting and promoting new talents of national fashion.
International and Commercial bets are also “reflected”
Diogo Miranda
To contribute to the leveraging of these names and for the strengthening of the already mentioned involvement of Portugal Fashion with the cities, particularly with Porto, there will also be an enlarged international entourage, with more than a hundred foreign guests expected, most of which are journalists and buying agents. The latter are the main audience of the Brand Up showroom, taking place at Alfândega do Porto in parallel with the fashion shows. This show of collections aims to offer designers and brands the opportunity to explore the purely promotional and commercial aspect of their activities, something that is complementary to the runway.
Regarding the promotion of Portuguese fashion across borders, it should be noted that the process of diffusion of the 2015-16 fall/winter proposals, which in the national edition will take on the concept of “REFLECTOR”, began in Madrid, where Portugal Fashion ensured the presence of Portugal as guest country of the Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Madrid. The international campaign continued with actions at the London Fashion Week and the Prêt-à-Porter Week in Paris.
