Last weekend Lisbon opened its fancy, tiled doors to a host of fashionistas for ModaLisboa – Fashion Week Lisbon. This was not my first trip to cover the obscure fashion week and hopefully isn't the last!
Hosted in the beautiful Pátio da Galé buildings the event kicked off with designs from sculptor and jeweller Valentim Quaresma.
His structural pieces of dreamscape body amour glimmered on the catwalk: handmade mainly from low denomination coins, recycled and salvaged metal parts in a workshop in Lisbon this showed the gritty, new design talent that is hiding in Lisbon waiting to explode onto the worldwide fashion scene.
While Lisbon has a set of established, sophisticated and wearable designers; ModaLisboa also hosts some of the hottest new designers that push the boundaries of wearable fabrics, shapes and art.
A fabric that has recently become popular with designers across the world is Neoprene. This rubbery little number was used by designer Ricardo Dourado with an ethnic print of bold florals.
The strength and thickness of this fabric enabled the designer to create structure and bolshie silhouettes as well as offering the opportunity to laser cut intricate patterns and holes creating a thick mesh.
Ricardo Dourado’s collections have caught media attention in the past as the designer has always aimed to shock, accessorising with gang tattoos and blinging gang signs in previous collections.
A huge designer name to come out of Lisbon is Luis Buchinho, showing in Paris each season before showing in the beautiful city of Lisbon.
The catwalk show took place outside, in the arches of Patio de Gale, making the most of the stunning architecture which was mirrored in the strong, clean lines of the collection.
With a strong core colour palette of scarlet, black and white the collection was entirely wearable, reaching out to a wide range of ages with classic jackets and coats that held a contemporary twist and trimmed with shiny, sexy leather.
The monotone palette and clean, clinical lines were followed in menswear by designer Ricardo Andrez mixing utility fabrics and sportswear with tailoring to showcase a funky but functional collection.
Trending colours this season seemed to be sand tones, deep chocolate browns, velvety maroon and fiery red; mainly accessorised with clinical white or black.
A popular style throughout shows was the over sizing of outwear and tops. Armholes were cut as slits rather than full sleeves and the shoulders structured to create a purposefully expanded silhouette, which is more wearable than you would think!
The deep sleeves that extended this shape added to the deconstructed, minimal edge of many strong collections.
Shying away from colour trends somewhat and storming out on a new limb was LAB designer Vitor who used huge, balloon shrimp props on the runway, opened with a caped rollerblader and showed a range of fantastical prints and jailhouse stripes.
The collection titled, somewhat egotistically, VITOLOGY attempted to start a new religion, using distorted, recreated images of the gods, a warrior cat, a three eyed wise pug and a fabulous unicorn.
Styling is key in so many fashion collections, taking the collection from good to fantastic with well styled hair, makeup and accessories.
Alexandra Moura's collection of velvet, mock croc and triangular structured sleeves featured oriental looking piles of hair pinned to the top of the head with dark defined eye makeup adding a mysterious, exotic feel to the collection.
Many designers chose a flowing, waved hair-do that however trendy it is, can be underwhelming in comparison.
Severe high necklines and mid-length hems featured through many designers showcases reminiscent of a school mistress, a theme heavily explored by Dino Alves who had a class of school children sat on raised platforms throughout the entire collection.
He then continued the theme of education through alphabet based prints and short school-boy shorts in menswear.
Fur was used in bands across the body, widening the silhouette in odd areas, occasionally a band across the hips made a piece totally unwearable such as a satin and fur dress from Filipe Faisca but this was invariably contrasted by luxurious wearable pieces directly afterwards.
Another designer to use fur was Ricardo Dourado who created wacky and wonderful shapes with contrasting khaki and teal fur.
Leather and fake leather was used in a range of collections, trimming garments and creating structured pieces in collections from Luis Buchinho, Ricardo Preto, Nuno Baltazar, Os Burgueses and Alexandra Moura.
Aleksandar Protic used leather panels across the shoulders of black garments to create structure.
Chic, well tailored capes smoothed the silhouette and with splits for arm holes this new, soft cape is a brilliant addition to the runway and to any wardrobe as shown by Ricardo Preto.
Menswear integrated with women swear in many collections and strong, unique tailoring showed incredible skill from larger designer names such as Nuno Gama and Miguel Vieira.
Vieira’s collections have been consistently strong, last season showing an acid infused yacht trip and this season mellowing for a winter in the country with large floral prints, double breasted, grey tweed and dainty polka dots in muted tones.
The womenswear in contrast showed a powerful, sexy femme: gun metal sequins, silk, deep slashed necklines and a formfitting yet painfully chic silhouette.
Similarly Nuno Baltazar's collections always seem to hold classic pieces in high esteem such as the full, flared leg jumpsuit, worn with other sized sunglasses and a metallic gold belt - not to mention elbow length leather gloves. This collection was more suited to a James Bond set than the Portuguese high street!
Nuno Gama, known for his menswear and for his casting creates a spectacle of 50 of the most attractive men in Portugal.
The collection featured a traditional style print with flashes of red oversized bow ties. The slick mens tailoring featuring cropped jackets and tight fitting trousers gave way to more casual wear. The casual jackets featured bulky fox fur collars; fleece and t-shirts bore a decahedron print.
This season also presented a new line of jewellery - modelled shirtless by the beautiful Nuno Gama boys, who were also holding puppies to close ModaLisboa. Be still my beating heart! Thank you Nuno!
Last season sports and utility styling and fabrics were shown throughout most collections and this seems to have dissolved over the last six months somewhat, however SayMyName, Vitor, Os Burgueses and Filipe Faisca still upheld these edgy, urban values utilising drawstring waists, exposed metal zips, chunky knit and wooly hats.
ModaLisboa's designers are improving every season, the quality of the garments getting better and better.
Many of the designers are battling to show in London as are most designers based in Europe and many of the designers have online stores that will deliver to the UK - production in Portugal is becoming more popular which improves costs for you and me, the consumer!
Find out more about ModaLisboa: www.modalisboa.pt
Find out more about Jemima Daisy here: jemimadaisy.blogspot.com
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here