Showcasing the future of Portuguese fashion design
Canal180 joined Portugal Fashion to promote national talent in the fashion design field. Through the Bloom platform, young designers receive commercial and educational support to materialize their ideas in an event that happens integrated into the Portugal Fashion program.
Olímpia Davide, Maria Kobrock, David Catalán, Beatriz Bettencourt and Eduardo Amorim are some of the designers who present their work to the public on October 13, with live music by bands from the PAD catalog, a label based in Braga. At Palácio dos CTT, Porto.
Find out more about them, in the first person.
Olímpia Davide
22; Vila Nova de Gaia; ESAD Matosinhos
It all started from a trip made last year to Turkey. That was the starting point where all the inspiration came from. The look, the smell… Everything that I absorbed on that trip.
I followed two Turkish photographers as references: Yener Torun and Ara Guler. They are both very different. One of them tried to portray the unseen in Turkey: minimalist, conceptual and colorful buildings. Deep down, Turkey is exotic and super minimalist, and perhaps few people are aware of it.
The other reference is another Turkish photographer who tries to represent the reality of the Turkish people: how they lived, their suffering, their look or how Turkey was born in terms of population. So, I decided to make the contrast between what Turkey is today — which is already a big contrast — and what was born in Turkey. Thereof, emerges a relaxed collection with sportive elements with attitude, never forgetting the stylish element with a lot of asymmetry.
Fashion for me is a mean to express everything that we feel. Ideas, feelings… Even the smell! Everything that I believe is in fashion. It is, essentially, a form of expression. Fashion liberates me.
Maria Kobrock
23; Porto; EsMod Berlin
My collection is inspired by the writing of Albert Camus that explores the concept of the absurdism through an abstract exercise inspired by the gestualists from the 50’s.
According to Camus, man’s freedom and the opportunity to give life a meaning is through the recognition and the acceptance of the absurd — absurd refers to the conflict between the human tendency to seek the meaning of life and the indifferent silence of the universe before our existence. “What is happiness beyond the simple harmony between the man and the life he leads?”
Fashion for me is a social phenomenon that materializes itself through clothing, accessories and lifestyles. It can be considered as a temporal expression that reflects the mood of an individual, a group, a community or a society.
David Catalán
Alfaro (Spain); ESAD Matosinhos
This year, I will present a men’s collection: 26 pieces. The collection is inspired by a bar in London called Sketch whose style is art nouveau. It has a palette of pastel colors. The bar looks like it was created with materials of all kinds, so inside the bar you can find a kind of patchwork colors, materials and textures, and that was something that I tried to reflect in my collection. The bar is more classic but I adapted it to my style.
Fashion for me is an industry, but I try to create a more artistic part through all I see on the streets, everything that I like and everything I see, that could get interesting in a piece of clothing. That is my escape to present a more artistic side in a more commercial world.
Beatriz Bettencourt
21; Vale de Cambra; ESAD
My collection is called RETROGRADE and it portrays a retrograde movement almost till the childhood time. It is a collection with sporty lines with a naïf touch, in order to show the happiness and joy that we feel when we are kids, when we are innocent. It seeks to convey a positive and a nostalgic message, managing to relive those childhood days.
Fashion for me is a mean of communication, as something that serves to pass a message, ideas and thoughts. In this case, I think every designer tries to show how each one sees the world, because the way that we want people to dress says a lot about our way to see things. Overall, it’s all about this: the art combined with the function.
Eduardo Amorim
24; Santa Maria da Feira; ESAD Matosinhos
Bloom has a very good support for both young designers and established creators. It has all the access and facilities. The models and the performative part, where we do not have to think so deep, allows us to have more time to think on the creation part of clothing and on what we are really going to do.
My collection was based on the 90’s grunge. I’m doing dyeing with bleach and a trial with red wine, because red wine is one of the most important Portuguese references, a strong Portuguese trait. I still keep my working style: a counterbalance between a aesthetic and classic line with a sporty touch.
Fashion for me has a very subjective definition. It may be something that you see every day or something that surrounds you in the society. Depending on your definition of fashion, you can create your own style or you can go with the flow. It depends on what fashion means to you.
