It all started with the idea that it is the differences that make each person unique. And, like a personal and intimate wardrobe, the Pedro Pedro collection contains many different elements. Among checkered tailoring pieces, knitted dresses and fur coats, a snakeskin coat or a tie-dye shorts suit appeared by surprise, proof that what is different is part of the whole and that Pedro Pedro knows how to achieve it. maintaining the urban, young and cool DNA that characterizes it.

Another proof that two heads are better than one is the way this brand works together. Pedro Pedro is the designer and Ricardo Balbino is the stylist, but the work is organic and both participate in the other’s process. “We play this game back and forth a lot,” Ricardo tells the Observer. They are also joined by the artist Rita Caldo, in what they call her community of artists in Porto, who created the jewelry in this collection from plastic bottles, with beads and sequins. And Maria Ferreira, “the DJ who plays us songs, gets into our heads and creates history”, says Pedro Pedro. “It is the glue of the final presentation”, adds Ricardo.

And now, where to buy Pedro Pedro’s creations? For now it is possible to place orders through social networks, since they still do not have any point of sale in the country. They are preparing a physical presence in Rome, in a multi-brand store, and they have “one foot in Japan and one foot in France.” As for an online store, the project should take place at the end of this summer, because they say that the spring/summer 2023 collection “has been accepted”, but they are not betting on a definitive date. They decided to do things calmly and at their own pace, explains Ricardo, and bet first on international fashion fairs, such as Tranoi in Paris, where they were already present this March. Pedro Pedro had returned to fashion shows exactly one year ago when he spoke to the Observer.

Pedro’s return Pedro to Portugal Fashion: “I think I still have something to say”

To see, discover and touch. Pé de Chumbo sensory collection

After waiting a long time for Alexandra Oliveira, much in demand after the show, to ask him about the history of the new Pé de Chumbo collection, we learned that, after all, there is no history. When she found out that she would be at Portugal Fashion two weeks ago, she took the material that she had developed to take to fairs and put together a collection. There were streetwear jumpers and jackets that needed a bottom to complete the look, and there were even a number of gold creations, which don’t usually appear in shows, although they are a hit in Middle Eastern countries and Turkey.

The designer confesses that there was no time to think about any story, but in the end she agrees that it turned out well. On the runway we saw many dresses constructed from a web of ribbons and fringe in very feminine silhouettes. As it is a winter collection, there is streetwear, the designer’s favorite theme, which she says is the root of Pé de Chumbo. Alexandra Oliveira likes to experiment and, when things turn out well for her, she continues to develop them. Sometimes, between errors and discoveries, new things come out. Like a new material that seemed to create a puzzle with patches of color. Actually, it is raw material, that is, textile waste that is pressed and results in a new texture to work with.

Surrealism and waiting by Diogo Miranda

The wait was long. When the Diogo Miranda parade began, 50 minutes had already passed after the time indicated on the calendar. With everything going at 9:30 p.m., as agreed, we had to wait for a dinner at Portugal Fashion to finish, but in another part of the city. While the press and guests finished their meal, the showroom filled up and, almost at the time of the Miguel Vieira fashion show, the Diogo Miranda collection entered the scene.

The designer, whose label turned 15 last year, delved into the surreal aesthetic and made the models a series of divas dressed in clothing inspired by the 1930s and 1940s. Optical effects were the basis of the work. Then details like cold shoulders, gloves, and high-collar coats added sensuality and sophistication. In the end, the show ended with a bride, as per the Haute Couture tradition.

A happy ending with Miguel Vieira

When the carts with the Miguel Vieira collection (hidden in black covers) crossed the showroom, empty at that moment, on their way backstage, their creator would surely be nearby. So it was. Miguel Vieira appeared and, without hesitation, answered the Observer’s questions, always with a ready smile and answers up his sleeve. When he found out that he was going to show in Portugal Fashion, two weeks ago, the collection had already been ready since December, as dictated by international calendars. With everything ready and without apparent stress, we started with the theme of the collection that would close the third day of Portugal Fashion shows.

The poem “Ne me quitte pas” (“Don’t leave me”) by Jacques Brel, which in 1959 became music, set the tone and set the pace for the collection. “It’s a song that applies to most people,” explains the designer. “I think we’ve all been through a love situation, from youth to this day, where someone has left us.” He says that, in addition to being a song that he really likes, it also fits perfectly into the setting of the parade space. “It’s a very elegant and very French song and then there’s this whole graffiti side, and the contrast is nice.” It’s important to reassure fans that the music is in no way a reflection of a stage in the designer’s life. “Everything is great, nobody left me!”

And how does a song inspire clothes? In this case, with the name itself in prints and embroidery. For Miguel Vieira, the palette of cold tones, such as white and gray, convey the nostalgia to which this song appeals, while the vibrant yellow tone with which the show ends awakens joy and creativity. Between suits for men and light and sensual dresses for women, it’s the details that make the difference. As it is about Miguel Vieira, there are a series of details of the firm that could not be missing. If the logo with the wings and the color black are already recognizable, perhaps the painted nails of the men are missing to convey a message of versatility, or the alliances that the men wear in all the shows, as if they were married to the brand .

Carolina Sobral, Estelita Mendonça and the designers of the Canex company, The Cloth and Awa Meite, also contributed to the history of this third day of fashion shows.

A fashion show or a walk through the stories of the Grande Hotel do Porto?

The Katty Xiomara show was scheduled for 2:30 pm at the Grande Hotel do Porto, on the famous Rua de Santa Catarina, but 40 minutes before the hour, the hustle and bustle was still not felt. Perhaps he was hiding behind the scenes, behind the doors and corridors, because, as the hotel manager, Bárbara Moreira told us, the entire team was mobilized to help with this event.

Downstairs, the function room served as backstage for the models to dress, do their makeup and do their hair, and as they lined up the stairwell, we took a walk down the route that took from the catwalk hotel corridors and past four rooms. The closest to the hotel entrance is the Reading Room, where the sofas invite you to sit down and the decoration in deep tones makes it the first step in an immersive journey into the hotel’s historical atmosphere. It is followed by The Windsor Bar, which owes its name to a tribute to an illustrious guest: the Duke of Windsor, uncle of Queen Elizabeth II who abdicated the British throne for love of Wallis Simpson. However, it is not known if the Duchess accompanied him, but António Moreira, the reception manager who for more than 40 years has seen all the faces that pass through the hotel doors, believes so. Then The Windsor Gastro Bar, which in another life was the Winter Garden. A space with natural light and decorated with spring inspiration, in light tones and floral upholstery. Along the way, to appeal to one more sense, the palate, there were trays with four varieties of sweets created by the Porto School of Hospitality and Tourism.

At the end of the corridor, after going through several doors and souvenirs on the walls, the doors of the Salão D. Pedro II open, the emperor of Brazil who returned to Portugal in 1889 and settled in the Grande Hotel do Porto. However, the stay was not one of happy memories, because it was there that, a few days before Christmas of that same year, his Empress, Teresa Cristina, died. D. Pedro lived in the hotel for a few more months, but ended up leaving for Paris, taking with him the bed where his wife had died, which he had bought at the hotel. The restaurant hall was completely dismantled and although it did not serve lunch, it had to be put back together in time for dinner.

Katty Xiomara is making the hotel’s uniforms and since the partnership’s inception, the idea of ​​holding a fashion show there has been in the air, until the opportunity to make it a reality arose. This is not the first parade that has been held in this bastion, which will be 143 years old in March. Many years ago, private parades of large stores were held there for customers, as the traditions of the time dictated. But it will be the first big fashion show today.

Katty Xiomara’s collection is called “Vermilion” and immediately heralds what is to come, a show all painted in shades of red. “It is the color that has the most intense, strongest, most radicalized, polarized dualities and it is, in fact, red,” Katty Xiomara tells the Observer. “The idea was to base ourselves on what color transmits to us, on the contrasts it has.” On the catwalk we saw a typical Katty Xiomara collection, very feminine and delicate, worked in different shades of her light color.

The Venezuelan designer says that it is something strange and even a risk, in relation to what she usually does, but she confesses that for a long time she wanted to work on an entire collection with a single color and the idea arose when she saw the film. “Hero” (2002) for some years, because in the film each chapter has a different color. Red was also the inspiration for the makeup for this show. They were “defined and smoky lines in red tones”, explained the makeup artist Isabel Sampaio, which resulted in the application of brushstrokes of this color in three different interpretations, on the upper eyelid, on the lower eyelid and on the lips.

In the collection we saw the symbol of a hand worked in different ways. “The hand supports us and also makes the stop sign”, explains the designer, who adds that it is also an allusion to the alliance that she has with the National Association of Road Safety (ANSR). The shoes were creating a red stain effect which Katty explained was not a representation of blood, but rather a representation of “path” and “wear”, so some shoes were more stained than others. The fashion show was accompanied by a performance. The actresses Carolina Alegria, Inês Fonseca, Joana Mesquita and Margarida Carvalho interpreted texts written by Katty Xiomara and Cati Freitas in monologues, dressed in red, of course.