Lisbon Fashion Week: by designers, for designers

While the big four fashion weeks from New York, London, Milan and Paris might take up most of the column inches, smaller events, such as Lisbon Fashion Week, which just closed out its 64th season, are looking to offer the industry a different perspective, one filled with creativity and meaningful exchange.

Lisbon Fashion Week, also known as Modalisboa, took place from March 6 to 9, with a series of catwalk shows, talks and workshops, placing a spotlight not only on established designers, such as Luís Carvalho, who celebrated the modern, empowered woman and Kolovrat’s exploration of the tree of life and the contrast of light and shadow with a theatrical showcase, as well as well-known footwear designer Luís Onofre, but also rising stars of the Portuguese fashion scene like Central Saint Martins graduate Constança Entrudo.

Founding in 1991, in partnership with Lisbon Municipality, Lisbon Fashion Week’s focus is to promote Portuguese fashion design to a national and international audience, showing to the world that Portugal is much more than a manufacturing country for apparel and footwear but also a thriving hub of creativity with a fashion scene on the rise.

Eduarda Abbondanza, president and creative direction at Modalisboa told FashionUnited: “Modalisboa is important to Portugal. It gives our designers a platform to present their collections and collaborate with the industry. But it is more than that - it is also great for the city. We want to showcase Lisbon and how it is growing and present to the world our creativity.

“Modalisboa was born out of necessity of designers. It’s a fashion week by designers, for the designers to mentor them, to guide them, and to give them a space to nurture their creativity.”

Each season Lisbon Fashion Week has a starting point for its programme. For the March edition, it was all about ‘Capital,’ provoking and challenging the value of capital – from a geographic point of view, creativity, cultural and economic, showcasing the growing business of fashion within the country, as well as offering subjects of capital importance, such as responsibility, technology, digital transformation, discussing the sustainability of the sector.

“Lisboa Fashion Week shows continue to position themselves as a cultural Capital, because each collection adds a new perspective to the contemporary system in which we operate,” explains the organisers. “It is because of the diversity of visions, voices and aesthetics - united by a responsible and conscious approach to production - that the Portuguese fashion ecosystem continues to thrive.”

There was also an importance of democratising fashion, opening the fashion week up to the public rather than just within the industry. Free talks focused on the social, cultural and environmental impact of the fashion industry, artistic displays, and free entry to shows, including Constança Entrudo’s presentation on the opening day.

On the importance of showcasing in Lisbon and opening her presentation to the public, Constança Entrudo said: “I’m Portuguese and everything I make is made in Portugal. I’m based here in Lisbon and I wanted to contribute - show the next generation my fashion. That’s why I wanted my show to be free, inviting the public to see my designs. “Portugal is a country that’s highly conservative on their approach to fashion and as a young designer I want to use this opportunity to change perspectives.”

Lisbon Fashion Week nurturing young talent

That’s what Lisbon Fashion Week shows, it is thriving, shaping the city’s creative identity by placing the discovery and mentoring of young talent at the heart of its schedule with design competitions like Sangue Novo, supported by Seaside, which showcased five young designers, and Workstation, a platform for young talent that brings together designers with photographers, illustrators and videographers to “merge visions and experiences that go beyond the imagery stereotype of fashion”.

Abbondanza added: “Our new blood contest, Sangue Novo, sees Modalisboa working with all the schools in the country, not just Lisbon, so we can catch the new talent. We offer young designers possibilities by working with them for a year, giving them a mentor and access to Portuguese fabrics, and networking within the industry.

“Sangue Novo is about looking for talents across fashion, where we award designers for textile excellence and creativity. We then have another platform, Workstation that acts more like an incubator, this isn’t about making a collection for one season but creating a business. We give them business mentorships and opportunities, such as showcasing here [at Lisbon Fashion Week].”

The Sangue Nova competition runs across two seasons, with the March edition showing the finale five collections from designers Dri Martins, Duarte Jorge, Francisca Nabinho, Gabriel Silva Barros, and Ihanny Luquessa, whose collections were chosen for demonstrating “a deep understanding of textile materiality”.

The event awarded two prizes; Lisbon-based fashion designer Duarte Jorge won the ModaLisboa x IED Istituto Europeo di Design Award for his ‘Onyx District’ collection filled with distorted silhouettes in a dark colour palette. He won a master’s degree in fashion brand management at IED Firenze, starting in November, worth 24,000 euros and a scholarship of 4,000 euros.

The other accolade, the ModaLisboa x RDD Textiles Award was presented to Gabriel Silva Barros, who studied at Central Saint Martins and the University of Westminster in London, for placing sustainability at the heart of his collection repurposing second-hand garments and deconstructing them into new textiles and designs. He wins a three-month internship at RDD Textiles, a Portuguese company developing and supplying sustainable textile innovations for global brands, to create a collection with innovative materials/processes from RDD, as well as a 1,750-euro scholarship.

From the Workstation cohorts this season, Bárbara Atanásio, who won the ModaLisboa x RDD Textiles Award at the Sangue Novo competition in March 2024, stood out with her use of upcycling and deconstruction. Her autumn/winter 2025 collection ‘Prophecy of the Present’ drew inspiration from “witnessing the globalisation of stupidity,” portraying a world on the edge of its own reflection and the tools we use to distract ourselves, which Atanásio describes as “the political path of dissociating the brain, the delusional survivalist’s way of living”.

That act of delusion as a survival mechanism translated into garments that blurred gender boundaries with players playing with gender fluidity with skirts and dresses styled over trousers, as well as deconstructed pieces and texture clashes. This was a reimagining of traditional menswear with a touch of femininity, such as a pink minidress styled over paint-splattered jeans and a plaid shirt.

This was in contrast to Arndes from designer Ana Rita de Sousa, who presented a collection exploring contrasts between form, texture, experimental design, and sustainability, utilising deadstock fabrics and transforming existing garments. ‘Borrowed Clothes’ delved into the concept of duality, with hybrid silhouettes oscillating between slim and oversized, and the contrast in fabrications from shirting, heavy wool fabrics, felted knits and selvedge denim, reflecting the versatility of the pieces and collection.

“Each piece is a construction made of invisible bridges, where the moulds are connected by threads of intention, creating shapes that only exist at this point of convergence,” explains the designer in the show notes. “The pressed stripes and checks challenge the linearity of the fabrics and capture the tension intrinsic to the creative process. The skin, immutable and eternal, reaffirms the character of permanence.”

Constança Entrudo celebrates 'Second Best'

One of the hottest tickets was Constança Entrudo, a brand based and manufactured in Portugal that hosted a theatrical and sensory presentation at the Centro de Arte Moderna Gulbenkian to showcase her youthful and modern approach to fashion, reinventing classics with unexpected detailing, utilising a “trial and error” approach to create the brand’s exclusive fabric technologies.

Entrudo, a graduate of Central Saint Martins in London, who has gained industry experience at Balmain, Peter Pilotto and Marques’Almeida and for autumn/winter 2025, took inspiration from society’s obsession with winners and losers for AW25, celebrating the often-overlooked second place and embracing “the quiet beauty of silver linings”.

The result was silver metallics and foil elements glistening throughout, confetti and firework prints exploding across fabrics, and the focus on materials perceived as second best, such as silver details printed on delicate hand-woven fabrics, knits resembling velvet, and hand-pleated glittery taffetas, alongside Miss World-style sashes, rosettes and medals.

Portuguese footwear on display at Lisbon Fashion Week

As well as ready-to-wear, Lisbon Fashion Week celebrated the country's heritage in footwear design and manufacturing. Last year, Portugal produced more than 80 million pairs of shoes and it was fitting that APICCAPS, the country’s footwear association hosted a presentation putting leather front and centre. The Portuguese Soul presentation showcased shoes from nine brands – Ambitious, Carlos Santos, Leather Goods by Belcinto, John Lakes, Miguel Vieira, Profession Bottier, Sanjo, Calçado Penha and Valuni.

There was also a catwalk show from Portuguese luxury footwear designer Luís Onofre, who is also president of APICCAPS, who presented a collection in tribute to the brand’s 25th-year history, highlighting the brand’s rich history in offering sexy, sleek heels and boots made in Portugal in his family's factory.

Onofre told FashionUnited backstage: “The collection is called Legacy; it is a celebration of all the things I’ve done in the past 25 years. It’s a special line, a little vintage, reinterpreting memories from the 2000s to 2010s and making them modern for today’s woman.

“I make shoes for strong women, to empower them, but also to make them feel comfortable.”

Highlights included glittering heels and flats inspired by necklaces, shoes and boots with gold-tone hardware, and sleek knee-highs.