BRANKOPOPOVICBLOG: Highlights of ModaLisboa THE TIMERS

Nuno Gama

ModaLisboa - The Timers SS 2016, October 10 - 12

ModaLisboa has become a returning appointment in my annual calander. It is never a punishment to fly to visit the beautiful city of Lisbon for an intense weekend. Besides the chance to see my dear fashion friends again this visit gives me the perspective to follow the development of the scheduled designers from a broader point of view. What is nice at ModaLisboa is that there is a constancy in the programming and they provide a platform for emerging talents and help them move on.

Looking back to the three day Lisboa Fashion Week, a programme with 29 nine designers on display it can be concluded that baby blue, white, black and bright red dominated the color palette for spring summer 2016.
When it comes to fabrics, Portuguese designers seem to love working with mesh materials. It aslo seems as that the proposals for menswear are offering a much more creative vision for next season than the womenswear. Prominent designers that rose to occasion with their collections where Alexandra Moura, Nair Xavier, Kolovrat, Ricardo Andrez, Aleksandar Protic and Nuno Gama.

On Friday evening, ModaLisboa "The Timers" SS2016 edition opened with the Sangue Novo (New Blood) collective show where featuring a selection of nine young Portuguese designers. Completing the list is Carlotaoms from Spain, selected to represent FASHIONCLASH Festival. Sara Santos won the DOMUS Academy scholarship and Tânia Nicole has been chosen to represent ModaLisboa during the next edition of FASHIONCLASH Festival in Maastricht (June 30 - July 3). Sangue Novo show contained other promising names such as Inês Duvale, Patrick de Padua, Cristina Real, David Catalan and Banda. -> see more about sangue novo

Sangue Novo exhibtion

The first night of ModaLisboa continued with the LAB shows of Away to Mars and Catarina Oliveira in the beautiful city hall 'Praça do Município'. Both very light and fresh proposals. Carlos Gil closed the evening with a very feminine but sharply tailored collection.

Olga Noronha

The theme is a reflection of the political state of mind in Portugal, where the conservative party gained most votes. Considering the fact that not many people actually voted the camp that is longing for change was left in disappointment. The theme for this edition “The Timers,” calls on fashion creatives to be the game changers and transformers of our time. The theme was mostly reflected throughout the programme's visual signing and the campaign. The Portuguese fashion designers do not seem to be political in their work. I do not want to advocate that fashion needs to be political, however sometimes I longed for more content or otherwise to be blown away by beauty and innovative ideas.
Having said that the Saturday programme could not have had a better start, with Nair Xavier's menswear collection. Solid in many ways Nair presented a cohesive collection for the contemporary men.
Next was Olga Noronha's presentation titled 'Hair | Lucination', a collection that emphasizes the lack and loss of hair, due to Alopecia and chemotherapy secondary effects. For this project she was partially sponsored by Reebok. The footwear Olga Noronha x Reebok was auctioned during and after the show, all raised money will be donated to IPO (Portuguese Onocology Institute).

Luís Carvalho and Fernando Cabral, one of my favorite models at ModaLisboa

Ricardo Andrez expressed the the concept of transparency throughout the whole collection, offering interesting ideas for spring summer 2016.
Whether a transparent plastic overcoat, crop top or mesh fabrics, he plays with proportions but also plays with garments function to cover a person or show the person underneath.
"Some people are characterized as being 'transparent' to the extent that we believe we 'see through' them."
Little bit confusing in the line up was the usage of the white mesh fabric with large holes, a very fashionable bespoke fabric but already seen in other collections such as in Alexandra Moura's collection in previous edition.

Mixed up with ups and downs of day 2 Alexandra Moura's closing show lifted up the spirits again with her another outstanding collection. -> see more
Although intense, the Sunday started with the sad feeling of a near departure. Therefore perfect to start the day with Nuno Gama. It seems like he is the hardest working man in Portuguese fashion scene, staging a real show he takes his audience seriously and actually gives a show. Taking Portuguese heritage as the returning source of inspiration, he took us to a journey around the world from Asia to Africa. He presented a collection with many looks that could have easily been spread through several seasons to come. The collection, divided in four parts, told a story of Portuguese colonial heritage.

One of the surprises of the The Timers edition was Kolovrat, who sometimes can be all over the place with mixing to many ideas. For spring summer 2016 she unveiled a more mature, coherent collection but still very creative in the way Kolovrat's signature to experiment with tailoring.
Representing FashionPhilosophy Fashion Week Poland this edition was the menswear designer Piotr Drzal, who presented a very wearable collection. Maybe too accessible but be distinctive, but I can imagine mainstream men would go for it.

One designer that did not disappoint women is Serbian born Aleksandar Protic. He knows how to design for contemporary women while staying through to his signature. For 2016 he proposed long draped dresses with flowing material, fluid lines and wet look (expressed also in hairstyling).
For the last show the audience had to move to an other location, the São Luiz Teatro Municipal.
One of the most conceptual designers of Modalisboa, Dino Alvez staged a fashion presentation on the big theatre stage. The long delay and high expectations due to the venue where not fully answered. In a way maybe overshadowing the fact that the menswear was actually good and that some dresses where very well draped. The creative process of a fashion designer involves drawing out a concept, looking at it from afar, then scribbling it out in dissatisfaction, and crumpling the paper before throwing it in the trash. Sometimes, the mere act of scribbling and crumpling are forms of art themselves. That is the concept behind Dino Alves’ collection for spring summer 2016.

Dino Alvez, presentation in theatre

Additional programme
Next to the runway show the schedule contained Wonder Room designer showrooms and presentation of Portuguese shoe design. The shoes installation by APICCAPS was dedicated to exhibit the creativity of national talent, showing a selection of footwear designs of Portuguese designers for the ss2016 season. The exhibition displayed innovative partnerships between designers and footwear industry.
Following partnershisps where presented: Alexandra Moura x Goldmud, Dino Alves x J Reinaldo, Lidija Kolovrat x Eureka, Miguel Vieira x Evereste, Nuno Gama x Eureka, Pedro Pedro x Basilius, Ricardo Preto x Clay’s, Say My Name X Xperimental Shoes and Valentim Quaresma x Fly London, Nair Xavier x Couros e Peles and Banda x Nelson Oliveira Footwear.

The Portuguese footwear industry exports over 95% of its production to 150 countries on five continents, the equivalent of 75 million pairs of shoes, worthing 1 800 million euros (in 2013 the industry reached an exports record high, going up 8% over the previous year).