A design playground
Brands have always flirted with fashion designers — and designers with brands. Partnerships and shared learning processes in which everyone benefits, starting with us. We launched the debat.
Fashion designers have always been close to the arts because, when created with authorship, purpose, love and the utmost care, fashion is a form of art meant to be worn every day. Yves Saint Laurent’s famous Mondrian dresses from Autumn–Winter 1965 come to mind, as do Damien Hirst’s skulls on Alexander McQueen’s limited-edition scarf collection, created to celebrate a decade since the first version of this signature accessory, originally designed for the Spring–Summer 2003 Irere collection. Or Louis Vuitton’s repeated collaborations with artists from the most diverse backgrounds, from Jeff Koons to Stephen Sprouse, Takashi Murakami and Yayoi Kusama. And because fashion is not just a fleeting moment of great beauty but also a multimillion-euro business, brands are constantly seeking ways to reinvent themselves — and the bond between brands and creatives is nothing new. Since the 1980s and 1990s, when fashion opened itself up to streetwear and ceased to be restricted to a select few, the courtship between brands and designers has become increasingly common.
In the 2000s, major names began to be invited to create capsule collections — before the term became overused — for more popular and accessible brands. It was a way of bringing high design to the widest possible audience. A pioneering example was La Redoute, the French mail-order brand, which invited beloved national and international brands and designers such as Cacharel, Jean Paul Gaultier or Christian Lacroix, who created a home line with them. The most famous examples are the hugely successful collaborations between the Swedish mass-market brand H&M and major fashion names such as Karl Lagerfeld, Stella McCartney, Alexander Wang, Versace and Balmain — the latter being the biggest sales success — or even more conceptual brands like Italy’s Marni, the Dutch duo Viktor & Rolf, or France’s Maison Margiela, designed by Belgians famously outside the box. More recently, H&M invited Belgian designer Glenn Martens to create streetwear with a twist, available online and in its flagship stores worldwide. Along the same lines, the UK’s Topshop invited Kate Moss, Target collaborated with Missoni, Adidas teamed up with Stella McCartney to design a yoga line, and Japan’s Uniqlo continues to nurture a rich roster of artistic collaborations.
The democratization of fashion flung this door wide open, turning it into a major business and communication opportunity. Virgil Abloh, founder of Off-White and creative director of Louis Vuitton Menswear until 2021, collaborated with IKEA on a limited-
-edition furniture collection that sold out in five minutes, as well as with brands such as Fornasetti and Supreme, and even designed travel luggage perfectly sized to fit a BMW i8. The links between Italian brands Gucci and Fiat and the worlds of cars and yachts are also well known. Musician and producer Pharrell Williams, who succeeded Abloh — and himself a product of social media virality — partnered with Japan’s Nigo and created the Millionaires 1.0 sunglasses. Balenciaga, during the reign of streetwear and the hype-driven era of Demna Gvasalia, teamed up with Puma, among many other collaborations. Even Hermès, more discreet and elitist, collaborated with Apple, and Rick Owens — perhaps the most gothic and inaccessible of Paris-based designers — created an après-ski collection with Moncler, launched at Art Basel Paris.
Made in Portugal
Brands realized that by inviting fashion design talent they could reposition themselves in the market and surround themselves with a certain cool aura, sometimes faded by time or tired by excessive classicism. Júlio Torcato was one of the first to be invited, “in a very natural way”, as he recalls. Fresh out of fashion design school and winner of the then-relevant 1st Portex Prize for Young Designers, he was immediately invited by “emerging” brands. He felt that designing for brands or under his own name “is practically the same thing — the aesthetic and the type of product depend on each concept”. In the 1990s, he recalls, “there was no strong tradition of Portuguese brands; we were a country that sold only labour. The challenge was to link creativity to product development so that, properly framed within concepts and identities specific to each brand’s history and essence, they could generate interest, connection with the public and financial results at the same time”. Achieving that fills him with “joy and fulfilment”.
Ricardo Preto’s collaboration with brands was also a natural extension of the language he had built over the years — a “consistent creative identity”, as he describes it. “I realized I could bring that vision to brands that needed direction, focus and renewal. It was about uniting creativity, commercial vision and leadership”. He crossed paths with a method introduced by his muse and friend Cláudia Ribeiro (consultant of the Whitaker Lifestyle Method and also lead singer of Micro Audio Waves): “a structured, strategic and very pragmatic approach that made me look at fashion not only as authorial expression but as a living system where creativity and business walk hand in hand”. Before becoming creative director at Leitão & Irmão, Ricardo ventured into Asia, which he recalls as “a good shock. Suddenly I was in a context where everything was bigger — teams, expectations, rhythms, scales”. The challenges came immediately: “the fast pace, the need for total precision in communication, and a decision-making culture that waits for no one”. It changed his career — and him: “I learned to adapt without losing my centre, to understand that my vision could be translated into different cultural contexts while remaining relevant, to use consumer data as creative allies, and to think of fashion as a global business, not just an aesthetic one”.
Alexandra Moura, now leading the women’s fashion brand of Paula Amorim, has always been in demand to develop brands — “a natural way to grow and evolve as a designer”, she says. Each partnership brought unique learnings: “by combining know-how and different visions, we can create something truly innovative and high quality. The result was iconic pieces that marked their time and represent achievements I’m proud of”. She says she has been fortunate to work with partners “who respect my creativity and vision”, “talented teams”, ideas that “take shape and make an impact”, and market acceptance — “both national and international, reflected in sales, confirming that the work reached the right people”. Designing for others is always an exercise in adaptation. Alexandra says the biggest challenges were “maintaining authenticity in a constantly changing sector and finding the balance between creativity and market demands”. Even in moments of intense pressure, “it was precisely these obstacles that forced me to grow and reinvent myself”.
“While I was designing my own namesake brand, I managed my time and creativity, and sometimes everything could change right up to the final moment of a collection”, recalls Diogo Miranda, designer of the sustainable brand A-Line. In industry, he says honestly, “everything ends up being a bit more limited, narrower and sometimes even suffocating. Things aren’t as fast as they used to be — or at least as I was used to”, he admits. Working for a brand “ends up being more demanding because sometimes people don’t understand your language and you have to work twice as hard for what you thought, dreamed or envisioned to actually come to life. It was and is challenging”. Still, he is the first to recognize that the textile industry has “all the means, know-how and structures, but doesn’t know how to do it — or how to show and sell a global image. With these creative bridges between brands and designers, we all learn from each other and from being propelled by a brand that already has its distribution network, teams and stores. Our product ends up reaching a wider audience”.
This is very clear to Maria Carlos Baptista, who designs for Parfois. A designer “passionate about more utilitarian and classic clothing, with a conceptual edge”, the experience helps her understand “the different possible creative processes, and my own evolution and adaptability depending on the final consumer”. The most rewarding part is “finding limitations that challenge creation and designing for such a specific customer”. It pushes her to “create outside my comfort zone, which makes me grow as a person and as a designer. It gives us a broader perspective of what the industry really is, and of working within a Portuguese fashion brand that is growing visibly fast — and learning about areas I previously knew almost nothing about”. In the end, “everyone wins: I gain real-world experience and projects with solid market foundations, and brands gain a lot from us. We are essential to bringing novelty — we are constantly researching, understanding consumption habits, and reading the economic and social context nationally and internationally. This whole complexity makes us highly responsive creatives, capable of delivering what the final consumer will want next season, even though everything is created well in advance”.
All things considered, “brands gain freshness, innovation and new perspectives that allow them to evolve without losing their DNA. By opening themselves to creative unions, they reach different audiences and strengthen their relevance in the market. Fashion designers, in turn, gain experience, visibility and the opportunity to work in different contexts. Ultimately, it’s an exchange that strengthens both sides and generates achievements that would be hard to reach alone”, concludes Alexandra Moura. Ricardo Preto adds that brands gain “above all, an external eye capable of reorganizing, clarifying and inspiring. They gain consistency, contemporaneity and the ability to reposition themselves without losing authenticity. Designers gain scale, rigor and direct contact with consumers who are not abstractions but real people with specific desires and habits. They also gain the experience of seeing their vision applied in a concrete business context, which makes them more complete, more strategic and, in a way, more useful to the world. In the end, when the partnership is balanced, everyone grows: the brand transforms and the designer transforms with it”. Along the way, Júlio Torcato says he learned “almost everything” about people and product — and that “perhaps the most important thing is the humility to keep listening and learning from others”.
Five Fashion Designers in Five Portuguese Brands
Alexandra Moura & Paula
Businesswoman Paula Amorim, always close to the world of fashion, wanted to launch a line “for confident and cosmopolitan women”, as stated on the brand’s website, redefining modern luxury as “a celebration of individuality, confidence and timeless elegance”, through carefully crafted pieces made from noble materials and as artisanally as possible in Portugal, “in deep connection with tradition and art”. Alexandra Moura embraced the challenge to “honor the brand’s DNA — what it has already achieved and must not lose”, she says. “With a new vision, the goal is to go even further and achieve new milestones”, while also working “with a new market and a different audience, where challenges enrich us and make us evolve”. The invitation to take on the brand’s creative direction came “very naturally”, from a “desire to create something different” and to unite her creative vision with the brand’s identity so that “together we could develop projects reflecting innovation and authenticity”.
Diogo miranda & A-LINE
Founded in 2016 by Alexandra Carneiro and Hélder Gonçalves, A-LINE is a sustainable brand that defines itself as “sensitive, contemporary and timeless in style”, choosing quality, durable fabrics, graphic forms and silhouettes that transcend seasons. Diogo Miranda was looking for a professional challenge and proposed rejuvenating the brand’s identity in 2024: “I felt that, as a designer and with my point of view, I could add value to the brand. Learning more from the textile industry and having the textile industry learn more from a creative’s vision, in perfect harmony”. With more minimalist silhouettes, the idea was to create “modern classics with purpose, occasion and longevity in mind”, and “consistency in style codes”. What still gives him the most pleasure, he underlines, “is imagining, creating, transforming and planning a collection until it reaches the stores and the final customer”.
Júlio Torcato & Decénio & Lion of Porches
The first invitation came in 1992 “from the great will and vision of a textile entrepreneur who, at the time, believed and dreamed that the future lay in moving up the value chain — and that to achieve that dream, he needed a designer”. Thus Decénio was born. “It seems simple, but this thinking was avant-garde at a time when most of the textile sector sold only labor”, he recalls. The invitation from Lion of Porches came later, “for more or less the same reasons, but with the difference that I already had some experience in retail”, he says. Years later, he was invited again to participate in “the updating and modernization of these brands”, and is currently Decénio’s creative director. The adventure is “extremely rewarding”, bringing “evolution, fulfilment and knowledge”. “Almost like an actor: dressing, feeling and interpreting a concept, a story, an identity called a brand”. Each brand has its own personality: “A brand is like a living being — to interpret it, you have to enter its essence”.
Maria Carlos Baptista & Parfois
Founded in Porto in 1994, Parfois is perhaps Portugal’s most internationally recognized jewellery and accessories brand. Today it has become a lifestyle brand with clothing and small seasonal collections. Maria Carlos joined in August 2022, stayed seven months, and returned in April 2025. She is responsible for the exclusive online line, collections for warm countries such as the UAE, Latin America and Asia, as well as the denim line. The brand’s constant renewal is well known, with new products continuously entering its many stores: “Being a fashion designer today is very demanding, mainly because of the pace at which everything happens and market demand. Everything is very fast. For me, it’s perhaps less ‘chaotic’ because I can materialize my ideas in my own project while also responding to what today’s consumer is looking for in terms of fashion and trends within a brand like Parfois”.
Ricardo preto & Leitão & Irmão
Founded in 1822, Leitão & Irmão was the jeweler to the Portuguese Crown, moving from Porto to Lisbon to be closer to the court. They established a “modern” goldsmith workshop that follows traditional production processes and still thrives today. The invitation came at a moment when the designer was seeking to work with brands that had history, “depth and, at the same time, a real desire to evolve. Leitão & Irmão has a unique heritage — almost a country’s DNA — and I immediately felt there was fertile ground to build something relevant”. Alongside jewellery and decorative pieces of all kinds, the brand specializes in bespoke and personalized pieces such as engagement rings, jewellery, cutlery and tableware, while also ensuring their maintenance and restoration. What motivated him was “precisely this rare combination of tradition and ambition. It was an opportunity to honour the brand’s past while giving it a contemporary, international path — a beautiful responsibility and a creative challenge that made perfect sense”.
Shoe brands that walk the runway with Portuguese designers:
· Alves/Gonçalves with Centenário
· Behén with Calçado Penha
· Dino Alves with Reve de Flo
· Nuno Baltazar with Helena Mar
