by When I was a child, I dreamed of the world of fashion, I dreamed of the day when I would have my own fashion show. On the Internet, she spent hours searching for presentations from major fashion houses and even sketched out the pieces she would like to see on models. After winning the Bloom young talent competition, this dream of Andreia Reimão will come true this Wednesday, with her first appearance at Portugal Fashion (PF).
“I started getting more interested in fashion around the age of 12. But my fascination was not only with the pieces, but with the whole universe and the identity that the brands create,” begins the 23-year-old, speaking to PÚBLICO, days before she made her PF debut. This fascination would quickly materialize in the first designs, which “never really got into practice,” despite the fact that they already knew how to sew.
Even today, it has the same allure of a fashion show moment that it believes far surpasses the pieces that cross the street. runway. “We’re not selling people a piece of clothing, but a part of our identity. Maybe it’s something you’d like to have or be ─ we are selling a piece of a dream”he defends, defining that moment as an “escape from the real world.”
I imagine the day when his pieces would step runway After a fashion week, the young woman from Marco de Canaveses decided to study fashion at the age of 16, in high school. “I wanted to know if it was really what I wanted because, sometimes, we have an illusion of what fashion is and it’s not exactly the same thing,” she underlines. Only when you study do you understand that design goes far beyond the moment of design or the long-awaited fashion show. “It’s not something you create overnight, it takes months and requires creative maturity,” he says.
Ugo Camera/Portugal Fashion
After the fire test, there was no doubt. It was at Modatex that he began to consider craft design as his future and twice participated in Sangue Novo, the ModaLisboa competition for young designers. “Being in the middle of ModaLisboa is amazing. In the bubble of a classroom, you don’t have access to those things,” he recalls. Despite being one of the finalists in 2021, she did not win.
She found this opportunity at Bloom do PF, where she would become the winner in October 2022. Despite taking advantage of both opportunities, Andreia Reimão argues that, in a country like Portugal, there’s no justification for doing two fashion weeks, ‘when we don’t have a consumer“. And he reinforces: “Not a single Portuguese buys designer clothes, because the country’s economy does not allow it.”
Therefore, even though it is still taking its first steps, it knows that the fashion of Portuguese designers is made with thought abroad and cross-border retail: “However, I think Portugal is a good base to have a brand because we have access to a very good industry and good materials. We don’t have enough of an audience to support a brand.”
Andreia Reimão learns from the Portuguese creators who will better understand the subject today. When he is not working on his own creations, he collaborates with the Ernest W. Baker duo of Inês Amorim and Reid Baker ─ an experience he considers essential in his career. “We only have an idea of how things work within a brand that sells to the entire world. I would never have had the same vision if I had decided to present collections without experience,” he believes.
Camera Ugo
Camera Ugo
Deconstruct menswear
But it is important to remember what distinguishes Andreia Reimão’s signature and led her to win over Bloom. The young woman believes that she has differentiated herself through a new interpretation of men’s clothing. “Over the last 100 years, while women’s clothing has been constantly evolving, men’s clothing has always been much more rigid,” he observes. As such, his creative expression “is a form of protest against the rules”, but maintaining some fundamental elements, such as the use of the classic suit.
Even so, Andreia Reimão’s classic suit is deconstructed in new materials, often associated with the feminine, such as pearls, lace or tulle. “We achieved the same structure and beauty of a piece, but in non-traditional materials,” he explains.
In the collection that led to Bloom, she designed, modeled and sewed all the coordinates, and most of the work was done by hand. The lace used was part of sample catalogs and was dyed by the designer. “I end up experimenting by trial and error. Getting your hands dirty is interesting, because sometimes just drawing is not enough,” he points out.
It is so “experimental” that he defines his work and not as a brand, “it is a project” As part of the Bloom Prize, he presents this Wednesday, at 7 pm, at the 52nd edition of Portugal Fashion, a collection of four coordinates, where recovers this motto of reversal between male and female. maybe one dayas the proposal is titled, it takes as its starting point the work of the American photographer Clifford Prince King.
With a “familiar hue and queer,” the photos led her to explore the universe of underwear, mixing it with couture. There is a hand-stitched coordinate, which recreates the classic diamond pattern, but gives it some transparency. Lace is back, appearing like patches on blazers. And there is no lack of performances in pajamas or boxers, transformed into shorts. “I also played with the idea of pantyhose,” she adds. As an innovation he adds the fabric of the tie that turns into clothes.
For now, Andreia Reimão wants to devote herself to this creative exploration, without pressure to grow. After all, he is 23 years old and has a lifetime ahead of him to see what fashion has in store for him. “I want to take advantage of these opportunities. It is the right time for learning and experimentation,” he concludes.
