On Thursday, the second day of Portugal Fashion Experience, the London-based brand Marques’Almeida- founded by Portuguese designers Marta Marques and Paulo Almeida- stole the show with one of the event’s most memorable moments. Taking advantage of the industrial scale of the former Vasco da Gama Canning Factory in Matosinhos, a Brutalist building with exposed concrete, this presentation, which took place at 10:22 p.m., on a night of extreme heat, transformed the space into a sort of contemporary nightclub, evoking the disco culture of the 1970s through colourful lights, neon, stage fog, and shimmering reflections. And much more.
Thus, far beyond that immediate reference, the fashion show evoked other, more distant and complex memories, spanning different eras and imaginaries. More than just a celebration of fashion and luxury- once reserved for an elite and now somewhat democratised- the show reflected a global visual culture built throughout the 20th century and continually reinvented to this day.
In a ceaseless and almost unruly movement, the models crossed paths, enveloped in colourful mists and theatrical lighting that revealed details in a fragmented, almost fleeting way. It all unfolded at a dizzying pace, leaving only flashes of brilliance, exquisite textures, and fine materials- both patterned and solid- etched in the viewer’s memory.
The silhouettes, with their precise cuts and elegance bordering on haute couture, were revealed with an almost feverish energy, as if staging the very passage of time and the transmission of a legacy from generation to generation. The result was an intense, immersive, and deeply cinematic presentation lasting about 15 minutes.
Monumental, flowing, and majestic feathers, resembling those of birds of paradise, soared above the models’ heads, further elongating the dancing silhouettes, while luminous fabrics, exquisite embroidery, and shimmering surfaces reinforced a sense of exuberance and opulence. Each outfit seemed to emerge as a character from a universe of its own, where fantasy, memory, and contemporaneity coexisted in constant dialogue.
Crucial to the show was the effect of silhouettes appearing and disappearing, caused by the interplay of light and shadow, which made the show enigmatic and the collection, dotted with sequins and feathers, even more desirable.
It is no coincidence that Marta Marques has told the media she has been seeking greater lightness and fluidity in her most recent collections, in contrast to the heavier, grunge aesthetic embedded in the brand’s DNA. This lightness proved to be a true lesson in fashion history here, running parallel to the paths of art history.
The result: a contemporary vision of the Belle Époque, reinterpreted through Marques’Almeida’s free and experimental lens, in an atmosphere that oscillated between Parisian glamour and London irreverence, evoking those long nights depicted by painters who immortalised the urban and bohemian life of the late 19th century.
Echoes of the nocturnal scenes by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec- chronicler of Parisian cabarets- came to mind, as did Walter Sickert’s penetrating observations of London’s music halls and nightlife. Just as in those artistic worlds, the fashion show revealed a world of spectacle, elegance, and excess, recalling a society that lived the pleasures of modernity to the fullest before the upheaval caused by World War I—a society that is now making a comeback.
The entire fashion show unfolded with the momentum of an era that believed in boundless progress and that, as they used to say, was moving “full steam ahead”- a sentiment that remains relevant today. It is open to so many other interpretations.
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