Portugal Fashion coordinator defends new annual format

However, some regular names are absent from this edition, such as Pedro Pedro, Huarte and Alexandra Moura. Were there any designers who refused to return to the calendar with this change? No, not at all. The Portugal Fashion Experience is happening at a time when it invites and formulates to all those who are active. In fact, a major concern of our Portugal Fashion Experience is to increasingly have a curatorship, a good selection of brands and also to ensure that they are active, that they are on the market, that they are selling, that they have marketing strategies. Because, in fact, if we are here once a year, we have to be here with a flag, a good selection, a good catalogue of brands that are actually working, working on their brand, working on everything that is the national and international market, because being once a year, we also have to have a much more refined curatorship. So, no, there were no denials, what is happening is also often the result of time, of the market. In other words, there are designers who have decided to stop, precisely because of the fashion context, there are others who have had other challenges, like Huarte, who makes us very proud because he is at Adolfo Dominguez and it is a challenge that also comes from the notoriety he had at Portugal Fashion. Alexandra Moura is also now facing a very interesting challenge that we are also proud of, with the Paula brand, so, in fact, there are several things happening here that justify these absences, but no, we have not had any refusals.

In 2024 they said it was not possible to hold the event due to lack of funding. This year it is possible because of the EU funds from Portugal 2030, right? Yes, at this moment Portugal Fashion has an approved application that includes this event and also includes an international action plan and other projects linked to young designers, sustainability, and connections with the industry. Therefore, there is a basis for the event that has to do with community funds, but there is more than that, there is also support from Turismo Portugal in this initiative, in this complementary program and from other strategic partners, such as Porto City Council itself and some sponsors.

How much of the event is funded by the funds? Around 40% of the funds. In fact, we had already been significantly reducing our dependence on EU funds, that is, even when we applied, we knew that we were only leveraging half of the event with support from EU funds. Financial sustainability and reducing our dependence on these funds has been an effort that has been ongoing for us for the last four years, so there is a basis that is a public mission and we understand that, in fact, in order to do this at a professional level, this support is important because, ultimately, Portugal Fashion provides a public service for designers and the Portuguese industry, but we are aware that the event has to be sustainable and cannot be 100% dependent on these sources of funding.

However, between 2022 and 2023, did Anje incur debts to hold these events, without community funds? We held three editions, one without funding, two that, in fact, were already included in the application that was submitted, but that implied an advance payment and a considerable financial effort, it's true. So, now, this application has paid for these 2023 editions and there is no debt from previous editions.

In a previous interview with Público, Mónica and Carlos Carvalho (president of Anje) mentioned that they had to return part of the fund due to a “not so positive execution”. Which application do the amounts refer to? These are old projects, that is, the Community framework was closed from 2020 to 2030 and this closure brought about the conclusion of some processes that date back to 2015, 16... The periods of Community frameworks are quite long, so the previous application was from 2019 to 2020, the problems with funds date back much earlier than that. All the projects that we have been developing since 2019 are completely healthy, they have been audited, they have been well executed and, therefore, we have no problems in relation to that. In fact, there were some projects in the past that did not go so well and, therefore, all of this also weighed considerably here in this context of transition of the Community framework in which there was no new application and having this treasury effort to evolve, of course, also weighs.

How long will the current application last? Until February 2026, therefore, this application covers two internationalization seasons, from June of this year until February of next year and this national event.

So, next year's event… It is being worked on. I would say that our expectation as an association is that the success of this initiative and the way it is structured and supported will be the relaunch of some stability going forward, which is not yet guaranteed, but which we believe will be possible. We believe that there is a public funding component that helps to scale up and that helps to compete, ultimately, with the big international brands, with the big groups that are active in marketing, etc. Therefore, in such a demanding sector, this public funding, also in terms of public service to support new designers, is relevant. But Portugal Fashion's budget cannot be 100% dependent on it. And it no longer is.

Did the Manuel Serrão investigation affect Anje's way of working or image? No, there was no longer any effective connection. In fact, there is a past. Manuel Serrão was involved in Anje's history, he is part of it, but at this moment he has no connection. Therefore, we regret this process, but it has no impact.