Marques’Almeida: designers to watch

Alina Aliman| August 6, 2015

‘Two important fashion prizes in less than a year: it’s a lot for a young designer. Especially when the prizes are for Emerging Womenswear Designer (2014) given by British Fashion Council and LVMH prize for the Designer of the Year (2015). And it’s even more interesting when the brand have less than four years of activity, as in Marques’Almeida case. Designers Marta Marques and Paulo Almeida are the Portuguese duo behind the rising fashion house, Marques’Almeida, which was established in 2011, after Marques and her design partner, Paulo Almeida, graduated from Central Saint Martins.

The favorite signature until now? Raw denim – their line with denim pieces of all kind was a hit among the street-style set in the previous years. And they never gave up on it. For the season that is about to start (Autumn/Winter 2015/2016) we saw a lot of denim in Marques’Almeida at London Fashion Week. With a out-of-bed locks and bleeding mascara, on the “Army of Me” Björk’s song, girls on the catwalk wore a lot of deconstructed denim pieces, from classical blue to deep indigo, red or green, jackets whose sleeves were pinned down to make a cape, blanket knit ponchos and twisted bodice dresses. I admired those metallic jackets and bags and I was impressed by the eclectic combination of elegant chiffon tops with heavy jaggedly cut bottoms and the brocade pieces at the end of the show. A fashion house to watch a little bit closer? Yes, for sure. The brand launched the resort collection and had an innovative e-mail campaign to promote it. An online shop will be soon on www.marquesalmeida.com.