Fashion Design Competition . 2018

The fifth edition of the MODAPORTUGAL event brought together young fashion designers from six countries.

  1. London College of Fashion (UK),

  2. AMD – Akademie Mode & Design (Germany),

  3. ESMOD Paris (France),

  4. POLIMODA Arsutoria School (Italy),

  5. IED Madrid (Spain),

  6. ESAD, FAUL, MODATEX and Academia de design de calçado (Portugal)

The emerging creative city of Porto hosted the fifth ModaPortugal Fashion Design Competition between the 17th-19th of December 2018. Zhikai Yang from Esmod Paris (Best Overall Collection) and Stephanie Grosslercher from Polimoda (Best Overall Footwear Collection) were the big winners of the event, which was organised by CENIT — Portuguese Centre of Intelligence for the Textile Industry and ANIVEC — Portuguese Association for Clothing and Apparel Industries, in partnership with APICCAPS and ModaLisboa.

The 29 young designers in the competition came from ten different schools and six different countries: (London College of Fashion (UK), AMD – Akademie Mode & Design (Germany), ESMOD Paris (France), POLIMODA and Arsutoria School (Italy), IED Madrid (Spain), ESAD, FAUL, MODATEX and Academia de design de calçado (Portugal). They presented their creations to an international jury led by Eduarda Abbonadanza, president of ModaLisboa. The remaining seats of the decision-makers’ table were occupied by Svenja Specht (Head Designer of Reality Studio), Adriano Batista (Fucking Young! Magazine Director), Jessica Michault (Launchmetrics), Livio Facchini (Public Image PR), Miguel Flor (Creative Director of Prinçipal Magazine) and Gemma Williams (Business of Fashion), who all gave their expert opinions and valuable input. Meanwhile, at the ModaPortugal Showcase fashion and footwear labels and designers from across the European continent were exhibited.

Fashion Design Competition ModaPortugal 2018 Jury.

The Jury (L to R): Livio Facchini .IT, Svenja Specht .DE, Eduarda Abbondanza (President) .PT, Miguel Flor .PT, Gemma Williams .UK, Adriano Batista .ES, Jessica Michault .FR 

Zhikai Yang and Stephanie Grosslercher were awarded Best Overall Fashion Designer and Best Overall Footwear Designer, respectively. They were both also awarded Best Collection and Best Footwear by country, alongside Arthur Dias (Portugal), Carolina Koziski (Spain), Frank Lin (Germany), Giulia Masciangelo (Italy), Yelim Cho (UK), Beatriz Vasconcelos (Portugal) and Moncayo (Spain). Beatriz Vasconcelos (Portugal) and Moncayo (Spain) won Best Footwear Collection by country.

Fashion Design Competition ModaPortugal 2018 collections and Awards.

The MODAPORTUGAL competition is about much more than prizes. Two days prior to the big announcement, all the young designers had the opportunity to visit factories to see how a collection is taken from the drawing board to stores all over the world. “The MODAPORTUGAL initiative is a platform to promote industrial excellence and the best of Made in Portugal, through the competition of young European designers,” explained Manuel Lopes Teixeira, president of CENIT. 

“The students visited the Portuguese textile and manufacturing companies over the course of two days. As the majority of our production goes to foreign markets, we would like to connect more with young designers and schools. We are not trying to do business with these young designers immediately, instead we are trying to start establishing a close relationship,” he adds. The companies visited were Crialme and Riopele, both located near Porto in Northern Portugal. Five hundred people work at Crialme providing premium-quality bespoke suits to global luxury brands. This Portuguese tailoring manufacturer exports 99% of its production mainly to the United States and Northern Europe. Riopele is one of the oldest Portuguese textile companies and an international leader in the creation of fabrics for fashion brands. The company supports designers at the beginning of their careers by selling fabrics in low quantities to customers worldwide.