Portugal Fashion's New Guard: The Seven Faces and Forces Defining 2025

For three decades, Portugal Fashion has been the nation’s premier style platform, but its 30-th-anniversary “Experience” edition, held from July 1 to 5, felt less like a retrospective and more like a radical statement of intent. Shows were staged with cinematic flair across the Porto region, from the terraced vineyards of the Douro Valley to the industrial grandeur of the city’s Tram Museum. Yet, beyond the impressive logistics, the week’s enduring narrative was forged by a new generation. The real story unfolded on the runway and in the showrooms, where a select group of seven individuals, three ascendant models and four visionary designers, captured the industry’s imagination, signalling a definitive shift in the currents of Portuguese and international fashion.

The New Faces on the Runway

The lifeblood of any fashion week is the talent that wears the clothes, and this season, three models distinguished themselves not just for their look, but for their presence, versatility, and the quiet power they commanded on the catwalk. They represent the new ideal of a Portuguese model: globally minded, professionally poised, and possessing a unique story.

Tiago Reis: The Anchor of Versatility

Long before he set foot on the Portugal Fashion runway, Tiago Reis was already the talk of Porto’s castings. As Face Models’ “Modelo do Ano” candidate, the 20-year-old Lisbon native turned heads in two standout collaborations, AWAKEN.SA’s fluid knitwear and The Rad Black Kids’ bold graphic separates, showcasing his ease across divergent aesthetics in a single day. Standing at an athletic 1.88 metres, Reis’s statuesque build and assured presence translate effortlessly on camera, prompting backstage buzz that Milan agencies are circling.

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Benedita Filipe: The Editorial Chameleon

Crowned Face Models’ “Modelo do Ano 2024,” Benedita Filipe made her Portugal Fashion debut with an unforgettable transformation sequence for Yolvinta. First she appeared in a perfectly tailored pastel pantsuit, her walk crisp and assured; minutes later, she re-emerged in a sculptural, floor-sweeping evening gown, her posture and demeanor shifting to ethereal elegance. Buyers and editors alike hailed her quick-change mastery as “editorial gold,” cementing her status as a quintessential Gen-Z star across runway and social media.

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Alexandre Mendes: The Power of Poise

At just nineteen, Central Models’ Alexandre Mendes radiates a calm discipline that belies his age. He led David Catalán’s sophisticated sportswear presentation, where his approachable charm made complex layering feel instantly wearable, and then took the honour of opening Hugo Costa’s somber LUTO show, his focused, martial walk setting the exact mood under a single spotlight. Mendes doesn’t shout for attention; he commands it with immaculate poise and a deep understanding of the runway’s narrative role.

Source: Instagram

The Visionaries Redefining the Craft

While the models gave life to the collections, it was a quartet of designers who supplied the week’s soul, prizing sustainability, humanity, and cross-cultural dialogue above all. Together, they tore up the rulebook and reminded us why Porto remains a crucible for fashion’s next chapter.

Enzo Peres Perederko: The Barefoot Humanist

No moment captured the week’s spirit more vividly than when São Paulo, born Enzo Peres Perederko handed his own boots to a shoeless model and walked the podium barefoot after winning the BLOOM PWD by Salsa Jeans competition. His viral finale was no stunt: his upcycled denim-panel shirting and trench-coat reconstructions were a masterclass in circular design, earning him a paid internship at Salsa Jeans and binding new blood to an established denim powerhouse.

Vânia Oliveira: Sustainable Maximalism

Modatex graduate Vânia Oliveira’s collection of celebratory, voluminous gowns in dead-stock taffeta, and glittering with bespoke biodegradable sequins, secured the sole honourable mention in BLOOM PWD, sending sustainable-fashion advocates into a frenzy. Her joyful maximalism proved that eco-responsibility can be exuberant, not austere.

Ola Reay: Afrofuturism on the Douro

Under Afreximbank’s CANEX programme, Lagos-born Ola Reay fused West African Ankara prints with neoprene performance fabric, cinched by laser-cut aluminium corsetry for silhouettes both ancestral and futuristic. Her backstage reel showed production in overdrive, while #OLAREAY trended among buyers scrambling for showroom appointments.

Yolvinta: The Soft Power of Caribbean Design

Kingston-based Romario Clarke’s Yolvinta delivered a pastel-sorbet meditation on modern Caribbean womanhood, flowing linen dresses paired with sharply cut blazers, hand-crocheted tops alongside fluid trousers, earning a standing ovation and negotiations with a top Iberian department store. His first European runway was a declaration: fashion’s future lies in authentic cultural narratives, not a single capital.