Portuguese designer Fátima Lopes announces runway show at Lisbon’s Pestana Palace on October 17

Couturière Fátima Lopes, a native of Funchal on the Portuguese island of Madeira, has just announced her new co-ed runway show in Lisbon, scheduled for the evening of October 17 at the Pestana Palace. The designer became known worldwide not only for her audacity but also for opening her first international boutique in Paris in 1996 and, in 1999, for showing at Paris Fashion Week- becoming the first Portuguese designer to do so.

Fátima Lopes’ debut in Paris, with a winter collection titled ‘Welcome to the New Millennium’, marked the first step in a long international career, later cemented with her show at ModaLisboa in 2000, during which she herself wore a gold and diamond bikini valued at one million euros, sponsored by the Belgian multinational Ezziddeen Diamonds.

However, one of the greatest moments of Fátima Lopes’ career was also in Paris, where she presented the iconic bikini, crafted from gold and set with diamonds, which entered the Guinness World Records.

The designer’s upcoming show, to be held at 9 pm at the Pestana Palace in Lisbon, is called ‘The New Era of Sophistication and Contemporary Sensuality’, “an ode to fashion as an art form- where sophistication and elegance converse with sensuality and innovation in a gesture of pure creation,” the eponymous brand said in a statement, describing the 19th-century palace, restored and refurbished by the Funchal-based hotel group not far from the Jerónimos Monastery, as “a setting where historical luxury meets the aesthetic modernity characteristic of the designer”.

According to the label: “The Pestana Palace will be transformed into a stage of elegance and modernity, where the monumentality of the space converses with the sophistication of the shapes and volumes conceived by Fátima Lopes,” it added.

“The collection combines art, sensuality and modernity in a harmonious fusion of structure and fluidity,” announced the brand, adding that “the women’s pieces emphasise very slim waists, pronounced shoulders and hips, necklines and slits, layering and draping, in a wide variety of cocktail dresses and evening dresses, as well as overcoats, ‘tailleurs,’ capes and knitwear”.

The men’s line likewise reflects “modernity and sophistication”, in this case “through blazers and jackets with draped collars, overcoats with built-in scarves, asymmetric shirts” that are presented with “the illusion of a side tie, trousers with multiple pleats, oversized jackets with double sleeves in a patchwork of materials, capes and knitwear”, added the label.

Shades of burgundy, black, grey, blue, beige and red dominate, along with fabrics such as silk, pure wool, alpaca, suede and lace- accentuating the luxurious character of the creations for which Fátima Lopes has become known.