After a one-off show in London last season, Marta Marques and Paolo Almeida were back in their home country of Portugal for fall. But don’t let this runway footage fool you; set in the middle of a sun-drenched vineyard, this “show” featured no guests. The designers were invited by the Portuguese tourism board to present one of their collections in the country. Leave it to this creative duo to turn their lookbook into an advertising campaign for a Portuguese getaway.
On the makeshift runway, the Marques’Almeida collection looks a little more sophisticated than usual. “It’s not a traditionally elegant collection,” offered Almeida, calling in from his studio hours before departing for a well-deserved August holiday, “but it is a little more grown-up, we were so young when we started!”
To Almeida’s point, there was nothing too formal about the designers’ new take on elegance. For starters, they showed it outside, surrounded by nature and grass, which informed the more pragmatic footwear choices. Few designers can make a convincing peplum these days—one that doesn’t look like something out of 2012, that is—but here they were available in spades. Evening volumes and fabrications were oftentimes paired with grungy acid-wash denim or fashioned into relaxed, unfussy shapes (including some great pajama-like sets). The OG Marques’Almeida spirit remains intact, even if the designers themselves have matured.
“We made some things we wouldn’t have done or thought about at first,” Almeida said, speaking of the lineup’s long, embellished sheaths and the cutesy flared skirts. Age looks good on them—who wouldn’t want to be a plus-one wherever those funky drapes and ballooning blouses are headed come fall?