The Fashion Country To Fire Is Portugal.

Portugal, as one of Europe's largest exporters of cloth, has recently attracted the attention of many famous fashion brands. The textile Riopele, which is 36 kilometers away from the second largest Portuguese city of Oporto (Porto), may not be known to the outsiders. But if you open its list of international customers, you will find that Zara, MaxMara, Calvin Klein, Versace, Giorgio Armani and Hugo Boss and other European and American famous brands are on the list.

Well made leather products are also the core competitiveness of the Portuguese fashion industry. Portugal calls the old fashion neighbours France and Italy with "cheap and fine products". Portuguese leather products currently account for 3.8% of global leather goods sales, representing only 1/4 of Italy's total (Italy's leather goods accounted for 16.5% of the global market), but the growth momentum is obvious. According to the Portuguese leather goods and Footwear Association Association, the coastal countries with leather manufacturing experience increased their footwear export growth by 213% from 2006 to 2013.

The British fashion business Farfetch, which recently won the E round of financing, was founded by Portuguese entrepreneur Jos Neves in 2008. He was born in Oporto, a well-developed garment industry. Before he founded Farfetch in 2007, he made a solid foothold in the local manufacturing industry with his shoe brand. He even won the British Fashion Awards in 2001: the best annual retailer.

Neves analyzes why his hometown will become an ideal importing country for raw materials, especially footwear products. The reasons are mainly from the following three points: "first, the manufacturing process is very close to Italy and France, but the labor force is much cheaper. Secondly, the industry is mainly composed of small factories, and the threshold for ordering odd numbers is low, which attracts high-end designer leather brands. Finally, efficiency is also a major reason. Imported raw materials from Italy, France and the United Kingdom are assembled locally, usually in 3 days.

According to Joao Costa, chairman of the Portuguese Textile Association, 6353 local textile companies have created about 123 thousand jobs. The total export volume of the fashion industry reached 4 million 283 thousand euros (28 million 679 thousand yuan), accounting for 9% of the total export volume of the country.

However, no country can be satisfied with OEM. By the end of March this year, Portugal The twentieth fashion week began in Lisbon, the capital city of Oporto. Although neither of these two cities is a fashion capital, the fashion week is a real reflection of the flourishing trend of the local fashion industry.

Alves e Gon Gon, founded by Manuel Alves and Manuel Gon Gon Alves twin partner, is considered a Portuguese national dress brand and has a history of over 30 years. Alves is also responsible for designing the flight attendant uniform for Portuguese air TAP, and says that all the raw materials of the fashion are from home. In his view, the key to the success of the design brand is to find a customer base.

Not long ago, the designer of the same name brand was set up 25th anniversary. Luis Buchinho Echoing: "our fashion industry is constantly improving and reputation is slowly changing." The creative designer moved the 2015 Autumn Winter Conference to the National Library of France. The model was dressed in the latest series of "comics" as the theme, walking in rows of books.

Headquartered in Oporto Designer Diogo Miranda first came to Paris women's clothing week in March this year with the same name brand. This brand new series, founded in 2007, is called Paris No. 1, which reinterprets the classic tailoring lines with subversive techniques, and is suitable for modern women. "No." Miranda used Japanese silk, brocade, printed velvet, wool and other fabrics.

However, the pain point of the designer industry also plagued Portugal. Mafalda Foncesca, a new fashion designer, said: "young designers here are really not easy, and there are basically no economic benefits." Miguel Flor, Bloom creative director of Portugal's new designer support agency, agrees: "because our own brand is very small. If you are doing your own brand, you can get good cooperation opportunities from other manufacturers. " It is not difficult to understand that many factories in Portugal have still done a lot of OEM for international brands.

At present, Bloom helps Portuguese young designers to provide them with opportunities to show off and display their designs in the concept store in Oporto. Portuguese blood fashion platform Farfetch also plays a role in connecting the public and boutiques. The web site now recommends more than 300 shops worldwide, 5 of which are in Portugal.