CARLOS MOEDAS

Mayor of Lisbon

The largest Fashion event in Portugal returns on October 1st, turning Lisbon into a stage for designers and artists, creators and spectators, entrepreneurs and technicians, for established talent and the emerging talent that finds in MODALISBOA its launching platform. All of this within a vibrant dynamic that reflects exactly how I see Lisbon: as a city of opportunities, where the impossible can become possible.

MODALISBOA shows us precisely that. First of all, through what it proposes to us. In this 65th edition, it invites us to go back to the foundations, to the very core of Fashion — or, if we wish to borrow terms dear to speculative thought, it invites us not to focus on form, but rather on the matter that constitutes the form of Fashion. This idea is essential today, and not only in the world of Fashion; it is equally vital when we think about politics, society, and the economy, to reflect more on deep foundations than on superficial forms. In that regard, MODALISBOA is once again contributing to a fundamental debate.

But it is not only what it proposes that matters: it is also how MODALISBOA does it. It does so by intersecting different areas of knowledge, different techniques, different experiences. It brings together Fashion shows with thematic debates, workshops and exhibitions, emerging designers and established names—precisely the method that enables the creation of new concepts, new languages, new visions.

And this brings me to the final point. By doing all of this, MODALISBOA opens up the entire world of Fashion to the people of Lisbon and to everyone visiting the city. Be it at MUDE, a must-go location for Fashion in Europe, be at its new Fashion House or through the programming that will bring life into Avenida da Liberdade. All across the city we will feel the impact of this major Fashion event.

Thanks to this remarkable work, between October 1st and 5th Lisbon will be the center of the Fashion world. I’ll find you there.

EDUARDA ABBONDANZA

President of Associação ModaLisboa

Reaching a BASE also means accepting the responsibility of building upon it. It’s not just a starting point; it’s the place where we decide whether to raise something solid or merely another façade. For me, this edition of ModaLisboa is about that: acknowledging what structures us and understanding how we can grow with clarity, consistency, and purpose.

MODALISBOA BASE is an edition that does not seek formulas. It approaches Fashion not as an isolated act, but as work that crosses people, systems, and languages. It began, like all others, with a base of questions. But these, besides being different, have gained decisive weight: how do we reinvent our operation? How do we create real impact — social, economic — in a system in transition? How do we stimulate our Designers’ businesses in an increasingly global city?

So, we expanded our creativity. In a surgical and strategic way. In co-organization with the Municipality of Lisboa, with a new Portugal Events program from Turismo de Portugal, and with the increasingly vital support of sectoral associations, partners, and sponsors, we have grown in time, in space, and in scope. This is the official invitation to join us in the vast free-admission programming of Lisboa Fashion Week, and the welcome to another season of collections by national Designers — the base of everything we do.

What matters to us, as a project, is to reinforce the idea that Fashion is collective construction. Made of professionals, of community, of the curious; made of creation and entrepreneurship; made of artisanal heritage, sustainability, and technology. It is from this mixture that any real possibility of future emerges. It is from this base that everything begins.

Welcome to ModaLisboa.