2021 brings a milestone that would be only natural for us to celebrate: 30 years of ModaLisboa. At these times – of birthdays and landmarks – retrospectives, status points and promises of future projects are normal. But that’s not enough for us. We were never the type that longs for the past. And even though it is true that Fashion looks back, it is in the future that finds its oxygen – after all, it has always been, Fashion has always lived ahead. So it seemed like a logical step to delve into our three-decade archive looking for clues, for all the times we brought about change, the times we made the audience tremble, the times we were too young. But from these endless hours of research, instead of leaving with a bag full of memories, we left with a question:
and now what?
and now what?
and now what?

An echo that questions everything – ModaLisboa, Fashion, the present, the future. It’s not an identity crisis, nor as if we have forgotten our mission or we didn’t know how to build the next Lisboa Fashion Week. We do know. But everything changed. And nothing has changed. And now what? This profound, rhetorical, omnipresent question leaves little room for answers. But, on the other side, it leaves all the room for freedom.

From October 7th  to 10th, ModaLisboa AND NOW WHAT?, in co-organization with the Municipality of Lisbon will occupy, for its 57th edition, two well-known but distinct places in Lisbon: Estufa Fria and Capitólio. Once more, without imposing a season, we’ll present the collections of the Portuguese Fashion Designers, in a four-day event, completed by talks and workshops.

These 30 years – accentuated by the extreme hardship of the last two – have given us the maturity to realize that we don’t always need to have answers. That we don’t have to cling to buzzwords and promises of a bright future. That fashion thought is permeable, even in the search for solutions to a reality that still struggles with sustainability, inclusion, speed, and respect. AND NOW WHAT? it is in everything we do, because will never be satisfied.

MODALISBOA: AND NOW WHAT?