Two young fashion designers from Faro have created a brand of clothing called LESS buy.less which uses discarded materials and fabrics to create new luxury collection items.
Some of their works have already been showcased at the Portugal Fashion show in Porto and in the Italian edition of Vogue magazine. The duo hopes to enter the Asian market soon.
“The idea came in 2017. We both wanted to participate in national fashion platforms and thought we’d have a better chance working together,” Ana Eusébio, one of the creators of the brand, told Barlavento newspaper.
From the start, the plan was to create a “solid project”. Ana and her friend Catarina Gonçalves, each having earned their Fashion Design degree, applied to the Bloom – Portugal Fashion programme through which they launched their brand in March 2018.
Sustainability is the ethos of the brand, which revolves around the circular economy concept – using rubbish to create new items. The term ‘trashion’ has become commonly used to describe this method of using waste to create fashion.
“We realised that there is great waste produced at factories, due to defects, wrong colours and many other reasons. Together, we make the most of the ‘dead stock’ and create unique items with great value,” explains Catarina.
“Unfortunately, fashion is often considered something futile. We created this project in an attempt to change that mentality and create something that is sustainable and collaborative,” she adds.
But the brand also wants to raise awareness about “themes and stories that are often considered taboo”.
One of the brand’s collections is called ‘Isolation’ and aims to shine the spotlight on issues such as anxiety, stress and depression.
“These are situations that are witnessed by everyone but are still viewed as taboo by society. For this concept, we carried out a survey and it was based on the responses from the public that we decided the colours and details for the whole collection,” Ana told the paper.
A collection of bags entitled ‘T-SHI#T’ has also been launched by the duo, allowing clients to choose which image they want stamped onto the bag.
Ana and Catarina have also created fashion items for Tanto Faz, a charity project that aims to raise money for the Associação Amigos da Criança which helps reintegrate ‘talibé’ children in Senegal who have been victims of abuse.
The plan for the future is to ‘go international’ and also open a store which will serve as an art and culture gallery.
As Ana Eusébio explains: “LESS is our way of interpreting the world and showing our concerns. It is our escape and our way of making a difference through art and design”.
The young fashion designers have also launched a crowdfunding campaign to help them raise enough money to expand to Asia, namely Hong Kong, Macau, China and Taiwan.
For more information about the brand, visit http://lessbuyless.com
Original article written by Maria Simiris for Barlavento newspaper.
