Portuguese Soul:The body as a canvas

 

newsletter #63 2024

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X | The body as a perfect canvas ­ There’s a beauty in the athletic body, defined at a glance. A construction of human lines and curves, involved in a complex game of effort and perseverance. It can be (a very) feminine thing. Over the next few images, Filipa Martins, Francisca Laia and Rita Gomes, respectively, gymnast, canoeist and cross fitter, show how the human body can be a perfect canvas.

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Joana Vasconcelos: The beauty of (small) things ­ In the work of Joana Vasconcelos, there are always ‘doors to be opened’, dreams of the future that push her to create and keep fear at bay, languages that transmit strength and resistance, that transmit tenderness, love, even nostalgia, as if the fabric of her country and her own existence were combined there.

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Thank you, it was my grandmother ­ In an article brilliantly written by Nancy Beach for The New York Times in 1979 (“You Are What You Wear”, published that year on August 26th), several psychologists and psychiatrists discuss the emotional reading of the choices we make when we dress.

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Leadership in Heels

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In the business world, which is mostly made up of men, being a woman entrepreneur still seems to be a major challenge. According to the November 2022 Statistical Bulletin — the latest data available — from the Portuguese Government’s Commission for Gender Equality, ‘women hold fewer senior positions than men’. It continues, ‘from 2020 to 2021 there was a significant increase of 1pp in both men and women in leadership positions. But in 2021 there was still a gap of 2.1pp in favour of men, 0.4pp less than in 2016’, the document concluded.

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So-So

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Maria Santos and João Marques are the double act behind SO-SO, a brand which takes its inspiration from Portuguese expressions and proverbs in order to create unique pieces, handmade and meant to last. Initially intended (for the most part) for children, today the world of SO-SO has expanded to include home accessories, such as lamps, vases and candleholders, which come to — very striking — life in the hands of this pair of architects who are crazy for a touch of craftsmanship, for wood and, from the get-go, for simplicity.

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Portugal surpasses Spain in footwear production

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As part of its strategic plan, the Portuguese footwear industry will invest 600 million euros by the end of the decadente in innovation, sustainability, company and worker skills, and internalisation.

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