What are the colors that define the national female universe?
APA: The black is a base, is always there, in all clothes. Then the earth tones, ranging from brown, beige, until golden. This year, I presented a collection ceremony and they asked to include shades of coral, the flag green, Bordeaux, the color tile and shock pink that seems unlikely. There is a wide disparity, which is dependent for the occasion. If you go to the ceremony you are more daring, day-to-day bases are much more discreet. In everyday life, a Portuguese woman does not wear a pair of yellow or orange pants. The teenagers yes, mature women not really.
Note that Portuguese women are more concerned with their image, with its physical, with fashion and keeps up to date with the trends?
APA: I notice that in older women. Younger women are more relaxed. They are more daring and like to consume fashion. My best customers are located between 35 to well beyond 40 years of age. It is someone who cares more, I notice that now a woman with 40 years old takes more care of her body, everything is in place as we say and therefore can contain many models.
Do you have a fetish piece of clothing that is always a constant in the collections?
APA: They always like arches, is the kind of clothe that shows the shoulder wide enough to cover the fats. This is what we call satellite, because we do it every year, whether in summer or winter.
When you create the molding you have that care? To create pieces that hide those little imperfections?
APA: Yes, I try to have that detail in mind. This year there is a tendency for the skirts. Interestingly, it is the frilly dresses in the waist are capping these imperfections. Do not make people fatter because they are straight and large.
What part of the collection you like best to design?
APA: The gowns. It is a piece that takes work, has great design. They are pieces that you have to stick to the body, the modeling of this dresses have curved lines. It has more refinement is more manual, because it requires frills, loops, dots and elastics. It is also where I can be more creative. It becomes easier, because it is by choice. Sometimes it becomes more complicated to carry out a basic, because contrary to what people think is much more complicated, because we go the essentials.
The Serenade has several retail outlets nationally and in the islands, does you notes differences between them?
APA: We sell to Madera and the Azores. The last ones are more "cool" My customers from the center of the country curiously are also very discreet and prefer the basics. The women from Madera are more "hot" consume everything that has cleavage and with great design. The only difficulty lies in the winter collection I cannot sell it all because of certain clothes, such as furs, because of the mild climate. The best consumers of fashion are women from the North of the country. In terms of ceremony, they ask me flowing dresses, but the customers in Lisbon prefer a more romantic line. So I have to do two different lines in the same territory.
The Azorean are different in that sense?
APA: There are more basic. They are more discreet in choosing the colors, the prints, they always prefer everything smooth.
Your brand is essentially national, have you considered the possibility to launch into other markets?
APA: We are thinking to expand in Spain. We even have a contact in this regard, but for now we bet only on the domestic market because it has become increasingly difficult to answer the entire request. The company is small, but everything is going well despite the crisis.
What is the future of Serenade?
APA: We were thinking of launching first the collection for ceremony, before the ready fashion. In the summer, I always do three lines, the last of which focuses on sales. What I note is that there is an enormous demand for dresses for special occasions, I do not know why this is happening, but it is a phenomenon that I cannot ignore. We invested in nine dresses that sold very well. We do not intend to do just that, but it is a turning point.
