From August 1 to 22, the Ester Rosa Collection by Beatriz Moreira, a former student of the Bachelor's Degree in Design — Fashion at ESAD, will be on display at the Mercado do Bolhão.

The collection is born from the memory and stories of her great-grandmother, who was a fishmonger at the Bolhão throughout her life. The pieces result from a visual and emotional investigation into the traditional clothing of the market’s vendors, crafted through the deconstruction of shirts, blazers, aprons, and shawls.
In this reinterpretation, inherited fabrics and deadstock materials give life to a collection that intertwines identity, sustainability, and homage.

The Ester Rosa collection was also one of the selected works for the BLOOM Contest, where it was presented on July 3. The competition included the participation of four ESAD students.

Ester Rosa Collection

I carry in my memory all the stories she told me, even the most mundane ones always stayed with me. She worked from a young age, Bolhão was her home.
Barefoot through the streets of Porto, her aunt carried fresh fish from the docks. In her apron's pocket, she kept the coins she saved to buy a pair of shoes. Life was hard, but she remembered those days with a smile.
Between the singing and the laughter, the fishmongers of Bolhão brought joy to everyone around them. This collection is a tribute to my great-grandmother, who was a fishmonger at Bolhão her entire life. The looks presented draw on details that reference the shirts, blazers, aprons, and shawls found in photographs of my great-grandmother and her colleagues. The deconstruction of classic garments (shirts and blazers) and the incorporation of aprons and shawls merge her everyday clothing with her profession.
The collection features fabric from two shirts inherited from my great-grandmother, incorporating a piece of her legacy into the pieces and giving new life to these materials. It also utilises deadstock fabric from factories, contributing to the reduction of waste and pollution, two issues prevalent in the fashion industry.

Beatriz Moreira

Beatriz is a fashion designer with a strong creative and technical vocation, specialising in pattern-making, tailoring and collection development. With an undergraduate in Fashion Design from ESAD — College of Art and Design and professional training in tailoring, she has developed a career focused on attention to detail and innovation in design processes. She has a conceptual and investigative approach to clothing design, combining trend research, material exploration and technical mastery to create pieces that stand out for their originality, functionality and visual impact.
Beatriz is passionate about experimentation in modelling and the construction of unconventional shapes, with a keen interest in processes of deconstruction and reconstruction of clothing. The fashion designer values collaboration in creative environments and is motivated to join projects that promote identity, sustainability and individual expression through fashion.