THE LISBON TAILOR

Barcelona kind of girl

2012-01-27T11:16:00.001+01:00

Memories of a recent Fall

2012-01-25T22:36:00.002+01:00

[this post can also be seen here]

Sagarika

2012-01-23T23:27:00.001+01:00

Ugo et sa Vespa (Tuileries)

2012-01-16T20:01:00.001+01:00

Priscila

2012-01-11T11:21:00.003+01:00

Her name is Priscila and you can know her better here

[this post can also be seen here]

Manhattan leopards

2012-01-04T13:30:00.003+01:00

(and the first leopard sings)

[this post can also be seen here]

Le parisien, el madrileño, o lisboeta

2011-12-30T06:34:00.000+01:00

Little Red Riding Hood

2011-12-28T11:18:00.004+01:00

(even knowing she isn't)

[this post can also be seen here]

Ciao Ciao Sara (Milan)

2011-12-21T17:23:00.004+01:00

[this post can also be seen here]

Duffle coats: blue in Paris, green in Milan

2011-12-19T23:23:00.001+01:00

Hiroshima

2011-12-16T09:59:00.001+01:00

in Madrid...

“But I look like shit” she said

2011-12-15T10:11:00.003+01:00

“That's up to me to decide” I told her back

[this post can also be seen here]

Details (back to Lisbon)

2011-12-09T10:27:00.001+01:00

Brittaney (Milan)

2011-12-07T12:16:00.002+01:00

[in a mood to see more of this? take a look here]

Géraldine & Irina (Rue Bonaparte)

2011-11-30T10:44:00.000+01:00

[this post can also be seen here]

Paris en fête

2011-11-27T17:20:00.007+01:00

Madison Av. (with a S. Paulo twist)

2011-11-25T09:55:00.001+01:00

Oh Ayres!

2011-11-21T17:28:00.001+01:00

After Madrid, London, New York and a brief staying in China it was about time you stoped here. Yes, here. Watching the trams go by? No. Doing what you know best... this, of course!

Time-out (Soho, Tiziana & Justin)

2011-11-16T11:01:00.003+01:00

[this post can also be seen here]

To photograph or not to photograph, that is the question

2011-11-10T09:44:00.004+01:00

I photograph the people in which I notice. People that steal my attention. But that doesn’t mean I photograph them all. I may be speaking with someone at the time and not be able to say “give me two minutes please while I go over there to photograph that gentleman” or because the focus of my attention may be getting away, getting into a car busy with bags, kids or with life. Basically, I prefer to photograph people that are alone. Some people get embarrassed with the presence of their friends, family or boyfriends. I’ve seen people more embarrassed with the people they were with than with me. And there’s a specific situation that always leaves me a bit uneasy – the one of suggesting a photograph to a woman accompanied by a man. I can’t help but feel a taste of gracelessness. I can't help but feel a bit rude. But I’ve done it. In moments such as this one when I saw a man too cool to feel offended with a kid that just wanted to photograph his wife. Or on this day when I just had to take this photograph (“I dare you to take this picture, Zé, I dare you”) or I wouldn't have forgiven myself. Or on those exact moments when I said to the 2 or 3 friends that surrounded Ilaria and Desiré that I needed them for a minute. What all those moments have in common is not what one can see in each one of the photographs, but the anguish that I would feel if I hadn’t taken them. Not photographing Ana is something that I couldn’t allow myself not to do. Best of all, her friend smiled. Best of all, her friend liked it. But I must confess that I consider that just a detail. The one sure thing is that I would never forgive myself if I hadn't taken this portrait of Oporto

[this post can also be seen here]

And so does black... (Lexington Av.)

2011-11-08T20:40:00.001+01:00

White. Come sun, rain, hot or cold

2011-11-07T11:08:00.002+01:00

Gala Gonzalez

2011-11-02T11:04:00.003+01:00

Gala is from Coruña, lives in London, but I met her in Madrid. Better still, it was in Madrid - through intermittent glimpses allowed by spaces between the cars - that I noticed the socks of this girl on the other side of the street. Moments later already on my side of the street, the girl with socks told me:

- Yo también tengo un blog (I also have a blog)

And then I asked her again "what did you say your name was?" And already laughing from the coincidence I told her "I know your blog". What blog? This blog

[this post can also be seen here]

Good vibes

2011-10-30T20:21:00.002+01:00

A Spanish girl in New York

2011-10-26T19:45:00.000+02:00

Brooklyn by Stockholm

2011-10-19T18:03:00.002+02:00

[this post can also be seen here]

Yellow power

2011-10-10T12:59:00.001+02:00

Do you remember Fred Astaire?

2011-10-05T15:50:00.006+02:00

[this post can also be seen here]

Sorry, I have to hang up. It’s important... I’ll call you right back

2011-10-04T14:13:00.000+02:00

And it was indeed important. Important in the sense that I shouldn’t miss taking this picture

Aguda’s Beach

2011-10-02T21:21:00.001+02:00

Details on a beach by Sado

2011-09-28T11:25:00.002+02:00

I just love simple girls

2011-09-26T13:25:00.002+02:00

I never lost much time thinking about what could be cool or not. But if this

2011-09-19T20:47:00.001+02:00

isn’t being cool then I definitely have no idea of what could be

I suspect that if we saw more pictures like this around and maybe we would see more women riding bikes

2011-08-31T23:59:00.003+02:00

[this post can also be seen here]

Tattoo lovers

2011-08-29T11:22:00.000+02:00

Walking to the park, she will be the fairest of them all when she gets there

2011-08-26T10:39:00.001+02:00

[this post can also be seen here]

Heat and a straw hat

2011-08-23T18:49:00.003+02:00

Oriental diva (Brooklyn)

2011-08-19T10:12:00.001+02:00

500 posts - spanish western

2011-08-17T16:04:00.006+02:00

500 posts. And I’ve only realized that now. 500 editorials, loads of [weird] approaches to perfect strangers, about 700 images, an identical number of participants and several thousand words. That’s what makes 500 posts. Merit should be given to the subject of today’s post and to all the subjects that I have published. 500 posts. No favorites, but if there were, this portrait would surely be among them

[this post can also be seen here]

Summer simplicity

2011-08-16T10:30:00.000+02:00

Teresa - Flower power

2011-08-10T18:39:00.001+02:00

[this post can also be seen here]

Praia do Meco (Meco Beach)

2011-08-08T08:41:00.003+02:00

here..

Will & Lauren - navy (good) mood

2011-08-03T13:02:00.002+02:00

[this post can also be seen here]

Ayres

2011-07-29T09:57:00.000+02:00

A real tailor...

Take me for a walk

2011-07-27T14:34:00.001+02:00

[this post can also be seen here]

Never before had pink looked so good

2011-07-20T18:36:00.002+02:00

[this post can also be seen here]

Bohemian like you (NYC)

2011-07-19T09:03:00.000+02:00

Praia Grande (Sintra)

2011-07-17T21:23:00.001+02:00

Alina - when class and style go hand in hand

2011-07-06T19:30:00.004+02:00

[this post can also be seen here]

Friends

2011-07-05T09:24:00.001+02:00

Walking the red carpet

2011-07-03T20:24:00.000+02:00

Jimmy Hendrix flavour

2011-07-01T12:07:00.001+02:00

Focus on the left, focus on the right (bright-coloured jackets)

2011-06-30T10:34:00.001+02:00

[this post can also be seen here]

Kimono girl

2011-06-28T09:10:00.001+02:00

Mr. Green & Yellow

2011-06-27T09:29:00.001+02:00

Saturday night fever

2011-06-20T00:07:00.000+02:00

It's all about the details, isn't it?

2011-06-17T08:54:00.002+02:00

Skirts? Of course I fancy skirts, but what I love the most are shorts

2011-06-16T20:31:00.000+02:00

[this post can also be seen here]

Fabrizzio and his colours

2011-06-14T08:34:00.000+02:00

Scott & James

2011-06-13T00:44:00.000+02:00

and for I what I understood, James likes to share what he´s wearing

Vanessa & Martina

2011-06-07T09:46:00.000+02:00

African flavour (with a little bit of sexual healing perhaps?)

2011-06-05T22:54:00.002+02:00

Jack of Hearts

2011-06-03T09:14:00.000+02:00

Aida - bigger than Plaza Mayor

2011-06-01T16:59:00.002+02:00

[this post can also be seen here]

Marcela

2011-05-31T11:11:00.000+02:00

Scalia

2011-05-30T00:32:00.001+02:00

Rita's stripes

2011-05-26T01:22:00.002+02:00

[this post can also be seen here]

Don´t care about ties can't live without scarves

2011-05-24T10:59:00.002+02:00

La Belle Époque

2011-05-22T23:50:00.002+02:00

19 Christhoper Street Gents

2011-05-20T09:21:00.001+02:00

Victoria

2011-05-18T18:07:00.004+02:00

[this post can also be seen here]

The best way is the Swedish way

2011-05-17T09:54:00.002+02:00

Francisca - Out Jazz

2011-05-15T23:20:00.001+02:00

Underneath the trench coat

2011-05-10T21:11:00.002+02:00

(tomorrow) Mercé is a mother

2011-05-08T19:35:00.000+02:00

[August 2010, Mallorca]

It was one of those days when the heat was so scorching, that it was unbearable to stand more than 30 feet away from the sea. I went to the water with Gonçalo, reminding David and Afonso that my camera is wrapped in a towel and find Mercé laying on the sand, eyes closed to the sky, her body wet by the saline water coming and going and with her hands under the sand. I whisper “Gonçalo” and look at Mercé’s body, as if it had been left abandoned:

– Fuck! – we whisper together.

“why don’t you photograph her?” he asks me. I try to explain him that my nerve has limits and that suggesting a photograph to a half naked woman for a blog where clothes are the main theme, can make me pass for a (very, very) sick person. He starts saying “but your blog is much more than just clothes” and as I start to tell him that he’s crazy, my mind starts accepting the idea – after all, our best friends are the ones with the necessary presumption and legitimacy to screw our mind until we do what they consider is best for us – and I remind myself that these are the moments that I appreciate the most. It were moments such as this one that made me start the blog. It’s strange to ask a perfect stranger if we can take their picture, but doing it all the time makes it almost mundane. With some tweaks here and there, we start to get the hang of it and soon it begins to feel like a routine. And like so many other things in this blog, I keep on experimenting and testing so that – at least here – I too don’t fall into routine. And that is what I did. Exactly what I always wanted to do. Fall off routine, and get as nervous as I did when I first kissed someone with whom I thought I would stay (forever?), or when I introduced myself to the CEO of the bank where I work saying something as stupid as “I have a blog”, or when I decided that it was the last time that I was going to be bullied by that jerk from the 7^th grade and punched him twice in front of the whole class (of course that I got home with a black eye and a bleeding nose) or like in so many other times where my actions only had the purpose of making me feel alive. And when I decide to do something that transcends me… it’s like a roller coaster ride where my body just seems to slip away. And what’s curious (or perhaps obvious) is that I think in the person for whom I yelled all those times that I went to an amusement park to feel the adrenaline in my body:

– My mother.

It was her that I searched in all those times that I felt fear, in all those times when my heart beat impaired my hearing. It's her that we search for when, as a child, we talk with our kindergarten sweetheart in the room next door or, as a teen, when we kiss a girl for the first time or even later, when we debut ourselves undressing a woman. The same person in whom we think when we excel ourselves, either personally, professionally or on another level, for example, when I approached Mercé and told her “Hola” while, at the same time, I counted down the time until some 7-feet tall guy would come to me to hit me in the face.

I don’t know if this portrait can be considered fashion... if it will be your fashion. It is definitely my fashion. And my fashion is nothing but my own conception of beauty, of the visual, empirical, emotional or even strictly psychological and social stimulus. And if there were any doubts that this moment was special, they disappeared when, as we said goodbye, Mercé told me (and only then did I realize):

– Mañana seré madre.

That’s when I lost the fear. The fear of publishing this image. Of all the images, this one shouldn’t have caused me that. The image of a woman that is fashion. I don't know if it's yours, but it's definitely my fashion.

(to my mother, Gonçalo's mother, Mercé, her mother and all the mothers of these kids from an island nearby. It were these kids that, in an insomnia night – I’m still fighting the jet lag and the 5 hour time difference – that gave me the inspiration to write a text illustrating an image that I caught one day in a beach in Illetas)

Femininity is such a beautiful thing (Madison Av.)

2011-05-06T16:15:00.003+02:00

Brit Girls

2011-05-05T12:07:00.002+02:00

Music in the Park

2011-05-04T17:05:00.000+02:00

Pierre - the Upper East Side Belgian that wears Italian suits and surfs in...

2011-05-03T16:14:00.000+02:00

Carrapateira

Omar

2011-05-01T21:31:00.001+02:00

Casual Friday

2011-04-29T21:41:00.000+02:00

Mercedes [' Uruguayan cape]

2011-04-28T21:02:00.001+02:00

Leonard - a singular man

2011-04-28T11:47:00.001+02:00

NYCity flavour

2011-04-27T22:42:00.002+02:00

Tom – between the gym and the Rockefeller Center

2011-04-27T10:26:00.000+02:00

Benjamin the storyteller

2011-04-25T14:15:00.004+02:00

You get such a sense of accomplishment when you´re responsible by a photograph such as this one that if you spent 30 days without taking another one you would feel the top of this page would be well represented. You get the feeling that no matter how many photos you take, you’ll hardly be able to portray someone like that again. So, I told Benjamin “Let me just first take the picture and I’ll tell you what it is for in a second”. And when he answered me “you don’t have to tell me anything”, I told him:

– But I want to [I want you to know. I want you to want this picture. I want you to see what I´m seeing right now. And then…I want you to feel proud of it. Just like I want all the people that I shoot to feel proud when they look at their own pictures. And that´s why I want you to ignore me and keep on doing what you are doing. So you can see what I´m seeing right now. Because, if you see what I´m seeing, you’ll definitely be a (even) happier man]

Jamaican flavour (NYC)

2011-04-21T12:46:00.000+02:00

Costanza

2011-04-20T00:11:00.000+02:00

(I’m even embarrassed to confess this, but this sequence was left forgotten since that gloomy afternoon when it was taken in December)

If I had a men’s sportswear line, André would be my favorite model for the new collection

2011-04-17T22:35:00.002+02:00

La(s) Latina(s)

2011-04-14T00:48:00.001+02:00

Maria passed by Rossio

2011-04-08T10:09:00.002+02:00

Parq Editorial (women)

2011-04-06T23:23:00.002+02:00

Parq Editorial (men)

2011-04-05T09:21:00.000+02:00

The girl whose socks seem to smile at her hair

2011-04-04T04:16:00.001+02:00

Pedaling through Paris

2011-03-30T21:41:00.000+02:00

There’s no Sunday like the Sunday at La Latina (Madrid)

2011-03-27T23:34:00.002+02:00

The blue(s) brothers

2011-03-20T23:26:00.002+01:00

What Mr. Horácio doesn't know

2011-03-18T07:50:00.001+01:00

It was in the half-light of an Italian restaurant in Bairro Alto that I first told my friends that I was going to start the Lisbon Tailor. One of the them laughed at the idea, another, frowning, asked me why the hell would someone want to do that, a third one called me a faggot and the remaining 2 or 3 thought that ignoring me would be the best way to let me know how stupid my idea was. From all of those reactions two consensus emerged: stupid idea, cute name.

I don’t buy tailor-made jackets. Not that I wouldn’t like that. But that would mean having to give up on some trips and of my drunkenness moments, which I consider far more significant to my happiness than the added value of having a coat measured to fit or going to San Giorgio, choose a pattern that best describes what goes on in my mind and ask Mr. Horácio to fit the sleeves so that I can feel comfortable inside a lousy jacket. What Mr. Horácio doesn’t know is that it was in one of those days, when he was busy trying to correct in a jacket what I cannot correct in my own body, that I thought about a name for this blog. The cute name for the stupid idea that I could not stop thinking about. The name of Mr. Horácio’s craft

Paris and how mundane a glimpse of style can be

2011-03-17T09:31:00.000+01:00

Truth be told, I would have photographed him even if he only showed half of this neatness

2011-03-16T09:05:00.001+01:00

(And from his expression, he knew that very well. Even in Paris, when you leave home like this, you already know that you’ll be noticed)