The theme of Saudade is deeply personal to me. It comes from longing, from wanting, and from the pain of something that is just out of reach. I was inspired by someone I cared about deeply, someone who always felt close and yet impossibly far away. He had a magnetic energy, a mix of darkness and charm, that drew me in, even though he remained a mystery to me.
At the time, I felt as if I were living in a world without colour. Everything was muted, as if I were watching my life through a fog. The only moments I felt truly alive were the brief ones I spent with him. But even those faded quickly, leaving behind only black-and-white memories. This contrast, the beauty of connection and the pain of its absence, is the heart of the whole project. It is about longing for something you cannot hold on to, and about searching for meaning in the space in between, where love, loss and memories blend into one.
Saudade is a Portuguese word that captures a deep, bittersweet longing for something or someone that is no longer within reach. It is a mix of nostalgia, sadness and warmth, where absence becomes a presence that stays with you.
The idea for this project first came to me during a trip to New York in November 2023. As a fashion designer, my work is closely tied to my own experiences, so what I was going through at the time naturally began to shape my designs. Back then, I was rewatching all the Batman films and discovering Gotham and its characters from a new perspective. Bruce Wayne, Catwoman and the Joker were no longer just fictional icons to me; they were becoming emotional symbols. They stood for identity, desire, chaos and transformation.
This project is my reinterpretation of these characters, not as superheroes or villains, but as reflections of the complex inner world I was struggling through at the time.