Fernanda Fernandes

Fernanda Fernandes was born in Brazil. With a family full of artisans, she came into contact with the love for craftsmanship early in life. When clients came to her mother, a dressmaker, she liked to see them trying on clothes that not long before were just a pile of fabrics on the floor. The transformation to a piece of cloth from scratch never let go of her.

After high school, she worked in a jeans factory for a few years, mostly in the background where she developed a good eye for the logistics and production side of fashion. There she experienced how much she wanted to design. She could explore so many areas through fashion; history, biology, chemistry, sociology. So, after a few years, she started a course of Fashion Design during the evenings, next to her work in the factory.

In 2007 she moved to the Netherlands. Because the course at the Brazilian university was a more technical, industrial way of looking at fashion, she wanted to explore the artistic side of it. At the Amsterdam Fashion Institute, she learned how to develop her vision and express it through clothing. During her time at Amfi, she was given the opportunity to do a six month internship at Hussein Chalayan in London. She saw there how he expresses his thoughts through art and fashion, and how he translates a very complex message to a concise and direct image. More than anything, the experience taught her the importance of the process during the making of a collection.

Because of her appreciation for the past and ambition to know about the future, her work shows a love for both old tailoring techniques and innovation. She is curious and analytical. The woman she reaches for is cosmopolitan, powerful, confident, flamboyant, and not afraid to be feminine.

In February 2014, she graduated with her collection Quinto Simia. The collection is characterized by an unexpected mix of textures and tailored shapes that show the body, resulting in silhouettes that show a feminine and animalistic image. Her way to tell a story through a collection is by putting together materials and shapes that represent symbolic signs.