MARTA GONÇALVES

• • Could you please present yourself in a few words ?

My name is Marta Gonçalves, I’m 28 and I’m from Lisbon. I can be quite lazy but I’m also very driven by my work and dedication to the brand I created and run. I grew up in the suburbs of Lisbon in Sintra where there wasn’t so much going on. As a teenager I did my highschool in Antonio Arroio Art School in Lisbon where I studied Realização Plástica do Espetáculo, which included set design and textile related to costume design and started met a lot of creative people that opened my horizons. After that, I understood I wanted to carry on my studies at University in a Fashion and textile degree.

I launched HIBU straight after university and was invited to present a small collection at Sangue Novo (platform for new designers) in Lisbon Fashion Week. After this, HIBU was invited to be part of Portugal Fashion’s Bloom platform, where I presented collections for several seasons.

After a brief hiatus, HIBU returned last October to Lisbon Fashion week presenting a new collection based on the idea of genderless contemporary basics and a new goals for the brand’s future. I’ve been interested in pursuing the idea of genderless clothing since my days at University, I’ve always had a special interest and love for male garments as a woman, and began working with forms and patterns studying how to best shape pieces to all genders and bodies.

• •  Where do you find generally your inspiration and what was the main one of this new collection ?

I find inspiration in daily life, what people wear around me and what I think is missing somehow. I tend to deconstruct designs and take
inspiration from forms and more graphic aesthetic references, Japanese design for sure. This FW 20/21 collection is a continuation of the previous collection, CRU-L. Both collections are influenced by the historic appropriation of workwear in streetwear and casual wear, I felt that this was a good starting point to explore and modernize, in developing a collection that is intended to be durable and comfortable as well as contemporary.

• If you had to choose a quote which runs your life what would be ?

I don’t think I live my life by any quote but the latest that made me think was:

“Live like you are gonna die ‘cause you gonna die” Coco Capitan.

• What do you think about the evolution of Lisbon and all changes happens to this city in terms of creativity etc ?

It depends, I think in general evolution brings good and bad. It’s good because the city is growing, people are more open and interested in arts in general, there’s a lot of people moving here so there’s more sharing and connections between new artists or people in general, a lot of new projects but in terms of creativity I can say that it was much more inspirational to live in a city full of traditional places and specially traditional habits that unfortunately are disappearing with the evolution of the city.

• What we could wish you now ? 

I wish to make HIBU into a lifestyle brand, multidisciplinary and our goal for the future is to develop more collaborations with other
artists, designers, textile designers, visual artists, musicians, etc, not only in clothing but objects and other mediums as well.
Commercially speaking the goal is to expand, hopefully work with some great partners and retailers in different cities.