I met Margarida three years ago. At the time, she interviewed me for L Manifesto, an online magazine that celebrated people with interesting projects and styles, giving them a platform to talk about themselves and their work. The focus was mostly real people, real women. Now we swap positions.

Three years have gone by, what are you working on right now?

Zippy's creative director, made me the proposal and I found it a super interesting challenge! I had never worked with kidswear, but I thought it would be a perfect time! With the birth of Carlota, a completely different world opened up with which I became closer ... I really found it interesting! And I launched myself headfirst!

I have been there for over a year and it has been amazing, working on the brand, identity, content management! Zippy has grown a lot and it has been a very stimulating job and it is super fun!

Why does fashion have a special place in people's hearts?

Because it can be a lot of things. It plays several roles in our lives and is expressed in different ways according to the profile and experiences of each person. Fashion works as an extension of our personality, a creative tool that allows us to express who we are, what we live, what we feel, and what we like. Fashion is behavior, it is culture and has a disruptive social role, it shakes minds and breaks taboos. It speaks of beauty, regardless of the different meanings that this concept may have. Fashion is precisely that, it is multiplicity, it is individuality, personality, it is much more than a piece of clothing, more than a trend. It's inspiration, it's art, it's having a voice.

Tell me about your experience in Brazil and about the book in your hand.

 We could spend days talking about my experience in Brazil. I went there a person and came back a different one - without fear of resorting to one of the corniest clichés.

I felt it too when I was studying in NY for two months, however, Rio impressed me in a much deeper way.

In addition to being an absolutely special city, with energy that surrounds us, with a bewildering natural beauty that collides with chaotic and exotic disorganization that I learned to love, Rio is also its people. And I was lucky to come across many, very special ones. I left a part of my heart there, I still feel it today. I think I was never as happy as when I was there. I met absolutely amazing people who helped me to interpret and observe the world as I had never stopped to see.

Joel and I left Portugal with nothing, he was going to study and I was looking for work. It was a challenge, that challenge that we had wanted to live on for a long time. I had nothing in mind, I didn't know anyone, I only took the dream of working on a brand I had followed for some time, which I had met through a friend, with a super inspiring job that, despite being on the other side of the ocean, touched me. That brand was Farm.

I got there and after a few days of vacation, I left my CV at the store. Weeks passed before they said anything to me, I was about to go live in São Paulo. It all seems very esoteric, but when I entered the factory/offices, I felt an incredible connection that I still can't explain. I ended up staying 2 years.

I owe this change to many people, but mainly to Carlos Mach, my mentor and Branding director. A visionary, an artist with unmatched sensitivity, who questioned me, who taught me to see and interpret beauty in an exercise never before experienced by me; to Tatiana Viana who showed me, in fact, how design and emotion can go hand in hand, and to Ohana, my great friend, for being my eyes and ears and guiding me in what was the quality music scene, of the Brazilian MPB.

In addition to unquestionably inspiring brand work, Farm's ADN is artistic, it lives off prints and its soulful creations. Farm comes to color our day and the prints are one of his strongest works. This book is Farm's 15-year-old book "Look inside and smile" an exciting work of curatorship and art direction that tells a story of 15 years through prints. It is absolutely inspiring and symbolizes the awakening to an art that I have always admired, but that I have learned to love and understand in its essence.

What have you always wanted to experience, but never had the courage?

Something I'm still going to do with my sister. I'm just gathering my strength and maximum knowledge to reduce the risk and to make sure everything works out ... when the day comes, they will know! Besides that? Dye your hair pink.

What are your greatest strength and your greatest weakness?

I think tolerance and adaptability. I am permeable, I like to be put to the test and feel that I learn, to be exposed to interpretations different from those I have always had.

I am on a long way, in a process of learning, of inner questioning, of cutting with conventions and habits that we have acquired and that we never questioned. I think the fact that I was a mother also influenced this change. I feel the need to understand what is truly important and what I want to pass on to Carlota. Stop being so perfectionist and obsessive, stop taking myself so seriously. Perhaps my weakness lies here.

What makes you smile the most?

My daughter, totally.

In addition, I must confess that I have an uncontrollable tendency to get emotional, and, often, the teary eyes are accompanied by a shy but felt smile. A beautiful image, a song I love and hear over and over again when I love it, a movie, or a scene from "Call me by your name" are some of the many examples of situations that touch me and make me smile.

What are your favorite places in Porto?

Many. The botanical garden is undoubtedly one of them. I always had a love relationship with flowers, since I was a little girl, maybe under the influence of my grandmother, watching her take care of the flowers she had at home, the little seed bags we wanted to see grow or the wonderful arrangements she made with my aunt. I also have the image of seeing my grandfather in a suit, with perfumed and cigarette in his mouth cutting the "thieves" of the rose bushes at the entrance to the house.

Flowers are the exponent of nature's perfection and my great source of inspiration. My tendency is often to create mood boards and think of editorials where nature, in its simplicity, can be the protagonist.

I also have to speak about O! Galeria, I love it ... I would love to be able to go more often ...

What did you learn today?

Today and recently ... trying to slow down and enjoy, without ever losing the intensity and the emotion with which I feel everything.

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