It was a trip to London in 1994 and a visit to Topshop that gave the Portuguese entrepreneur Manuela Medeiros the idea of setting up an accessories shop in her native Porto. Her first, in the Rua de Santa Catarina, the main shopping centre in the city, was an immediate success. Within five years Parfois had become as familiar a household name in Portugal as Penneys is in Ireland never mind its French name which means “sometimes”. Its mix of well designed affordable bags, glasses, scarves and other accessories, bought at the time from London, Paris and Italy, was a winning formula and Parfois soon started to spread globally beyond the confines of Portugal through international franchising operations.
Today with a design team of some 17 professionals based in Porto and another four in Barcelona, it sources mostly from China and India and boasts some 3,500 items per season with new items refreshing the shops every week. Nothing costs more than €70 – even cabin luggage – and most bags come with smaller versions attached. Key to its success is not just the up-to-the-minute design, but the stylish shop presentations with an upmarket look that belies the inexpensive prices.
There are 700 stores in 54 countries and Parfois is expanding its brief this season to include clothing for the first time. There are warm, streamlined jackets including parkas, long faux-fur stoles, textured shawls, leisurely tunics, pants and jumpsuits along with silver- and gold-plated costume jewellery. At a recent presentation in Porto, fashion sleuths will have detected the influence of Gucci on many items and the mix of streetwear with an haute couture edge was a nod to Vetements, the Paris collective wowing the fashion world. There were some terrific shoes such as the blue velvet ankle boots and suede sandals in offbeat colours.
Colours for winter are greys, claret, blues and dark greens with metallic details sharpening the look. Bold chokers, ribbons, velvets and embroideries add rich embellishment, a key theme this season. These photos, by the Argentinian photographer Rodrigo Carmuega with Polish model Maria Loks, were taken in the famous 1970s Walden 7 apartment building in Barcelona, designed by the postmodern architect Ricardo Bofill, whose colours and lines partly inspired the new clothing line.
Parfois stores are in Mary Street, Blanchardstown and Pavilion Swords, Dublin Airport T1, Mahon Point, Cork and the Crescent in Limerick, or see parfois.com
