For all the popularity Lisbon has amassed over the past few years as a sought-after travel destination, Porto is still overlooked. But it shouldn’t be: Portugal’s “second city” is the country’s real standard setter when it comes to design, thanks to its heritage as a manufacturing hub through most of the 19th and 20th centuries. Now it’s gaining traction as a shopping mecca, too, filled with locally made items by emerging designers who can’t be found elsewhere.
“Even the Lisbon designers normally come to the Porto area to produce their designs because all the industry is here,” says Andre Ramos, founder of Scar ID, a lifestyle boutique that specializes in Portuguese fashions, accessories, decorative items, and more. In fact, so many producers have set up shop in formerly blighted production studios that Porto’s artisans are now sprawling beyond the city limits.
Here’s how to navigate a shopping spree in the up-and-coming shopping capital.
Clothing
One of the most popular clothing brands to come out of Portugal is La Paz, a hip Porto-based menswear label that focuses on modernizing traditional Portuguese fisherman's garb. Stocked in trendy boutiques worldwide (from Whittmore in Los Angeles to Le Bon Marché in Paris), La Paz’s storefront in the Ribeira neighborhood is perfect for trying on its entire inventory of chunky cotton sweaters, seahorse-print button-front shirts, and hooded anoraks.
Wrong Weather in Boavista stocks high-end designer menswear, from silk jackets by J.W. Anderson to Marni leather sneakers, but its owners also produce a collection of cut-and-sew shirts, tissue-thin graphic Tees, and perforated leather belts.
For your black-tie needs, schedule an appointment with Saville Row-trained tailor Ayres Gonçalo’s atelier for a sharply cut suit or tuxedo as well as a bespoke pair of suede loafers or double monkstrap shoes.
The award-winning designer Luis Buchinho has a flagship in the city center—and it's the city's best spot for womenswear. Bunchinho is one of Porto's earliest pioneers, but his latest collection proves that he’s still on the pulse of what’s covetable: leather jackets with origami details and mix-pattern shift dresses.
A few minutes away is Daily Day, a new shop that carries mostly Portuguese brands. It's the place to go for men’s clothing, from indie label La Paz (noted above) to funky footwear from Weekend Barber (shearling covered loafers) and folio-style clutches from Noise Goods (a leatherware producer in nearby Leiria).
Also look out for Daily Day’s recently launched in-house label. The men’s collection is strictly focused on classic outerwear, such as wool pea coats and duffle coats in a range of colors, including whimsical canary yellow. Women will have more to choose from, such as silk drop-shoulder jackets, drop-waist denim dresses, and expertly draped wear-everyday blouses.