Andrea Franco created the Olympic outfits for the Portuguese Committee for the 2021 Olympic Games in Tokyo. Now she has launched the "Umbrella by Franco" brand
Andrea Franco is living proof that it is never too late to follow a dream. Born in Machico, last year, at the age of 40, she officially launched "Umbrella by Franco", a brand of women's footwear and fashion accessories, based on a sustainable logic, inspired by "big girls". With a degree in Social Work and experience in the area, in 2015 she decided to enter the Fashion Design course, in Porto, and thus hear the call of her true vocation.
In 2008 she had already had some experiences related to her passion, where she started by designing costume jewelry and establishing partnerships with local designers and stores. However, the will to go further took her to the city of Porto, where she achieved 2nd place in the "Namorar Portugal” international contest, having integrated several projects still as an invited student.
She quickly began to make her name known in the fashion world: "In 2018 I interned at the Lion of Porches brand, from the Cães de Pedra group, which is part of the Decénio brand. The following year I started working in this group to coordinate and design the project of the Portugal Olympic Committee outfits for all the Portuguese athletes. During the year 2019 and 2020 in the coordination, I designed and developed the Portuguese Olympic Committee outfits for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic games, which will take place in 2021," tells us Andrea Franco, who has been working as a freelancer as well as with several national and international brands and creators.
As a child, she always dreamed of making her own shoes. In this sense, she says that "being able to create for myself and for other women is already a goal achieved.
The creator admits that what feeds her soul the most is the creative process of "exclusive pieces" due to the "question of style, the construction of personas" and the connection to small local producers because she believes it is "possible to adopt a more sustainable attitude, without compromising the aesthetics or the DNA of the brand".
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