Marques'Almeida is made up of designers Marta Marques and Paulo Almeida, who were raised in Portugal and are graduates of the prestigious Central Saint Martins in London. They've stormed onto the scene with an aesthetic that is part '90s DIY, part East London cool, and entirely their own. In celebration of our newly-opened OPENING CEREMONY SHOREDITCH location, where you can find their immaculate collection, we asked Marta to share a typical day for the design duo.
10:00 AM: Wake up, get dressed, and water the plants. I was obsessed about having a small garden in the terrace, but now Paulo takes care of it every day, as my obsessions don’t tend to last very long. I thought we could eat all homegrown vegetables, and because my sister (who lives in Portugal) was very successful with hers, I thought it would be super easy! Turns out there are bugs, wind, sun, and you have to water them constantly. In the end, you get a few parsley leaves.
11:00 AM: Have breakfast at AllPress. We love it here. It's a nice, semi-busy place to have great food and read the paper and some random magazines. It’s a particular treat when you wake up slightly exhausted on a Saturday morning, and you can go wild and have your own breakfast plate, with loads of amazing prosciutto, cheese, avocado, tomato, and a perfectly boiled egg. The other option sometimes is going for dim sum in Chinatown—we force ourselves out of East London and mingle with tourists, but it pays off since the dim sum menu in some places is incredible. (And, we never know what we’re ordering and all the weird things Paulo end up eating!)
12:00 PM: We normally then head to Columbia Road Flower Market with friends to buy some flowers, or more plants for our garden and have a little walk around.
2:00 PM: As it's the busy time of the year, we spend the afternoon at the studio doing some fittings and choosing materials. There’s always a deadline and something to do, and if not, it's the only quiet time we can actually look at research and think about design. During the week is more production management, sales, and even accountancy. We love being in the studio on weekends, when we can have a bit of fun with our team and fitting vintage buys and toiles we have lying around!
8:00 PM: After work, it's time to eat. I start thinking about dinner around 5 o' clock and then usually just obsess and nag everyone until we decide where to go! We usually choose Dishoom, a great Indian restaurant in Shoreditch—super-spicy but really good, incredible food. Or a Turkish place in Stoke Newington. Or The Ginger Pig Cafe, a Portugese restaurant, in Hoxton!
11:00 PM: After dinner, we head for some beers and glass of wine with friends on our terrace. We got used to having our friends around instead of going out. We’re obsessed with warm weather, and anything over 15 degrees is good enough to sit outside with a few drinks. And, although most of our friends are people we work with daily, we find ways of chatting and sometimes being stupid and bearing with each other for a ridiculous amount of time.
Shop all Marques'Almeida<
10:00 AM: Wake up, get dressed, and water the plants. I was obsessed about having a small garden in the terrace, but now Paulo takes care of it every day, as my obsessions don’t tend to last very long. I thought we could eat all homegrown vegetables, and because my sister (who lives in Portugal) was very successful with hers, I thought it would be super easy! Turns out there are bugs, wind, sun, and you have to water them constantly. In the end, you get a few parsley leaves.
11:00 AM: Have breakfast at AllPress. We love it here. It's a nice, semi-busy place to have great food and read the paper and some random magazines. It’s a particular treat when you wake up slightly exhausted on a Saturday morning, and you can go wild and have your own breakfast plate, with loads of amazing prosciutto, cheese, avocado, tomato, and a perfectly boiled egg. The other option sometimes is going for dim sum in Chinatown—we force ourselves out of East London and mingle with tourists, but it pays off since the dim sum menu in some places is incredible. (And, we never know what we’re ordering and all the weird things Paulo end up eating!)
12:00 PM: We normally then head to Columbia Road Flower Market with friends to buy some flowers, or more plants for our garden and have a little walk around.
2:00 PM: As it's the busy time of the year, we spend the afternoon at the studio doing some fittings and choosing materials. There’s always a deadline and something to do, and if not, it's the only quiet time we can actually look at research and think about design. During the week is more production management, sales, and even accountancy. We love being in the studio on weekends, when we can have a bit of fun with our team and fitting vintage buys and toiles we have lying around!
8:00 PM: After work, it's time to eat. I start thinking about dinner around 5 o' clock and then usually just obsess and nag everyone until we decide where to go! We usually choose Dishoom, a great Indian restaurant in Shoreditch—super-spicy but really good, incredible food. Or a Turkish place in Stoke Newington. Or The Ginger Pig Cafe, a Portugese restaurant, in Hoxton!
11:00 PM: After dinner, we head for some beers and glass of wine with friends on our terrace. We got used to having our friends around instead of going out. We’re obsessed with warm weather, and anything over 15 degrees is good enough to sit outside with a few drinks. And, although most of our friends are people we work with daily, we find ways of chatting and sometimes being stupid and bearing with each other for a ridiculous amount of time.
Shop all Marques'Almeida<