The Luxury Design & Craftsmanship summit happened last week. See all the highlights from the event below.

The 1st edition of the Luxury Design & Craftsmanship Summit was held in Porto last week. The event, organized by Covet Group, gathered top brands from the Portuguese luxury industry, such as Vista Alegre, Topázio and Boca do Lobo and foundations that exist to preserve the craftsmanship arts, such as the Michaelangelo Foundation.

Here are all the highlights from the event that celebrated both luxury and craftsmanship.

The Summit lasted two days and the guests were presented with several live showcases of traditional Portuguese Arts & Crafts, such as Filigree, Tilling, Arraiolos and Renda de Bilros, among many others. The showcases promoted a strong bond between the artisans and the participants, and the end result was amazing.

The Opening Session was conducted by the CEO of Covet Group, Amandio Pereira. His speech reinforced the importance that craftsmanship plays in the design group, but also in Portugal and especially in the furniture design industry. The first panel in the event titled “The Value of Craftsmanship For The Luxury World” and had the contribution of Amandio Pereira, CEO of Covet Group, Nicole Segundo, Network Developer to Portugal for the Michaelangelo Foundation, Fátima Santos, General Secretary of AORP, Luis Onofre, CEO of the brand Luis Onofre and Antonio Moura, business developer.

The 2nd Panel of the Event opened the Day 2 of the event. Entitled  Design as a Driving Force of Local Craftsmanship, this panel focus on the evolution of design and interior design, which started to be as branches of architecture, an industry that was always understood as the major art. And if the interior design segment was considered a component of architecture, the design of clothing, furniture, jewelry and other common artifacts were also left mostly to tradition or artisans specializing in handmade products. The Panel had the contribution of Fernando Caetano (Moderator), director of Open Media; João Branco e Luis Sanchéz, fashion designers and CEO’s of the Storytailors Fashion Studio; Toni Grilo, product designer of Topázio; Alda Tomás, designer of Vista Alegre; Serena Confalonieri, designer; Francesca Merciari, artisan.

After an eventful morning with a magnificent panel about the origins of craftsmanship and it’s connection with the design industry, the Luxury Design & Craftsmanship Summit resume its agenda with a discussion about luxury design! What makes a Luxury Brand and how do you create one? This was the focal point of the third and last panel of this event entitled: “Luxury Branding: Behind the Scenes Story”!

This panel had the moderation of Mónica Seabra-Mendes, the Luxury Management Program Coordinator of Universidade Catolica, and had the participation of Marco Costa, COO and Creative Director of Boca do Lobo; Jorge Martins, founder of RomBoats; Carlos Santos, CEO and Creative Director of Santos Shoes; and Carla Graça, Marketing Manager of Vista Alegre. 

The event finished with the news that next year the Summit will be held in Paris! If you missed this year event you can’t miss next year’s.