editorial

You all know we love to write concepts and manifestos and to produce beautiful images to inspire and seduce our followers to the ´scenario´ we are creating here at scar-id.
But sometimes, we just need to a good curatorial work, clear all the store for one brand and let it happen.
Friday 24th November, scar-id After Hours, Made in Youthland:

THE INVISIBLE WARDROBE :: [UN]DRESS YOUR SKIN

“On the 24th November, Black Friday takes place worldwide and like an abusive relationship with the real world, it has become synonymous with consumerism – wasteful, debt-fuelled and ultimately unsatisfying in the long-term. Yet, inescapably, we are part of the material world and this phenomenon. Being part of the cosmetic and lifestyle industry, we are well aware of an over-consumption and an uncontrolled and emotional purchasing behaviour. So, how, then, can we develop a healthy connection to material things?

This Friday, we would like to redesign the conversation. In a day that celebrates excess, we invite you to undress from it and go back to the essentials – exploring the relationship with ourselves and ultimately, our skin.

Skin has the power to protect our bodies, to [re]connect us with the material and immaterial world, to allow us to be able to feel and by stripping down our behaviours and thoughts back to the essential of the human body, we believe we can rethink and rebuild our relationship with materialism in a more meaningful way. As advocates that every non-human body shares with every human body a cognitive and transformational nature, we trust that it possible to dress our skin, and ourselves, with a more deeply pleasurable and respectful relationship with the world of ‘things’.

We invite you to meet us this Friday and what better place to spend the evening but, Scar-id store in Porto? From 18h00, Sixteen skincare wearables that we like to call The Invisible Wardrobe, will be on display to be experienced surrounded by an [un]dressed minimalist environment, in the company of the perfect pairing: Wine by Quinta de Lubazim and chocolate truffles.”

RETAILER TO WATCH

“The best is that our fashion clients don’t really care about fashion.”

Interview for Sporstwear International Magazine
by Juliette Tafreschi — June 27, 2017

In 2013 Andre Ramos and Silvia Pinto Costa decided to quit their jobs in architecture and photography and face new challenges. They opened a concept store named scar-id in the heart of Porto where they show whatever they like: from Japanese inspired ceramic to urban furniture and their own brand ATER. The mix is unique and worth a visit!

What’s the story behind your store? When and why was the shop opened and how did it develop?
We opened scar-id on a Friday night, 13th December 2013. We like to see our store as our place in the city. It started with the idea of presenting our identity, our vision, our concepts, our tastes to a bigger audience, our city. scar-id is a design store, but we see it as a place where we can show whatever we like: from Japanese inspired ceramic to photography, fashion videos or flowers, architectural projects or parties to celebrate design.
Four years ago we were quitting our peaceful jobs in architecture and photography, to start a life that is all about discovering, enjoying the process and having the feeling of conceptual liberty.

How would you describe your assortment and what makes it special?
We work with fashion and jewellery, but also with ceramics, notebooks, magazines, leather bags, homeware, skin beauty, concrete urban furniture…this mixture is what makes scar-id special. The selection we offer, from a wide range of areas, and to create a complex but coherent collection of products is where we ´differentiate´ ourselves.

Which brands and styles are your bestsellers right now?
We are very happy with our own brand, ATER by scar-id, a leather accessories brand that is performing quite well since its launch a few months ago.
Comfortable coats and sweaters from Carla Pontes and Susana Bettencourt, ceramic plants germinators from Lagrima Studio and jewellery with unusual materials like the 3D printed plastic necklaces by Wek, are our bestsellers.

Which new brands did you add to the assortment recently and how did you discover these?
We have recently added a new ceramics brand. Estúdio Hakémé is a young sculptor that is creating Japanese style ceramics who invited us to visit his atelier and we got very enthusiastic about his search and process. We re-started to work with Daniel Barros, a fashion brand we were working with when we opened the store.
We like to help a brand to grow, so we normally have new brands, some with unique pieces or very limited editions sold exclusively here at scar-id. The research process is very interesting.

Where do you order your products (showrooms or trade shows – which ones)?
Since we don´t work with mainstream brands, we can allow ourselves to have a direct and personal contact with the designers or the brand managers.
We can visit showrooms or trade shows, and find new things there, but the next step is always about a conversation with the persons, finding out concepts and ideas behind the brands and figuring out what can we do to establish a positive partnership, which for us is always more than about trade.

Which trends & looks do you think will dominate in fall/winter 2017?
Layer over layer, mixing seasons, mixing styles. The trend is yourself and your identity. People should use whatever they feel like, but their look must reflect themselves, their own personality, their own lifestyle and not someone else´s style.

How often do you redecorate the store, how important is the interior?
Our concept for the store´s interior architecture was to create a void white space with some black displays, taking advantage of the wide windows and adding a lot of ice white light.
In a weekly or even daily rhythm we change product places, sell a few, add new ones. Since we work with several different areas, one day we could talk about fashion and jewellery, another day we are in an ´offline´ mood and we highlight magazines and notebooks. Last week it was about ceramics.
So we are constantly “redecorating” the store, not with architectural gestures but with products.

What is special about your fashion customer?
The best is that our fashion clients don’t really care about fashion. Like we do, they care about products, and design, and ideas and, especially, about themselves.
We work for a niche audience, passionate and savvy customers that are seeking that special piece, they know they will find at scar-id store.

How do you interact with your community?
Porto´s Art District, the place where we are based, is a place for cool stores, art galleries, where a few creatives are still living. When we launch a new brand or collection in store, we always make a public presentation, gather some friends and some design enthusiasts.
scar-id is also very present on social media and we have an online shop, but we are more and more interested in being ´offline´, doing things directly for our clients, in store, in the storefronts for the city.

What have been the biggest challenges in leading the store so far?
scar-id is an independent store. Our business model is very simple. We search, select and sell. We have no investors and we´re not using community funds, we just do everything with passion.
Who works in this way has a daily challenge, which is called survival. We have to be always a step ahead, trying to figure out creative ways to develop tomorrow.

Which person – celebrity or not – would you love to welcome in the store one day?
We actually feel very pleased when someone from the neighbourhood, who never looked at our store with attention, finally discovers a product in the storefront that makes him enter for the first time.
We had quite ´famous´ architects, designers and musicians coming to scar-id anonymously.
In one of Anohni´s professional photos, she is using a piece from Susana Bettencourt that she purchased here on the day of her concert. We would like to welcome her again.

I (and Silvia) see scar-id as a space for urban culture, an idea. A lifestyle idea, giving an answer to the way we live.

scar-id it is not its products, is ideas, concepts, design, image, experimentation, to dare, to interpret, to comment and to create.

It´s not just the way we dress and the objects we have in our homes. It´s all a concept of identity, of life.

To achieve a coherent package.

We work with clothes, jewellery, paper and ceramics in store. But we work with much more: with houses, with art, with photography, with space, we would like to work with music and films, someday with food and perhaps with means of transportation.

Experiences.

And what is the role of products in today´s ´online´ world of (shared) economy of experiences?

What does a piece of clothing (there is not fashion, but design or style) means today?

What, in today´s world of low salaries and big needs for incessant changing, really deserves and justifies spending our money?

And, do we still have time to look at a physical object? And figuring out things like design, quality, material, idea, culture?

We sold Inês Marques Printed Black Top from SS16 on the day of her FW16´17 fashion show. She was dressing the girls with her second collection and the first one had entered in store a few hours later, when some international traveller fell in love for this piece. I haven’t get time to know the product but it represents quite well what is our work about.

WEK´s work is about to match coloured plastic wires used on the vineyards and 3d Printed parts to close, and get an amazing bold piece of jewellery that challenges the need for noble raw materials to create statement pieces. Silvia uses a 71 Bold Necklace every day.

Stiches Dress is a black plain piece in cotton and linen, with a textured surface that divides the mat and the transparent. Is an amazing piece that can be used as a dress or a coat. In each designer and each collection, despite all the general questions about quality, I´m always trying to find a relation to my own point of view and I get very pleased when I find it, like I did with Amorphous.

IDxH Black Code 1.0  from HUSK is all I can expect from a notebook: a lot of white pages, a textured black leather cover and was made with time and care: handmade.If we are searching for concepts in clothing we are always ending on Alexandra Moura. Her Black Bomber with Laces represents me some king of deconstructed femininity for wear on the street. It´s not fashion or glamour, it´s style and identity.

I really hope nobody buys the Large Handmade Bowl, Grey and Ocher. I will take it home and put it close to the other two Lagrima products we have.

I´m always trying to find minimal, pure, essential contemporary jewellery brands. Modular Bracelet 31 by Ana Pina is a main exemplar of what a simples and clean design gesture could make.

Sunday after lunch, we find a good place, with nice chairs and quiet music, we ordered coffee and we start to read our regular pile of magazines. Discovering ideas, architecture, fashion, art, interiors, design and cities, is my daily routine. In Sundays I do the same but with paper magazines such as The Aprés Garde that I have the pleasure to sell in store. It´s our ´international guest´ of the moment.

ID Backpack is part of my daily uniform. I always use plain black essential clothes with almost no details. All my clothes are equal. Black pants, black shirts, some black sweaters, black boots and black sneakers, a winter heavy black coat with a hoodie for the rain, a few street black bombers and a couple of blazers for more institutional moments. So, when I needed something to carry thing we designed a plain, undetailed, black leather backpack.

We like to work with Tânia Dioespirro.
She is always involved with great productions and the images are amazing, like these ones for Elléments Magazine.
These time Tânia used Pedro Pedro, Susana Bettencourt, Wek, Lia Gonçalves, Andrez and Eduardo Amorim.

Photography – Dulce Daniel

Styling – Tânia Dioespirro

Styling Assistant – Luisa Quintela

Makeup – Helena Almeida

Hair – Ksenia Gryninnyk

Model – Tânia (Best Models)

Each year, we have to pleasure to collaborate with Escola de Moda do Porto, one of the best fashion school on the city and help one of its students.

In 2014, we had Yannick Barros doing an internship in our store, helping us with our daily routines.

In 2015, we had Mariana Virgilio creating an amazing storefront for us, in Gold and Silver, alongside with her brilliant conceptual Film featuring some products from our store.

This year was the time for Joana Silva. She redefined our logo, created a new identity for our shopping bags and price tags, but we absolutely loved her Photoshoot. With the versatile model Inês Junqueira, Joana was able to transmit scar-id store´ identity picking up a selection of neutral black and white (and blue) products where she just added black ink and a plain grey scenario.

This work was really about our identity. To feature a careful selection of products and talk about them facing a neutral scenario. Is like this in our store, in our website and surely was like this in Joana´s Photoshoot. Thank you Joana Silva. We wish you luck for your future, because you have plenty of talent.

Art Direction: Joana Silva

Photography: Daniel Fernandes

Model: Inês Junqueira

MUA: Sara Ferreira

“It should be passion, right? But Love has just four letters,it´s easier to build the word. Yeah, but we use passion in the store, not love, love is calm e rational, this is more bold and spontaneous, we search for, we like it, we understand it and someone should take it home because of passion, not love! But they could love it! Maybe they can, but can you love a garment or a necklace? You can love the person who gave you a ring, not the ring itself. You can be passionate about a notebook and a bag, and you can love me. I don´t think so, I love a marble board and a ceramic bowl. But I can´t love my shoe lace, I can be just passionate for a while, a new item. I love items forever, you know. I will love this black denim coat forever, and I´m no more passionate about him, and I´m passionate about this blue wool collar right know, will I love it one day? Who knows.But you know what, I have passion for this store, for what we sell, how we communicate it, this white space that can be whatever we want. I love my job, finding daily a new way to solve a new problem, it´s great isn´t it? To be passionate about an idea, a concept. To be in love with changing the world?Yeah, but you know, in the end of the day it´s all about you,and I love you.”

scar-id

Carla Pontes is with us since day one. From a catwalk sample designer to a worldwide brand, we have a special care about this brand. Orbit is Carla Pontes 6th collection and the one that had the fastest acceptance by the public.Normally we have to wait for the right person for the right piece, but with Orbit Carla finally reached not the individual but all the small niche of design consumers. Orbit Oversized Overcoat is that special coat, warm, cosy, ideal to wrap in a cold day or to be open and leave it with is natural wave of the jacquard wool. A beautiful piece in an amazing collection.Besides all, we still sell pieces from Carla´s previous collections. The brand is producing new products every year, but the ones they had made are all ageless.

Golden Tubes Coat is a symbolic piece in our product selection. It is the most expensive piece we have in store. From Cristina Real Fall Winter 15´16 collection, it represents detail, timelessness and exclusivity.It is a heavy coat, with golden brass tubes hand embroidered one by one. It took time to be built.A timeless piece that can be used daily by someone who consider the power this coat could transmit to its own identity.  An exclusive piece, as all of Cristina Real´s, to be used by a single person that believes that Golden Tubes Coat was made to her.

We have six Susana Bettencourt different collections in store. Surely we are not a museum but we like to tell ´design´ stories. Susana´s story is told by her collections.It´s all about continuity and coherence. When someone in our store finds a beautiful Susana´s piece, immediately identifies these other ones as from the same brand. The jacquards, the colours, the shapes. All in Susana Bettencourt´s work is a continue path adding new items to the process of deconstructing nature and balancing it with between the digital and technological and the manual labour. To symbolize 2015 we choose Knitted Jacquard Collar as an example of the warm and comfortable feeling that Susana Bettencourt´s pieces transmits. In the first day of August 2015, in a very hot day, we sold a winter collar.

scar-id store selection of products in normally mainly about unique pieces, limited editions and small collections. It is not the case of this Porcelain Lemon.Margarida Gorgulho was one of the first brands we select. We love ceramics and Margarida´s work have two very different types. Plain bowls, white and pure on the base with a punch of colour in the interior,  and the fruits. Porcelain Lemon is really a best seller, just a small porcelain piece, made from a real lemon cast, white and textured outside, with a smooth light yellow  touch inside . We have pomegranates and melons, but is the Lemon that everybody wants because of that extra surprise of colour.

Wek is one of the brands that started with us. Beautiful and simple plastic necklaces we helped to grow and delivered worldwide. Contemporary jewellery made with coloured vineyards wire and 3d printed locks. The ideal balance between a traditional material out of the context, and a new technology that gradually is entering our world. 71 Bold Necklace is our favourite. Actually, it makes part of Silvia´s daily uniform of accessories. Black lock and black wire, just taking advantage of the intricate design to add that differential detail on a plain and monochromatic look.

Long Painted Dress is as an example of the success of the SS15 mariaDovale collection. mariaDovale was a big surprise. Another out of the spotlight brand, that doesn´t presents its collections on the catwalk. The 3 sisters’ brand works between clothing and jewellery. Priory was about unique pieces, but quickly we understand that the collection had to be reproduced due to the number of costumer requests. Always keeping in mind that painting detail in every clothing piece mariaDovale had created a mini winter collection and is always adding new jewellery items to our selection of products.

SCAR – ID IS A STORE THAT ISN’T A STORE. IT’S BETTER DESCRIBED AS A VISION OF WHAT A STORE COULD BE IN THE FUTURE. WE CAUGHT UP WITH ONE OF its FOUNDERS ANDRE RAMOS TO FIND OUT WHAT THIS MEANS, AND WHAT KIND OF CHANGES HE WANTS FOR THE INDEPENDENT DESIGNERS OF THE FUTURE.

How would you describe scar-id. What is it?

scar-id store is an independent design store. We’re Porto based but worldwide oriented and we sell and communicate a selection of products from emerging creators and new brands, from fashion, accessories, furniture and product design. scar-id store is a space for those who understand that design plays a differential part in the construction of its own identity.It’s also an online store but, more than a store, scar-id is a design lab, an architecture and interior design office, and a photography studio.

Who was involved in setting it up?

scar-id store is a project developed between me (Andre Ramos) and my partner Silvia Pinto Costa. 

How did the two of you meet?

Silvia and I have known each other for a long time. We are partners in life and work, and for that reason we need to separate quite well what is our public life and our private life. 

Why is scar-id called scar-id? 

SC are the initials for Sílvia (Pinto) Costa and AR are my ones. We put them together and scar sounded like a good concept: to leave a scar after the work is done. The kind of work we were interested in was about identity and design – this is where the i and the d came from. So scar-id became our brand´s name. 

What was it that gave you the idea for scar-id?

Since we share our life we are constantly talking and sharing our ideas about the world. The idea for scar-id came from our traveling. Whenever we travelled we searched for local stores in order to connect with the urban contemporary culture of the city. We understood that a store should not be only a local trade, but a space that could represent contemporary culture.We realised that it should be an interesting thing to start working with independent young designers and support them. They normally don´t have space and opportunities to develop their work, so, why not? And after a few months scar-id was born. 

Do you come from a creative background yourselves? 

I´m an architect, so I understand quite well the creative world. But at the same time, my background as an architect gave me an alternative position to face some important decisions from in design matters.Silvia studied fine arts, and she was working as a fashion and product photographer before we established scar-id. The relation of the two areas gave her a new perspective connecting both creative process and product in order to understand both sides – creator and consumer.With backgrounds far from management and trade, we think are bringing some new elements to the table. Everyday we learn something new and we develop a new way to solve a problem. 

Apart from a store and a gallery, scar-id is a space for designers to communicate through. What does this mean for designers?

What we just do is to create professional friendships with all the designers we work with. They know they have at scar-id a space, and people, that can support them at any level in their creative process. They do not work physically in scar-id spaces, but here we discuss ideas and solutions for their work. 

How do you find the people whose work you exhibit? Or do they find you?

One of our daily jobs or routines is to search for creativity, products, persons, brands, ideas, trends, materials or projects…so we inevitably find good products or brands that we would love to talk about.The next step is to find the person behind what we find and seduce them in to work with us. We explain to them who we are, how we work, our ideas to communicate and sell their brands. If we like each other we can start a professional friendship because any other way it won’t work. 

What kind of designers or brands do you tend to go for?

All the brands we select have a common line. They have to be cool people doing creative things; always trying to innovate somehow, but at the same time doing it with good materials, with an impeccable finish, and creating ageless pieces with a global vision.scar-id store is basically a lifestyle brand, where the costumer can find everything that could help him in his identity. So we have to choose carefully all the products in order to create a coherent image to the client.

You also have a studio space too? Called -1? What is the -1 studio?

-1 is our 100 sq.m. basement space. The idea is to have an empty space to become what we need it to be. It could be anything from our meeting space to another part of the store. Last week we covered the space with black fabric and we showcased a video-installation about a fashion product there. Next month we will host a design exhibition during the ´experimenta design´ event. It’s also normally our working space for our parallel projects and our photography studio.Other people use it too though. Sometimes we have private parties hosted there, at other times someone is there sewing some leather bags. If you have a good project to work on and need a space in Porto, call us. 

Why is it important?

scar-id is mainly about a store, so of course the commercial part is the most important one. Our -1 is the other side – where we can do the others things we like. As an empty space it can be whatever we want it to be, so it´s always about the next thing. The -1 s allows us to dream, search, project and evolve. As long as we have our -1, we can be always working on our next step. 

Do you have plans to set up more places like scar-id?

We dream a lot. With our art and architecture backgrounds we are driven to be constantly thinking of new worlds and new futures, and developing ways to make them a reality. We don´t know if we will be in another physical space in the future or just online. It could be with curated products worldwide in other stores. We just know we want to continue to evolve this scar-id project, working with identity through design. 

What do you do to support your designers? Mentoring? Providing space to work? Promotion and marketing help?

We like to be their professional friends. We are always here to take their calls and to meet with them to talk about everything they need. It could be about sales, brand advice, legal advice, product development, communication, representation. It´s all about trust and respect. We respect them and their work and they know we will do all we can to develop their brands in this difficult phase or their career. 

What are the main issues facing independent designers?

One issue is about how we consume: we have to find a good way to educate consumers that independent design could be as ´good´ as the one from the major brands.The second big issue is that art, design or architecture schools just prepare the students to face life either as employees or geniuses. There is no middle ground. If you do a good work, someone will show up and take you to the top. If not, you just can work for someone else. But the real world is not really as simple as this.This means that independent designers aren’t taught about launching themselves as a business. They channel all their focus and money into research and product development and forget about branding, marketing, communication or sales. And there is the moment we show up. 

Why are independent designers so important?

Young independent designers and thinkers, have certain freshness of ideas; without barriers or pre-concepts. This specific will to change and intervene is crucial to the world’s evolution. When people became less independent and less young, their work becomes more attached to the world we already know and it is harder to think about how to improve and change it. 

How can the industry help them?

The industry can’t help. The industry as it is at the moment is part of the system and doesn´t want to be changed. But the independent designers could help to change the industry and change it step by step. Then maybe the industry could start to provide independent designers with the tools, materials and qualified labour necessary to them to compete with the established brands. 

Where do you see scar-id in the future?  

In the future, as we do now, we don´t see the concept of a store like a trade place. We see a store like a place for contemporary culture, maybe as the extension of the role played by museums and libraries. These are the places where people can interact with culture, and in our case, could actually take the culture home and wear it.The store should be also a place of communication, both online and offline. A consumer could found a product online, research everything about it and then could purchase it offline. In the same way, the consumer could do the opposite, discover a product physically, think about it, and then choose to buy online. Online and offline should become part of the same reality.If this happens we think we could play an important role in supporting independent designers. No client will then have to go to some hidden atelier or messy workshop to search for a product they found online. There will be a set prepared to showcase a product and sell it as part of a specific contemporary culture concept.The future is all about setting scar-id up as a lifestyle brand, with a bigger percentage of its own production in partnership with those who helped scar-id to grow. We’d like to just keep going adding new layers here in Porto, online, and physically in other global cities, as a store, a service and generally as an idea.

Words by Jenni Waugh at Tonic Magazine

*On all garments and a few other selected pieces, excluding promotions already in action.

At scar-id.com use the voucher code XLDRQAG1 before checkout online. code available for 48 hours, from saturday morning to sunday midnight.

In Rua do Rosário store, during saturday’s opening hours.

thank you and enjoy. 

Who are you?

I’m an architect, always working on many satellite projects and ideas.

What is your relation with scar-id store?

scar-id store displays some of my designs that somehow feature the fashion and technology needs.

What is your favourite piece at scar-id store?

I really love the WEK necklaces!

What do you think about the Portuguese design scene?

Portugal has so many amazing handcrafters and a high skilled industry that should be continuously explored by national and international designers.

What is your favourite Place at city of Porto?

So many places, but if I have to choose only one… the riverfront, right where the river ends and the ocean starts. 

A few things that are inspiring you?

Portuguese traditional materials, colours and ancient techniques of making goods. Skilled, beautiful and sustainable at once.

Why do you live (work) where you live (work)?

I live in a quite area between Serralves Museum and the Porto city park. Currently, I work in Matosinhos, a smaller city right in the border of Porto, home of fisherman and of an amazing choice of good food, both in the market and on countless small restaurants. 

Is there any website you are daily addicted to?

I’m only addicted to pinterest, where I go daily for pure picture consumption. 

What do you think about the future?

From now on, people are aware of the real need to combine nature and technology, global knowledge with local action. Every step towards the future should lead us on sustainability and kindness direction. 

And your own future?

Hopefully, in ten years I will be doing the same as now: working in several scales with the same joy and love: from the design of a big factory to the design of a small object.

What is in your desktop at the moment?

I’m working on a full rehabilitation of a typical Porto house from the XIX century, on a big factory building, on a teenager bedroom, on a renovation of a family house. Different scales that infect each other with its character.

And about scar-id store?

scar-id is an unmatched project in Porto, displaying the boldest selection of young portuguese contemporary designers.