Nuno Miguel Ramos

"There are many ways of being sustainable without being a hypocrite”

At the very centre of the creative world stands Nuno Miguel Ramos. Modern, determined and talented, the Portuguese fashion designer has come a long way. And he hasn’t always had an easy life. One of 11 siblings, the designer was the only child who was able to live with his mother –with who he maintains a very strong bond. While still young, he moved to Switzerland, a country in which he forged strong ties with, acquired experiences, and where he studied at the F + F School of Art and Design. He travelled, overcame addictions and romantic disappointments, but did not give up on his dream: fashion. He graduated from the École de la Chambre Syndicale de la Couture Parisienne and today he creates collections that are recognised on the catwalks. He likes photography, painting, music and has the desire to combine these worlds with fashion.

How did your taste for fashion come into your life?
When I entered secondary school, I didn’t have much supervision. At the time, there was no one to guide us; there was only the psychologist. I think that if I had followed arts 20 years ago, things would have been much easier, or maybe not. I ended up going for sciences, I followed my friends. At 18 I realised this wasn’t it. Then I had the opportunity to go to Switzerland, I had my sister there. That was my ticket to freedom. That’s how I started.
I left my mother alone, which left me with a feeling of guilt, although it was good for both of us to continue growing, independent of each other. I left without knowing anything about life really, I often hit my head against a brick wall due to my stubbornness and thinking I knew a lot, when this was not the case. I had no experience, I had never travelled. I started off by helping my sister at home, then I had the opportunity to be an Au Pair, which consisted of working with a Swiss family. Due to some circumstances, I decided to terminate the contract. I went back to Portugal. A month later I got a call from my sister, she had found me a job in a restaurant. I went back. I learned how to make pizzas, I went through countless experiences and I had a person who proved fundamental in my growth, my boss at the time. I showed up in the last year of his life. He lectured me a lot because I was distracted. For many months, I cried every day. In the end I realised that this man was important in my life because he made me understand the naked and harsh reality.
After that I had many other experiences, sometimes not so good. I worked in bars, I got involved in drugs, which also ended up destroying me. There were debts, health issues, ..., problems. Perhaps without these experiences I wouldn’t know what the world is. The person who always gave me a hand was my sister. I ended up getting another job, in a pharmaceutical company. I learned German and travelled a lot to New York, Paris, ... After five years, I had a difficult relationship, which affected me a lot. My escape at the time was to start painting. I no longer had room for so many paintings at home, so I organised a gallery to exhibit my work. If I sold everything I’d get on a plane and go to New York. That’s how it was. The following week I was on my way. Once there, it was another learning experience. It was good. Without that reality I wouldn’t have entered the world of make-up. After ten months, I returned to Switzerland and started a make-up course. When I finished, I went on to work for Mac Cosmetics, for almost a year. As I was selling well, they started to cut my creative freedom. As I wasn’t there just to sell, but to learn, I left. I started doing make-up for magazines and photo shoots. I was 28 when I looked for fashion schools. I studied for three years at one in Zurich.

Have you always felt an artist?
Always. I didn’t take the right path when I was 17, at the time when I had to choose what I wanted to do. If I had chosen Arts it would have been different. I have never been so sure in my life that I am on the right track, finally.

What captivates you in the world of fashion?
Not being restricted, it’s fundamental to do whatever I want.

At what point did you realise that fashion was where you felt fulfilled?
When I went to live in Paris. It wasn’t just a dream, but also a goal. Maybe it was the day I entered the offices of Balmain. I went in undercover, as if I was working there. I ended up talking to a person inside the premises who tried to help me.

You’ve travelled a lot. Do you use any inspiration from those travels in your creations?A bit. But my sisters were always a source of inspiration. There were always dresses, make-up, ... Once I stole a dress from my sister Sandra and it made me happy. Since then sequins have always been on my mind.

"The man I am has a lot to do with the strength of the women in my life”

What are you creating for the next collection?
I made a ceramic piece for the first time, something that has always fascinated me. In fact, I attended a course in ceramics. I don’t just want to make fashion, I want to mix, to add ceramics to the pieces. I designed for Carmila, a company in London. They worked exclusively with real fur, but they rethought their strategy and got the help of a Portuguese designer. They knocked on my door. I designed for the company in 2021, namely, the winter 2022 collection, which will be shown in August. The pieces involve sustainability. They mostly work with fabrics that reduce the negative impact on the environment.

What materials do you like to work with?
Sequins, now and forever. I usually go to Première Vision, the fabric fair in Paris, and I always try to get fabrics with sustainable sequins, something that involves that component.

In which way do you think that sustainability can be seen as an asset?
There are several ways of being sustainable without being a hypocrite. In my brand, we normally use leftover fabrics from stock. These are forgotten fabrics, some of which are 20 years old. I try to adapt them, working with unique pieces. My aim is to show what I can do and where I can go. Where I come from, my school of life, I know that million-dollar contracts are not impossible. They happen every day but, of course, it’s not easy to get there. The big goal of my life, one of the first ones, is to continue my career until I’m 50. I have a lot to learn.

Can fashion trends fit in with the more sustainable way of consuming?
Of course not. Even in the major brands – because I’ve worked and seen how production is done – there’s a lot of rhetoric. In Portugal, it’s easy, but if a brand grows a lot in a short period of time, then it becomes harder. Sustainability takes many forms.

Can customers afford the exclusivity of sustainability?
I don’t think so. It’s complicated.

We live on trends. As a creative, how do you manage to always give more of yourself?
I don’t even try, it just comes. It’s in me, it’s intrinsic. Creativity is spontaneous.

In your point of view, is the relationship that men and women have with trends seen equally?
Nowadays, more and more, there are men who are almost as much, or more, interested than women. It is well divided.

What are the three pieces that a woman’s wardrobe cannot go without?
A sequined dress, bell-bottomed trousers with a basic shirt and a long red coat.

"I have never been so sure in my life that I am on the right track”

Is Portuguese fashion on a par with the rest of the world, or do brands need to revamp?
There are several brands that I like, but there are others that are talked about internationally and don’t reflect what Portuguese people can really do with fashion. There are several that don’t have any visibility at all. I think this happens because, for them, things produced abroad are banal and then they try to invest in conceptual things that nobody cares about. I know people who don’t have visibility, but who have talent. There is so much fantasy that is little known...

Working in fashion was a dream come true. Do you see yourself working in this field forever?
I don’t believe I’ll ever change. I want to explore the world of art, music, photography and fashion. I want to combine everything.

What were you like as a child? And how would you describe that phase of your life?
Not every day was good. I had a wonderful childhood, but very lonely, because my mother was always working. Although we were 11 siblings - ten were born in Angola - I was born in Portugal, when my mother arrived with my siblings she had left everything behind, she was left with nothing. There were no conditions to raise all the children at home. There was a time when the older sisters went to work, the younger ones went to a nunnery and the younger brothers went to the Casa do Gaiato in Oporto. I didn’t grow up with my siblings at home, but I saw them every weekend, although we were never together, all 11 of us at the same time, until today. I’m trying to encourage a get together, for the first time, with all the siblings.

"My sisters were always a source of inspiration”

At 37 you are trying to bring them all together?
We are all trying. We always wanted to. We’re spread throughout Portugal, in the North and the South, and abroad, in Spain and Switzerland.

But was your childhood fun?
Very much so, I had my friends. I grew up in the village, in Ul, Oliveira de Azeméis. It was a childhood with freedom, very much spent in trees, where there were never any ripe plums left behind (laughs). From an early age, my mother taught me domestic tasks, like cooking.

Were you very attached to your mother when you were growing up?
Yes, because I didn’t grow up with my father present. I never met him. He’s not part of my life. The man I am has a lot to do with the strength of the women in my life, namely my mother and sisters.