THREE DAYS IN PORTO
Sleeves rolled up. Store tweaks, factory floors, two chef friends, a long dinner, the best breakfast we know and a photoshoot with no professional models in sight.
Every now and then we take the team out of the office. This time it was a good part of it: people from production, creative and operations, three days in Porto, doing a bit of everything.
We started at home, in our Porto store. A store is never finished. We spent time on the floor, watched how people moved through it, and changed a few things on the spot.
Then we went to our suppliers. Several upcoming pieces were being made while we were there, so we did two jobs at once.
The first was quality control: seeing the pieces up close, handling the fabrics, making sure everything meets the standard before it ever reaches you. The second was storytelling.
Our product team filmed and photographed the work as it happened, because we think you should know where your clothes come from and who makes them.
Porto also meant seeing friends, old and new. We had dinner with David Jesus at Seiva and Feitio, in Leça da Palmeira, and spent a day in the Douro with Vasco Coelho Santos and his partners at Seixo. We've told both stories already, and they're worth the read.
And we ate well. Our team dinner was at Rogério do Redondo, one of those tables you sit down at early and leave late. We have the photographs to prove it. If you're in Porto, go.
A confession about breakfast. For me, one of the best in the world is in Porto: a croissant misto prensado. Pressed, very hot, the cheese melting, the croissant just slightly sweet. Simple, and very hard to beat. We had more than one.
That was on purpose. These days every brand talks about authenticity and searches for what sets it apart. We're not going to pretend we're any different, or that we've figured it all out. We're still finding our way, and we're happy to say so. What we do know is that we want to be honest. And nobody can show what ISTO. is better than the people who started it and the people who build it every day.
So expect to see more of us. Real faces, real places, real work.