Ana Margarida Feijao Explores Female Experience Through Fashion

Portuguese designer Ana Margarida Feijao (@anamargaridafeijao) uses fashion as a medium to explore the female experience and her cultural heritage. She explains that Parsons School of Design's MFA Fashion Design and Society program drew her in with its "focus on social change and justice." Her designs critically address themes such as oppression, sexualization, and restrictive identities imposed on women.

Feijao's collection draws inspiration from Portuguese architecture and photographer Artur Pastor's images of women, reflecting the evolution of women's roles across time. She creates wearable sculptures by draping fine yarns over exaggerated hourglass forms—a symbolic representation of her personal experience with hair loss and femininity. Meanwhile, plaster pieces in her work function as protective armor, offering a layer of defense.

For Feijao, fashion serves as a medium for self-healing. "Even if not everyone fully understands my work, I can heal myself through fashion," she says. Her pieces, born from the intersection of Parsons' social-justice-oriented curriculum and Portuguese cultural heritage, offer profound reflections on women's bodies and identities. Through her work, she challenges conventional narratives and invites viewers to reconsider the roles and restrictions placed upon women throughout history.