MAN/WOMAN Conversations #06 – By Sprezza
- November 20, 2025
- 4:48 pm
Mots de Clayton Chambers
Some brands are stitched together by a strong idea. Others by trend, timing, or luck. But every now and then, you meet a brand woven through with something deeper: family, place, and pride.
That’s what you feel when you wear a shirt from Portuguese Flannel—a softness that goes beyond the brushed fabric. It’s generational. Grounded. You’re not just putting something on—you’re stepping into a long line of textile know-how.
I sat down with co-founder Antonio Magalhães at the MAN/WOMAN show in New York to talk about heritage, pattern, place, and why sometimes the best way to move forward is to look back.
Antonio: Portuguese Flannel was born about 12 years ago, but the roots go much deeper than that. My brother Manuel and I come from a long line of textile makers. Our grandfather opened his first mill in 1953 in the north of Portugal. So fabric is in the blood. We’re fourth-generation, and that shows up in how we run the business, how we think about
design, how we work with mills. Our family was always on the production side—supplying materials, developing fabrics, helping other brands bring their ideas to life. But eventually we thought: what if we brought our own perspective to the table?
So we started Portuguese Flannel.
A sense of place
Clayton: What does it mean when you say “Made in Portugal”? What’s embedded in that idea?
Antonio: Everything. In the north of Portugal, especially around Porto, the textile tradition runs deep. It’s part of the cultural fabric. We grew up surrounded by it—factories, dye houses, looms, patterns.
Our collections reflect that. Some patterns come from old family archives—stuff our grandfather or uncles used to produce, even shirts we wore as kids in the ’90s. You’ll find local embroidery techniques, traditional motifs, vintage flannels. We reinterpret it all, but the soul remains.
It’s not about nostalgia—it’s about keeping things rooted.
Clayton: A lot of brands today buy from the same mills, but you’re on the other side of that. What makes your materials different?
Antonio: We have a direct connection to the mills—and more importantly, to the process. That’s rare. Most brands outsource production completely. But for us, design doesn’t start with a moodboard. It starts with the fabric. We obsess over texture, color, opposition. We love working with contrasts—heavy and light, bold and subtle, past and present. We’ll take a 50-year-old motif and flip it with a modern fit. That push and pull is part of our DNA.
You can feel it when you wear the shirts.
They’re not loud, but they carry a story.
Clayton: One thing I admire about your brand is that it doesn’t feel seasonal or trend-driven—it feels lived in.
Antonio: Thank you. That’s intentional. We want the pieces to feel timeless, grounded, part of someone’s wardrobe for years. We’re not chasing fast fashion or big cycles. We want our collections to feel like they belong—to the place, to the fabric, and to the person wearing it.
If we don’t like it, we don’t make it. It really is that simple.
Family, always
Clayton: What’s it like building a brand with your brother?
Antonio: (laughs) It’s great. Sometimes tough, but mostly great.
We know each other deeply.
We’ve got the same references, same roots. That creates trust. And it means we can push each other creatively, without ego. And now we’ve built a team around that same spirit. The people we work with—our suppliers, our agents, our collaborators—they’re part of the extended family. It’s not transactional. That’s the energy we’re trying to protect.
Clayton: What’s next?
Antonio: Keep building. Keep refining. Keep making things we’re proud of. We don’t want to be everywhere—
we just want to be where it feels right. That’s always been the point.
