For a long time, I was elegant everywhere. Except with myself.

I studied marketing and advertising at IADE and, later, a master's in Luxury & Fashion Brand Management at Instituto Marangoni in Milan, already certain that I wanted to create a brand. The idea came from a contrast I was experiencing: I spent my days studying elegance and femininity, and found myself always poorly dressed when I was alone at home. I was elegant for the world, and careless with myself. I looked for loungewear that would make me feel beautiful and comfortable at the same time, and it didn't exist. Lacerda was missing.

I believe that a woman should feel elegant, beautiful, and powerful every time she dresses, whether she goes out or not, for the world or just for herself. Because true confidence comes from within. If we are not well when we are alone, we are just performing for others. Lacerda's pieces are for those moments, the ones that are just ours.

The name is no accident. It is a tribute to my grandmother, Maria da Conceição Lacerda, whom I never met. She passed away when my father was 18, and when he formed his family, he chose to use her surname to honour her. I always felt an inexplicable connection to this grandmother I never saw. This brand is my way of honouring her and my father, who today builds Lacerda with me.

I make everything in Portugal, on purpose, with the best hands and the best quality, where so many luxury houses produce. I wanted to follow each piece closely and create clothes that last a lifetime, not just a season.

I left the safe path and a bigger salary to invest everything in this: in making women feel their best version at all times, especially in those that are just theirs. Lacerda is, for me, more than a brand. It is a life project, and a way to express everything I believe in: that luxury can be silent, that femininity is a calm force, and that true elegance comes from within.