The Fashion Hub, in partnership with the British Council, are announcing the Fashion HUB Open Call to fashion designers from northern Portugal with exceptional talent who display new and innovative creations in the following areas: knitwear, tailoring, textiles & fabric treatments, menswear, print and colour, footwear and accessories, perfume design.

As part of the Fashion HUB Platform Moda Guimarães 2012, the selected designer to represent Portugal in the The British Council’s Young Creative Fashion Entrepreneur Award, was announced in May 2012. The winner was João Pedro Filipe.

João Pedro Filipe was born in Nazaré, and in 2002 gained a degree in Fashion Design from CITEX in Porto. He won the Novos Talentos Óptimus award in 2000, which allowed him to present a collection at Portugal Fashion/Porto Fashion Week. That year he was also nominated in the Revelation Designer Category at the RTP Fashion Awards.

In 2001, João won 1st Prize in the Young Designers Contest at the International Lisbon Fair, and received the jury's second prize at Porto Moda. He also represented Portugal in the Mittel.Moda Awards contest in Italy. He also designed all the costumes of the character Rita in the movie "Veneno Cura" directed by Raquel Freire.

After graduating in the Fashion Design International Programme at the Institute Français de la Mode (IFM), Paris, he completed an internship with Felipe Oliveira Baptista's Atelier in Paris, after which he was selected by Louis Vuiton to work on a bespoke shoes and accessories project. He has since founded the João Pedro Filipe Studio, a shoe and fashion design office and production management company.