English Version | Curiouser and curiouser

Photography by Cole Sprouse. Styling by Joana Dacheville.
Photography by Cole Sprouse. Styling by Joana Dacheville.

A Wonderland rises in Serra de Sintra. Right here, in Portuguese territory. If Lewis Carroll hadn't written Alice's Wonderland, it would most likely be there, in Parque da Pena, that such a magical forest would be imagined. An inhospitable habitat where our heroine appears alone, but never lonely. Forging warm links with the vegetation that sprouts from the earth to embrace her, becoming part of the shriveled and decaying architecture that seems to have flourished amidst the green instead of the other way around, this “Alice” isn’t dressed in velvet, but channels the same smoothness. You can see it on her face, her expression, in her gracefulness, in the sensitivity of her interaction with the environment that surrounds her. Here, velvet is born from the depths of the dirt, omnipresent in the quasi-faerie atmosphere of the outdoors, hidden behind this idea of ​​velvet underground to peek occasionally amidst the woods where things seem increasingly strange and peculiar, “curiouser and curiouser” as Carroll’s character would say. Though, in fact, there is nothing less strange and little that’s cozier than this communion with Nature. Photography by Cole Sprouse. Styling by Joana Dacheville.

Translated from the original on "The Velvet Touch" issue of Vogue Portugal, published December 2022.Full stories and credits on the print issue.