Tucked away on a side street in Lisbon's historic Chiado district, A Vida Portuguesa's shelves groan with consumer nostalgia. Housed in a former cosmetics warehouse, the store stocks locally produced ceramics, food-stuffs and toiletries once commonplace on Portuguese shelves before the multinational brands arrived and opened the domestic retail scene.
"I was doing research for a book on everyday life in 20th-century Portugal when I noticed how quickly these products were starting to disappear", says journalist-turned-shopkeeper Catarina Portas, who opened the store in 2006. You can pick up tubes of Couto toothpaste from Porto, sweet-smelling soaps in art deco packaging from Confiança or packets of Gorreana tea from the Azores. Naturally, Portas sells the national staple, cod, as well as tuna and sardines, all of which come in retro tins from local cannery Conserveira de Lisboa. Ivan Carvalho, Scanorama March 2010
A Vida Portuguesa
Rua Anchieta 11
Lisbon, Portugal
Open Mon-Sat, 10am-8pm.
www.avidaportuguesa.com
Oldies but goodies: Portas draws on customer's childhood memories of brands such as Viarco pencils.
Tucked away on a side street in Lisbon's historic Chiado district, A Vida Portuguesa's shelves groan with consumer nostalgia. Housed in a former cosmetics warehouse, the store stocks locally produced ceramics, food-stuffs and toiletries once commonplace on Portuguese shelves before the multinational brands arrived and opened the domestic retail scene. 
Sem comentários:
Enviar um comentário