The brief
Diogo's SS26 capsule was four silhouettes in two fabrics: a structured Italian cotton-blend (40% cotton, 35% linen, 25% Tencel) for the jackets and trousers, and a looser Tirupur linen for the shirts and a single column dress. 240 finished pieces across the four cuts, hitting retail in mid-September.
His usual flow was a 4-day Milan trip in February (cotton-blend selection at the Bergamo mills) followed by a 5-day Tirupur trip in March (linen weavers, dyeworks). Travel + agent fees ran around 4,800 € per capsule. With three people on the studio payroll and no investor money, that line of cost had become the deciding factor on whether the SS26 capsule happened at all.
The decision to skip the trips
A friend in another Lisbon studio had used BLUN · Listing for sourcing wool blends out of Biella in late 2025 and showed Diogo the concierge interface over coffee. The pitch was specific: "You write the brief in Portuguese on your phone, the concierge translates it to Italian for the mill and to English for India, the swatches come to you, you decide from your studio. If something isn't right, the concierge mediates the back-and-forth in real time."
Diogo signed up on a Wednesday evening in February. By Thursday morning he had two parallel briefs out — one to seven Bergamo cotton-blend mills, one to five Tirupur linen weavers. The bar he set was: any mill that doesn't reply within 36 hours is out.
How the 14 days played out
Two parallel timelines — both running on Diogo's iPhone in spare moments between fittings and pattern-cuts. He never opened a laptop for sourcing during the entire run.
Brief sent
PT → IT auto-translation. 7 mills. Concierge attached spec sheet (40/35/25 blend, 180-220 g/m², subtle slub).
3 replies in
Tessuti Borgosesia, Filatura Pria, Lanificio Reda-style mill. All quoted within budget. Avg. reply 3.4 h.
Swatch packs landed
3 swatch books via DHL. Diogo did handfeel + drape tests in the studio. Borgosesia and Filatura passed; the third was too stiff.
Negotiation
Borgosesia at 18.50 €/m for 200 m/mo on a 4-month commit, vs. agent quote of 23.20 €/m. Saved ~20% per metre.
PO signed
200 m at 18.50 € · Mangopay LU escrow · 18-day production window.
Brief sent
PT → EN auto-translation. 5 weavers. Spec: 100% linen, 220 g/m², stone-washed soft hand, 180 m for the column dresses + shirts.
3 replies in
Time-zone-overlap delivered overnight responses. Kovai, Madurai Linen, Eastern Mills. Concierge auto-flagged Eastern Mills as "low LWG-equivalent score" so Diogo dropped them.
Video walkthrough
Kovai's owner ran a 18-minute factory walk-through over WhatsApp. Concierge translated questions about water-treatment + dyestuff origin live.
Swatches arrived
4 weights from Kovai. The 220 g/m² stone-wash was exact. 11.20 €/m for 180 m/mo.
PO signed
180 m at 11.20 € · escrow + 17track · 24-day lead time.
The swatches Diogo got
16 swatch pieces total across the 2 regions. The 4 he kept:
The 2 mills Diogo onboarded
Family-run cotton-blend mill, 4th-gen weavers. Diogo's primary mill for the SS26 jackets + trousers — 200 m/month at 18.50 €/m, 4-month price lock.
Stone-washed 100% linen, dyed in-house with low-water dyestuff. 180 m/month at 11.20 €/m, 24-day production window. New listing — Diogo is buyer #4 for them on the platform.
"Eu desenhei um capsule completa enquanto outras pessoas estavam a meio do voo para Milão. As 14 dias terminaram, e eu não saí de Lisboa. O concierge estava a traduzir-me para italiano e inglês ao mesmo tempo, sem que eu fizesse esforço. Não é só uma plataforma — é como ter um intermediário que não tira margem."DC Diogo Costa, Founder · Studio Lisboa 3-person ready-to-wear studio · Lisbon · founded 2022
What's next for Studio Lisboa
The Borgosesia + Kovai relationships now anchor Diogo's recurring sourcing. He's running a parallel brief for brass hardware in Bergamo (zippers, snap-buttons) for the FW26 capsule, and he's exploring recycled-cotton denim out of northern Portugal for a tighter local-supply story.
The 4,400 € saved on travel + agents went directly into pattern-grading software for the studio — the kind of capex that wouldn't have happened if SS26 had eaten his usual 4,800 € sourcing budget. The unlock isn't only money or speed — it's that small studios get to actually compete in the small-batch market without a payroll line for sourcing.