It all started, for me at least, with K-pop Demon Hunters. Yes, really. I’d been researching Rumi’s costume (to fulfill my daughter’s Halloween request) so each detail would be spot on — and soon, the algorithms started feeding me a steady diet of “Golden” covers, purple braid tutorials, and stories of moms frantically dusting off their sewing machines. The Wall Street Journal even ran a piece about it: thousands of parents trying to DIY costumes because, of course, no one was ready for how big the fandom would get. And this time, fast fashion couldn’t keep up.
It’s a perfect snapshot of our times — an entire wave of people rediscovering handcraft, sustainability, and maybe a little old-fashioned resourcefulness. Which is exactly why Mariana Pereira Silva’s new children’s book Desfilar pela História (Parading Through History) couldn’t have arrived at a better moment.
Launched at the Museu Nacional do Traje on October 20, the book takes young readers on a journey from prehistoric pelts to polyester — all while quietly asking: What do our clothes say about who we are?
“I was a massive fast-fashion consumer as a teenager,” Mariana admits. “Then during my Erasmus semester, I had to live out of one suitcase — about thirty pieces. And I realised I didn’t need more than that. When I came home to a closet full of stuff I never wore, I felt overwhelmed. That’s when I started cutting back, organising swap markets, and learning what sustainability really meant.”
From that personal reckoning came an academic deep-dive: first a master’s in branding and design for fashion, and now a PhD researching sustainable fashion communication. Her thesis on “digital product passports” — a prototype for the European Union’s upcoming garment-traceability system — helped her see just how much fashion education the public was missing.
“No one reads your thesis,” she laughs. “So I thought — how can I make this knowledge exciting for people, especially kids?”
Cue Penguin Portugal, and an editor named Filipa Casqueiro who’d been waiting nearly a decade for the right person to write a fashion book for children. Together, they developed Desfilar pela História — a richly illustrated journey through time that doesn’t shy away from uncomfortable truths. “We didn’t simplify it,” Mariana says. “Children can handle big ideas if you treat them with respect.”
The book’s pages swing from ancient Egypt to the Renaissance, from corsets to miniskirts. Illustrator Raquel Costa, a legend in Portuguese children’s publishing, brings the story to life with wit — baguette-wielding Frenchmen, toga-clad Greeks, and all. “She did her own research,” says Mariana. “Everything is historically accurate and yet playful.”
Still, condensing thousands of years of fashion history into 60 pages wasn’t easy. “There’s so much I had to leave out,” Mariana said. “But we made deliberate choices. For example, we dedicated pages to clothes that helped ‘weave freedom into our bodies,’ like the miniskirt and the rejection of bras. What we wear reflects our values.”
At its core, Desfilar pela História isn’t as much about clothes as it is about awareness. “Fashion tells stories of labor, culture, and change,” Mariana says. “The value of our clothes is tied to the hands that make them.”
Next up? Translating the book into other languages — starting, perhaps, with Spanish, after a farmer from Patagonia (the country, not the brand, as he elegantly put it in his message to the author) reached out asking to use it in workshops with indigenous communities. “I couldn’t believe it,” Mariana says. “That’s exactly what I hoped for — that the message would travel.”
And when she’s back from her upcoming field research in Cambodia, she plans to host events around Portugal: from sewing sessions to upcycling workshops. You can stay up to date with details by following Mariana on Instagram. “The book was written for children, but adults tell me they’re learning too,” she smiles. “We rarely talk about fashion history, and it’s time we did.”
So whether you’re an adult rethinking your wardrobe or a kid dreaming up the fashion of the future, Mariana’s message is clear:
“Our wardrobe is more than what we wear. It’s how we express ourselves, how we care for others, and how we imagine what comes next.”
Desfilar pela História is available now via Penguin Livros, chains like Bertrand, Fnac, or Wook, or, better yet, from your local bookstore, where, if they don’t have it, you can ask the seller to order it in. Because, as Mariana might say, sustainable fashion starts with thoughtful choices — even when it comes to where you buy your books.
