COMPANY
Founded in 1993 by Fatima De La Espada and Luis De Oliveira, partners in both life and work, De La Espada has evolved over three decades from a small workshop into a globally recognised furniture brand, chosen for some of the most ambitious architectural projects worldwide. We combine artisanal furniture making savoir faire with rigorous, research-based contemporary design. Each product is made at our solar-powered production facility on Portugal’s Silver Coast, where we specialise in generations-old woodworking traditions and upholstery.
Our workshop in Mira, Portugal is unique in the industry: a centre of creativity where craftspeople, designers, and product engineers work closely together, exchanging expertise and solving design challenges in real time. Here, our team of 100 people build to order some of the finest contemporary furniture possible, combining advanced technology with handcraft and employing time-tested construction methods.
Reflected within each of our products is a reverence for the natural beauty of noble materials, a deep commitment to heritage, and the pursuit of experimentation; an engineering of past and future. We collaborate with progressive thinkers internationally from different design disciplines; our portfolio includes designs by our in-house design studio, De La Espada Atelier, and by our nine international design partners. Each partner contributes to our design language, shaping a world that has become distinctively our own — interdisciplinary, contemplative, and culturally enriched.
In addition to our in-house craft centred around woodworking and upholstery, we work closely with a number of small workshops in Portugal dedicated to a wide range of materials including stone and metal. We also work in close collaboration with select workshops whose work we highlight in our products, from Fabricaal with its hand operated textile looms, to Toino Abel with its work with the river rush plant used traditionally in basketmaking, to Sela Lusitana who produce traditional saddles. We work as well with ceramicists like Teresa Branco and Viúva Lamego, textile studio Flores and, outside Portugal, dyer Isabelle Ormieres and textile artist Catarina Riccabona. Our deep engagement with craft combined with continuous experimentation within our research centre ensures that the original spirit of our workshop endures.
Today, De La Espada sits at the heart of design and craft in Portugal. We are deeply committed to preserving Portugal’s ancestral techniques while seeking to redefine their relevance in a contemporary context. We actively invest in initiatives like Passa Ao Futuro, a Portuguese non-profit dedicated to promoting the transmission of artisanal skills to a new generation, Lisbon Design Week and Lisbon by Design, helping to bring together makers, designers, craftspeople and other firms interested in design thinking, and we recently opened Galeria De La Espada, a gallery in Porto dedicated to contemporary craft.
Through our gallery in Porto, our open house events at our workshop, and our pop-up exhibitions in Europe and the United States, we believe we are setting the tone, creating culture, fostering debate when it comes to issues including sustainability, the role of craft in modern society, the importance of interiors in both public and private spaces, and the value of creating products that truly stand the test of time. We see ourselves as part of a community of like-minded people.
By creating products that have the ability to last 100 years, we redefine what it means to be sustainable. 100 years is enough for a tall walnut, oak or ash tree to grow and replace the one that was felled to make one of our pieces of furniture. 100 years means we have to think deeply about repair and replacement of parts. 100 years means most of our products will outlive us, and speak to future generations, sharing with them the pride that we have put into our efforts.
De La Espada represents true luxury: creativity rather than imitation; extensive research and development; traditional methods that are in scarce supply; a singular aesthetic point-of-view; and no compromise when it comes to materials or effort.
