Editor’s Note

I first met Roselyn Silva by chance at an event in Lisbon. Throughout the evening, I found myself drawn to her warmth, confidence, and the ease with which she connected with those around her. It wasn’t until the event was coming to a close that I realized who she was: the designer whose work I had previously encountered through articles and features over the years.

After introducing myself, Silva generously shared her story, her journey, and the vision behind her brand. What struck me most was not only her accomplishments, but her openness. Despite her success, she possesses a rare ability to make people feel welcome, seen, and encouraged.

We have stayed in touch since that first meeting, and I left our initial conversation feeling deeply inspired. In an industry often associated with exclusivity, Silva embodies something different: excellence paired with generosity, ambition balanced by humility, and a commitment to uplifting others as she continues to build her legacy.

Margo Gabriel

From her atelier on Avenida da Liberdade, Lisbon’s luxury shopping boulevard lined with international fashion houses and flagship designer shops, Roselyn Silva reflects on a life shaped by discipline, reinvention, faith, and purpose.

The designer sits comfortably among racks of meticulously crafted garments that blend African-inspired textiles with European tailoring. It is a fitting setting for someone whose work lives between worlds. Born in São Tomé and Príncipe and raised in Portugal, Silva has spent more than a decade building a luxury fashion brand rooted in both her African heritage and European upbringing.

Yet fashion is only one chapter of her story.

Before she became one of Portugal’s most recognizable luxury fashion designers of African heritage, she was a championship athlete. Before she launched collections, she was helping raise her younger brothers while her parents worked long hours. Before she opened her atelier, she was a young girl filling notebooks with sketches of dresses she dreamed of wearing herself.

When asked to describe the thread connecting every stage of her life, Silva answers without hesitation.

“If you want me to explain my journey in one word,” she says, “it’s excellence.”

The Island Never Left Her

Although Silva moved to Portugal when she was just four years old, São Tomé and Príncipe remains deeply embedded in her identity and creative practice.

“São Tomé and Príncipe is always present in my life, in my creation, in my work,” she says. “I miss São Tomé and Príncipe a lot. Every day.”

She speaks about the island with affection and reverence, describing its biodiversity, natural beauty, and close relationship with the sea. For Silva, memories of São Tomé are not frozen in time. They continue to influence the way she sees the world and the way she designs.

“There are particular things, like songs, like tastes, like the colors that stay with you from childhood,” she says. “I don’t need to be there to remember them.”

Growing up between cultures shaped her perspective from an early age. While many people search for a singular identity, Silva has spent much of her life navigating multiple realities at once.

“I am African, but I have lived almost all my life in Portugal,” she says. “Both things are true.”

That duality would eventually become the foundation of her brand.

But long before she entered fashion, another passion consumed her life.

Learning Excellence on the Track

Silva was six years old when she entered her first race.

She won.

The experience ignited something within her, and athletics quickly became a central part of her life.

“I remember feeling so proud,” she recalls. “So happy.”

Over the years, she excelled in multiple sports, including basketball, handball, and table tennis. Yet running emerged as her true calling. Her talent soon attracted attention, and by the age of twelve she was recruited by Sporting Clube de Portugal, one of the country’s most prestigious athletic institutions.

She still remembers arriving at her first training session surrounded by athletes much older than herself.

“I was so nervous,” she says.

Her coach instructed her to train with the older runners. Silva completed every drill.

By her teenage years, she was winning national championships, competing internationally, and representing Portugal at elite levels. Coaches believed she had the potential to compete on the Olympic stage.

“My life was school, training, and taking care of my brothers,” she says.

As the oldest of three siblings, Silva carried responsibilities beyond her years. Her parents, who had immigrated to Portugal in search of opportunity, worked tirelessly. Her father drove professionally, while her mother worked cleaning jobs. Much of the responsibility at home fell on Silva.

“My parents only asked two things of me,” she says. “Be kind and be a good student.”

Those values became the foundation of her character.

Yet the life she had envisioned through athletics changed dramatically when a serious injury sidelined her as a teenager.

The emotional impact was profound.

“When you are always winning and suddenly you’re not, it breaks something inside of you,” she says.

At the same time, she was navigating adolescence, her parents’ divorce, academic pressure, and increasing responsibilities at home. Eventually, she made the difficult decision to walk away from competitive athletics.

Looking back, she still describes it as one of the hardest decisions of her life.

But the discipline, resilience, and relentless pursuit of excellence that sport taught her never disappeared.

Instead, she found a new outlet.

Reinvention Through Fashion

Even during her years as an athlete, fashion was quietly waiting in the background.

Since childhood, Silva had filled sketchbooks with drawings of women wearing elegant dresses. Friends would often take her designs to local seamstresses and have them made.

“In my imagination, I was the most stylish girl in school,” she says, laughing.

The irony wasn’t lost on her. While she spent most of her teenage years in athletic gear, her imagination was occupied by silhouettes, fabrics, and design.

After leaving competitive athletics, Silva pursued a degree in engineering and began working professionally. At the same time, she started creating clothing for herself.

The garments quickly attracted attention.

People constantly asked where she had purchased them.

The answer surprised them.

She had designed them herself.

As a young woman of São Toméan heritage living in Portugal, Silva was also wrestling with larger questions about representation and identity. She loved African textiles and prints, yet rarely saw them represented in the sophisticated, contemporary ways she imagined.

“I was looking for something that I couldn’t find,” she says.

That changed when she discovered the work of Haitian-Italian designer Stella Jean.

“It was a revelation,” Silva says. “I realized what I thought was impossible was actually possible.”

For years she had wondered why African-inspired design wasn’t more visible within luxury fashion. Seeing someone successfully merge heritage, craftsmanship, and contemporary design gave her permission to imagine a similar path.

Eventually, she stopped imagining and began building.

Creating a Luso-African Vision

Today, Silva describes her work as a reflection of her lived experience.

She rejects the notion that she must choose between being African and being Portuguese.

“I don’t want to choose one side,” she says. “I am African, and I am Portuguese.”

That perspective shapes every aspect of her brand.

Her designs draw inspiration from African textiles, colors, and cultural references while incorporating the construction, tailoring, and refinement associated with European luxury fashion. Rather than viewing those influences as contradictory, she sees them as complementary.

“My aesthetic is inspired by my roots, but I use a European language,” she explains.

Silva is particularly passionate about challenging assumptions regarding African design.

Too often, she says, people suggest that African-inspired fashion becomes more sophisticated when paired with European influences.

That narrative frustrates her.

“The African fabrics already have value,” she says. “They already have beauty. They already have sophistication.”

Instead, she sees her work as a conversation between different parts of herself and different parts of the world she inhabits.

That conversation extends beyond aesthetics.

It is also deeply strategic.

“I understand the game,” she says candidly. “I understand the codes. I understand the language.”

Everything from her campaigns and photography to the fabrics she selects and the spaces she occupies is intentional.

For Silva, representation is not accidental.

It is built.

Fashion With Purpose

One of the defining features of the Roselyn Silva brand is its commitment to sourcing materials from across the African continent.

Silva frequently works with small suppliers in countries including Ghana, Senegal, Kenya, and Nigeria.

Beyond supporting her creative vision, these relationships reflect a larger commitment to economic empowerment.

“It’s my way of helping,” she says.

She believes fashion can be a powerful tool for storytelling, connection, and social impact.

Clients who purchase her designs are not simply buying garments.

They are investing in the people, histories, and communities connected to those materials.

“They buy something with meaning,” Silva says.

This philosophy aligns closely with her broader outlook on life. Throughout her career, she has remained actively connected to initiatives supporting São Tomé and Príncipe while using her platform to encourage and mentor younger generations.

For Silva, success has never been solely about personal achievement.

It is also about creating pathways for others.

Faith, Family, and the Power of Partnership

Despite the demands of entrepreneurship, motherhood, and public life, Silva remains grounded by two constants: faith and family.

Her belief in God surfaces repeatedly throughout our conversation.

“I can’t sleep without praying,” she says.

Faith has guided her through athletic setbacks, personal challenges, professional risks, and moments of uncertainty.

“It’s impossible to do everything alone,” she says. “God helps me.”

She also credits her husband, painter Blackson Afonso, as one of the most important influences in her life.

The couple share a deep commitment to creativity, community, and service. While their artistic mediums differ, their values remain aligned.

“My husband and I decided to have a mission in the world,” she says.

For Silva, legacy is not measured by recognition alone.

Legacy is about impact.

It is about inspiring others to imagine larger possibilities for themselves and their communities.

“He taught me what true love means,” she says of Afonso. “Love with trust. Love with friendship.”

Together, they have built a life centered on family, creativity, and purpose.

“I Am the First, But I Don’t Want to Be the Only One”

Over the last decade, Silva has accomplished something remarkable.

As a Black woman of São Toméan heritage, she has established a luxury fashion brand in one of Europe’s most traditional fashion markets and secured a place on Lisbon’s most prestigious avenue.

Yet she views her achievements as a beginning rather than a destination.

“I am the first,” she says. “But I don’t want to be the only one.”

The statement reflects a broader mission that extends beyond her own success.

Silva wants to normalize the presence of African-inspired luxury brands within European fashion spaces. She wants younger designers to see possibilities where previous generations saw barriers.

She acknowledges the existence of racism and structural challenges, but chooses to focus her energy elsewhere.

“I prefer to fight that narrative with my excellence,” she says.

For Silva, excellence has become both a personal philosophy and a form of advocacy.

She believes the quality of her work speaks louder than any argument she could make.

“My work speaks for itself.”

The Advice She Would Give Her Younger Self

As our conversation comes to a close, I ask Silva what she would say to the young girl who arrived in Portugal decades ago.

Her answer is unexpected.

“I would tell her that she can say no.”

For much of her life, she felt responsible for everyone around her. She carried expectations, responsibilities, and ambitions that often left little room for herself.

Today, she understands the importance of boundaries.

“You don’t have to say yes to everything,” she says.

She pauses before offering three lessons for the next generation.

First, dream.

“Believe in your dreams,” she says.

Second, work.

“Work hard. Nothing happens without work.”

And third, ask for help.

“People think they have to know everything,” she says. “Nobody knows everything.”

Those lessons feel especially meaningful coming from someone who has reinvented herself multiple times while remaining anchored by the same core values.

Roselyn Silva is an athlete, engineer, entrepreneur, mother, mentor, wife, and designer.

Through every chapter, Roselyn Silva has pursued excellence: not as a destination, but as a way of moving through the world.

And from her atelier on Avenida da Liberdade, she continues to prove that it is possible to honor where you come from while creating something entirely your own.

When award-winning actor, poet, and founding member of Teatro Griot, Matamba Joaquim, says these words, they feel less like a philosophy and more like a way of moving through the world. Throughout our conversation, he returns repeatedly to the ideas of c…

Read more

For bon vivant, writer, memoirist, podcast host, and supper club curator Sutanya Dacres, a well-lived life is built through intention.

Born in Jamaica, raised in New York, and now based in Paris, Dacres has spent the past severa…

Read more

Born and raised in Kazakhstan before building a life across England, Namibia, and eventually Portugal, Imanbay carries the spirit of movement with intention. Entrepreneur, public speaking coach, former gami…

Read more

Interviewing V. Sheree Williams, editor and publisher of Cuisine Noir and founder of The Global Food and Drink Initiative, is one of those moments for me. Her career at the helm of a Black media company is marked by resonant, incisi…

Read more

In a quiet studio in Lisbon, painter Blackson Afonso is imagining something beyond the present: who gets to be seen, who gets to feel, and what it means to exist outside of what we have been taught to see. Before he ever called himself an artist, he was an observer of people, of silence, and of the unspoken. Today, his work invites us to sl…

Read more

Before the conversation even begins, we discover a shared thread: Massachusetts. Josh, from Cape Cod. Me, from Jamaica Plain. Two different paths that, somehow, have led us both here: in a city that invites reinvention, reflection, and a slower kind of becoming.

…

Read more

Creative Current usually lives in kitchens. Over the past year, I’ve spoken with chefs, winemakers, and hospitality professionals about the cultures they carry through food.

But food doesn’t exist in isolation. It’s shaped by migration, empire, memory, and the stories we inherit.

I wanted to open the series to voices beyond the culinary worl…

Read more

Creative Current is my ongoing interview series offering an intimate look into the creative practice of entrepreneurs shaping contemporary Portugal. Not just what they build, but how and why they build it.

These conversations are slow, reflective, and rooted in process. They explore intuition alongside strat…

Read more

Tiago Alves grew up in a world where hospitality wasn’t a profession — it was a family inheritance. Raised in his grandmother Etelvina’s tavern near Hospital do Desterro, he absorbed the rhythms of service long before he ever stepped behind a counter. Now, after 13 years leadi…

Read more

This publication is a home for:
✨ In-depth interviews with creatives and hospitality innovators
✨ Personal essays on food, identi…

Read more

Read more

When I moved to Lisbon in 2020, I didn’t just want to write — I wanted to build a career. That meant learning how to pit…

Read more

Over the past few weeks, I’ve felt a shift in my work—a stronger alignment with the spaces where I feel most alive: producing events, moderating conversations, and stepping into public speaking opportunities that bring communities together.

This month reminded me of why I love doing this work.

✨ Moderating cultural dialogue
Last week, I had th…

Read more