OUR PHILOSOPHY
We stand for Nature and its inherent wisdom and beauty, as connector to a more honest way of living.
Our activity is based is Lisbon, Portugal, and is deliberately small. It’s what makes us more nimble and enables us to do things differently. We curate and, almost always, personally hand pick every single product on our store with intent and permanence in mind. We do it because we believe in intention, in rituals and in their transformational effect. We aspire to be aware, engaged and seek the same purpose in any type of collaboration.
In 2020, the world hit pause. For Erva Moura that meant taking the opportunity to expand our vision and provide you with different ways of working together. The list of services is long and mostly bespoken to your needs and wishes, but, to summarize it: it focuses on events, workshops and creative consultancy services which you can find more about here.
OUR STORY
Erva Moura is first and foremost a story of friendship. Diana and Maria met some 15 years ago while interning at Lisboa Fashion Week and fostered a kinship that first materialised every 6 months for the fashionweek, a periodic reminder for both that they truly enjoyed time spent together.
Fast forward to adulthood. Life sometimes keeps you apart from the ones whose company you enjoy the most, but they managed to bridge that gap and became closer. From there they started contemplating ideas for projects that could allow us to work together again. Both of them changed jobs, moved a couple of times, found their soulmates and had kids… always at the same pace.
As the world became more and more confusing, they longed more connection to themselves and the nature in and around us. Finally, Erva Moura was born and named after the portuguese word for the ashwagandha root plant, an adaptogen used for centuries on ayurvedic medicine. It’s also one of their favorites and grows untamed on Diana’s farm. It seemed fitting.
OUR BACKGROUND
Diana Bastos worked in fashion and editorial work for more than a decade and was the fashion and lifestyle editor of the historic portuguese fashion magazine, Máxima. Since then, her love of plants inspired her to study and become a herbalist. She founded Eira, a botanical concept that uses wild and sustainable local plants and flowers to create beautiful pieces. She still works as a stylist, for clients such as MAAT Museum, Rolex, Claus Porto, El Corte Inglés, Observador, Caudalie, etc. infusing all her work with her natural aesthetic.
Maria Marques studied law while working as a make up artist in fashion and advertising. She was indeed a lawyer for a brief period, but soon abandoned the practice for something she found more rewarding and flexible. For the last 10 years she has been working in brand communications, specifically the beauty and cosmetics industry, crafting marketing/pr strategies and handling press and influencer relations, planning events and directing social media content for brands such as Caudalie, Sisley Paris, Chloé, Lancaster, Apivita, and many others.