Vanessa Barragão turns sustainable textile design into an ocean landscape
Portuguese textile designer Vanessa Barragão is one of the most interesting voices in contemporary fiber art. Born in Albufeira in 1992, she transforms her passion for the sea and coral reefs into large sculptural rugs and tapestries. All of her creations are made almost exclusively from textile industry waste. Her works evoke three-dimensional seascapes, where every tuft of wool turns into seaweed, sponge, or coral colonies.
From the Algarve coast to international institutions
Growing up by the ocean, Barragão studied Fashion Design at the Faculdade de Arquitectura in Lisbon. She completed a master’s degree and began experimenting with wool yarns and traditional textile techniques. A pivotal experience was her internship at the historic Fábrica de Tapetes Beiriz. This provided her with firsthand insight into the carpet industry and its environmental impact.
From there, she decided to establish her own studio. Focusing on rugs, tapestries, and installations she portrays the underwater world and the climate crisis. Today, her works travel across Europe, Asia, the Americas, and Oceania. Vanessa is entering public collections, and her work is exhibited in museums, airports, and institutional spaces. Her role as both an environmental artist and a textile designer is consolidating.
Craft techniques and reclaimed materials in textile design
Vanessa Barragão’s visual language emerges from an interplay of manual techniques. Hand tufting, crochet, macramé, embroidery, felting, and latch hook overlap to create dense, highly tactile surfaces.
She works almost exclusively with reclaimed yarns sourced from Portuguese textile factories. Then she selects, cleans, and transforms wool, cotton, and mixed fibers that would otherwise be discarded into textile “sea gardens”. >In this way, she seamlessly integrates aesthetics, craftsmanship, and sustainability, proposing a form of textile design that minimizes waste and environmental impact.
Color palettes inspired by oceans and coral reefs
The choice of color palettes is central to Barragão’s visual narrative. Many of her works utilize classic ocean hues, including deep blues, petrol greens, turquoise, and touches of coral red and orange, which evoke the vitality of healthy reefs. These shades, often arranged in soft gradients, recreate a sense of marine depth and teeming biodiversity.
>Alongside these vibrant palettes, the artist develops a series based on neutral and muted tones – white, cream, beige, very light greys – which recall coral reefs bleached by rising sea temperatures. In works where climate change is a key theme, the absence of color becomes a metaphor for the loss of life and biodiversity.
>This constant shift between intense hues and desaturated palettes creates a strong narrative contrast: on one side, the hypnotic beauty of underwater landscapes; on the other, the fragility of endangered ecosystems. Color is not just an aesthetic element, but a proper tool of ecological storytelling, designed to make the environmental message of her work immediately legible.
A radically sustainable approach to textile design
At the core of Barragão’s research lies an explicit critique of the textile and fashion industry. In fact, it is one of the most polluting industries in terms of energy consumption, chemicals, and waste. Through upcycling and an entirely handcrafted process, she not only advocates for a slower, local, and more responsible approach to textile design but also inspires others to rethink their practices. Each piece in her work is unique and carries an ecological narrative, thereby emphasizing the importance of individuality in sustainable design.
Iconic projects: cartographies of oceans and coral reefs
Among her most notable projects is Botanical Tapestry, a large-scale tapestry installed at London’s Heathrow Airport. The work combines a world map with an oceanic landscape, inviting travellers to reflect on climate change and the delicate balance of marine ecosystems.
>>>>>>>/>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>In 2024, the Portuguese government gifted the work Coral Vivo to the United Nations, where it is now on permanent display at the UN headquarters in New York. This tapestry is dedicated to the biodiversity of coral reefs and conceived as an homage to the UN’s role in shaping the global agenda for the oceans.
In parallel, pieces such as Coral Garden and Ocean Tapestry address the issue of pollution generated by the textile industry even more directly. Moreover, she highlights this pressing concern by transforming meters of reclaimed wool into immersive, tactile landscapes that surround the viewer. Consequently, all this makes both the richness of underwater life and the impact of human activity on the sea distinguishable. Furthermore, these artworks serve not only as a visual feast but also as a crucial reminder of our environmental responsibilities.
Visual impact in contemporary fiber art
Vanessa Barragão’s work, therefore, demonstrates how sustainable textile design can effectively integrate formal research, material experimentation, and environmental activism. In her rugs and tapestries, for instance, color becomes an immediate visual code. Consequently, her work tells stories about the life and death of coral reefs. Moreover, material recycling provides a tangible alternative to traditional production models.
Furthermore, her practice serves as a compelling case study on how to merge craftsmanship, evocative color palettes, and ecological responsibility. Ultimately, her scope is to turn waste into landscapes that quietly – yet powerfully – ask us to protect the oceans. Thus, her art not only enhances aesthetic value but also raises crucial awareness for environmental issues.
