I Can't Explain, But I Resist: RO Archive Winter 2025

I Can’t Explain, But I Resist: RO Archive Winter 2025

by Adriano Batista

Beirut, my birthmark,
What came with you, Beirut,
Bullets before my mother’s milk,
Beirut,
You are under my skin.
Split bit by bit,
You melt into Sunset,
On blistered rooftops.
It hurts to touch you, Beirut,
You are a lesson I’ll never learn.
It hurts to love you Beirut,
But I still knock at your door at 4:00am.
When the neon lights in your neighbourhood are dwindling,
When the political chants in your square are soothed, I will stay outside your door.
I know you’ll never open for me.
Beirut, I kissed your cracked sidewalks
And I slept huddled against your bullet-ridden walls. You an I,
It’s a love story for the books. – “Beirut” by Dima Mikhayel Matta

Last week, RO Archive unveiled its Winter 2025 collection titled “I Can’t Explain, But I Resist” in a raw, underground space in Lisbon’s Marvila neighborhood. Inspired by the beauty of Oscar Wilde’s The Selfish Giant and Dima Mikhayel Matta’s poem Beirut, the collection explores the complex interplay of love, loss, and defiance.

The collection was presented by a cast of models and friends of the brand, and much like the Giant’s garden stuck in a constant winter, Beirut shows the marks of its rough history. Despite the icy landscape and bullet-scarred streets, hope stands strong. This collection captures that mix, combining cold isolation with deep longing. It shows the strength to survive, resist, and find beauty even in the darkest times.

Each piece tells a story, with sharp silhouettes reflecting the city’s broken skyline, and rough textures mimicking its worn sidewalks and old walls. Yet, underneath, there’s warmth, a spark of life, a stubborn bloom. It’s a love that shines through the cold—for a place, a moment, an identity.

Check out the collection below: