The architectural aesthetic of the Brazilian designers who showed at Sao Paulo Fashion Week this season between January 17 and 22, made perfect sense within the context of the city.
The architectural aesthetic of the Brazilian designers who showed at Sao Paulo Fashion Week this season between January 17-22, made perfect sense within the context of the city. Almost all of the collections featured strong angles, geometric structures and a distinct sculptural paneling that mimicked the city’s design.
Built on steep hills and tropical turf, Sao Paulo’s cityscape is fashioned out of buildings which bear no stylistic relationship to each other, yet somehow merge gorgeously under the sharp sunlight. Similarly, Sao Paulo’s Fashion Week evoked a graceful, artistic harmony between its designers and the city that inspires them: the harsh edges and visible seams in Osklen’s monochromatic felt collection looked like the buildings that jut out from the city’s jagged streets; the soft overlapping folds and panels of white and green fabrics in Maria Bonita’s elegant collection resembled the tiles and exterior panels in Sao Paulo’s affluent districts, as did the more aggressive and dramatic weaving at the Priscilla Darolt show.
The Brazilian fashion market is actively insular with many leading Brazilian designer collections only available domestically. When the clothes are sold abroad, it is usually within South America. “We sell a little to the US and Mexico,” says Brazilian Vogue’s Camila Leite, “but mostly we like to work with our neighbours.” Consequently, prices reach the heights of those at Chanel, which can be surprising for customers who are fluent in the lingua franca of northern luxury labels.
Conversely, Brazil is one of the world’s leading exporters of magnificent models. Although Sao Paulo’s catwalks proudly showcased a smattering of show-stopping beauties from elsewhere – including a blockbusting turn from Lara Stone on the Forum Tufi Duek catwalk and an appearance by Chanel Iman in the audience – there was no need to look beyond its own homegrown talent. And the models were happy to be at their homecoming: “I love being back, but I always need to remind myself that if I gossip with my friends in Portuguese,” murmured prolific Brazilian model Daiane Conterato conspiratorially while eating ice-cream outside the Iodice show, “then everyone around will understand.”
Ana Finel Honigman is a Berlin-based critic, curator, PhD candidate at Oxford University and lecturer at NYU. She writes regularly on contemporary art and fashion for Artforum.com, ashadedviewonfashion.com, Interview.com, the New YorkTimes, Style.com, V, British Vogue and many other publications
