|
 In the corridors of Fundação Bienal, in São Paulo, in the Brazilian Southeast, where the 26th edition of the SPFW (São Paulo Fashion Week) is taking place people are saying "Crisis, what crisis?" This is one of the most repeated sentences and also one of the most common in brochures and pamphlets.
A way of facing the economic crisis with glamour and "Brazilianess" is the theme of this season. And, inside, with 40 Brazilian brands on the runways - and foreign ones represented in the handbags, shoes and glasses, it really does seem that the global financial tie up is far from Brazilian fashion.
This year's edition should cost 7 million Brazilian reais (US$ 3 million) - last year, investment totaled 6 million reais (US$ 2.5 million at current exchange rates).
Outside, greater business may also be closed. At Sofitel hotel, in São Paulo, the Buyer Project, a partnership between the Brazilian Export and Investment Promotion Agency (Apex-Brasil) and the Brazilian Clothing Designers Association (Abest), brought together 25 brands to present to 31 buyers from 19 shops in countries like Kuwait, England, the United States, India, Italy and Singapore.
In Brazil, the program of foreign buyers is to see the parades in the fashion week, to meet the exhibitors and, if they like any brand, to make direct contact with the company showroom. The results have been very positive. Last year, Brazilian fashion exported US$ 16 million, half having gone to the United States. The rest was shipped to Japan, Italy, France and also the Middle East.
In the long line for entry into room 1 of the SPFW parades, on January 19th, the second day of the event, in São Paulo, an angry voice warned those standing around in their sunglasses and handbags: "I need to get in quickly, my husband is going to go on the runway."
Those waiting paid little attention, after all, it was a lady in her 60s, excited, trying to know if she had entered the correct line (there were at least four) to see the parade of stylist Ronaldo Fraga, from Minas Gerais. As she was speaking non-stop, those around her tried to help, believing that it was either an excuse to cut the line or that Fraga was going to have a special entrance.
Correct were those betting on the second option, but with much more style. Ronaldo Fraga took to the runway 27 senior citizens, over 65, and 10 children. No models. The fast and luxurious steps of Gisele Bündchen and company made way for slower, more discrete steps, but no less elegant.
In the front line, Mrs Neguinha, a pretty lady who came straight from Montes Claros, in Minas Gerais, joyously applauded her mother, Lia, one of the 70-year-old models. The parade took much longer than the usual 10 minutes.
And Ronaldo Fraga was widely praised, receiving a standing ovation by an overwhelmed audience, with tears in their eyes, thinking about time, the barrier that the stylist had just broken. It was on the verge of sentimentalism, with a calm soundtrack that stimulated thought, and Fraga knows how to create this situation with poetic fashion. The result filled the eyes. With joy.
The collection was inspired on spectacle Giz, by artist and playwright Álvaro Apocalypse, who passed away in 2003. Apocalypse became widely known nationally for the creation of theatre puppets Giramundo, whose replicas, made in white fabric, were part of the scenery of Fraga's parade. The models, elderly and children, were also chosen due to Apocalypse's work.
Giz spectacle talks about the new and the old, as written by Fraga in the items of the parade: "from the start to the end of design, all try to improve the design eternalizing the errors." And the poet-stylist once again showed his brand, the one that fashion is not simply clothes.
And he added: "fashion with memory." Fraga has already taken to the runway the music of Bossa Nova singer Nara Leão, the poems of Carlos Drummond de Andrade and so many other themes. Always bringing together generations, telling stories.
The SPFW parades began on Sunday (18), with the presence of top model Gisele Bündchen parading for brand Colcci, and they end on Friday 23. Heavyweight names in Brazilian fashion are still going to present their collections, among them stylist Glória Coelho, who will show her collection on the last day, as well as André Lima, Simone Nunes and Reinaldo Lourenço, among others.
Anba
 |
Subscribe to this comment's feed
Brazil received a huge boost in its international image with its selection as the host of the 2016 Olympics, but it was really just the cherry on top of the overall recognition of the country's ascension to the ranks of one of the world's most important countries. Now, as it finally takes its place on the world scene, there has been a great deal of concern about what kind of image Brazil hopes to project, now that the world is really paying attention. 
The only good thing to say about the visit to Brazil of Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, on Monday November 23, is that it was mercifully short and lasted less than 24 hours. Ahmadinejad had his picture taken being hugged by president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva who gave him a warm welcome and said Iran had every right to develop nuclear energy for peaceful purposes. 
The small, coastal town of Condé is located just a twenty minute's drive from João Pessoa, the capital of Paraíba. The Northeast of Brazil has historically been a place of encounter and mixing between peoples. For millenia groups of indigenous people fished, farmed, migrated and sometimes fought along this large, fertile area. 
The Brazilian diplo-MÁ-cia (bad diplomacy) carries on its accelerated course towards the non-acknowledgment of human rights, although sometimes it takes pleasure in saying that it does precisely the opposite. The visit of Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, is another example of a diplomatic omission that verges on hypocrisy. 
On July 4, 2006, representatives of Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay met in Caracas to sign the protocol for the entrance of Venezuela into the Southern Common Market (Mercosur). After two and a half years, the protocol was approved by the legislative bodies of Argentina and Uruguay, and as of now it may be only days away from being ratified by the continent's economic megalith, Brazil. 
Some sectors of the fight against AIDS have suggested that Thabo Mbeki, the former president of South Africa, committed genocide through his absence from the fight against the illness in his country throughout his two terms. 
One hundred and eleven years after Brazil abolished slavery, the number of workers deprived of their freedom is still huge. They raise cattle, produce charcoal, sugar cane or timber. Some of them, most undocumented Bolivians, work in basements of small apparel factories in São Paulo and other metropolis. 
On November 7, 2009 a few friends and I had an opportunity to take a look inside a Brazilian jail outside the city of Rio de Janeiro. We were able to take some amateur footage of our experience on video (see link below). It's no surprise, of course, that the typical Brazilian jail lacks some of the functionality of those in North America or Europe, but our experience that day was quite shocking. 
Depletion of the Amazon Rainforest is not a new concern facing environmentalists, biologists, ecologists, and a growing number of the Amazonian indigenous peoples. For decades they have feared for the fate of the world's most biologically diverse and species-rich hothouse. 
Geisy Arruda made history this week in Brazil, but for all the wrong reasons. What began as a poorly planned fashion statement has become a worldwide tale. Geisy decided to wear a pink mini-dress to her private college in São Paulo state, and after that, all hell broke loose.