|
 Brazilian designer Márcia Ganem's differential of clothing lies in her techniques for using recycled polyamide fiber, a highly resistant artificial synthetic fiber. Márcia's work, which she has developed for 12 years now, also includes handicraft lace, stones and embroidery supplied by eight communities in Brazil's northeastern state of Bahia.
Ganem's collections feature dresses, blouses, skirts, pantaloons, corsets and even wedding gowns, which are sold at Browns Brides, a renowned store in London, England. In the domestic market, the designer always attends Fashion Rio, a fashion week in Rio de Janeiro that also attracts international buyers.
Márcia's atelier, located at the Pelourinho, in the historic center of Salvador, capital of Bahia state, counts on 15 employees. However, the fashion she creates involves more than 200 people from impoverished communities as well. Among them is the lace-maker community in the city of Saubara.
Their lace has an African influence. With each new collection presented by the designer, new techniques are incorporated, creating greater possibilities to the communities of Bahia. Every item is crafted using material researched on by Márcia, and under her guidance.
The designer has her haute couture already being exported to eight different countries, including Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and Bahrain.
"I had never imagined that the Arab world would be interested in our product, but it was extremely well accepted," stated Márcia, who has been exporting twice a year to the Arab countries for two-and-a-half-years now.
Her clothing is sold to Arab storeowners, who usually attend fashion events in Europe, where Márcia also showcases her work in fashion shows or stands. According to her, in order to break into a new market, first she needs to explain what polyamide fiber is.
"Most people have never seen the type of work that we do. However, when we showcase it, the reaction is very positive," she said.
In June this year, the designer's clothes also featured in the Beautyworld Middle East, a trade fair for cosmetics held in Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates. The models at the Brazilian stand were wearing her items, and also appeared on a fashion show during the event.
In November, the designer from Bahia should travel to the emirate again to attend the Brazilian fashion week in Dubai, "Brazil Fashion Now," to be promoted by the Brazilian Textile and Apparel Industry Association (Abit), the Brazilian Clothing Designers Association (Abest), the Brazilian Institute of Gems and Precious Metals (IBGM), among others. In addition to clothing, the event is going to display shoes, purses and jewelry made in Brazil.
Service
Márcia Ganem
Site: www.marciaganem.com.br/
Telephone; (+55 71) 3322- 2423
E-mail: atelier@marciaganem.com.br
Anba - www.anba.com.br
 |
Subscribe to this comment's feed
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. 
The push of vigilante groups in Rio de Janeiro's favelas (shantytowns) in the last three years is the most important and alarming information of the just-released study by the Rio de Janeiro University's Violence Research Center (Nupev-Uerj). 
A dispute over drug trafficking territory in Rio de Janeiro has intensified lately, leaving in its wake unprecedented acts of violence, such as the downing of a police helicopter in the northern zone of the city on October 17. Three policemen died and another two were injured. This event has drawn the attention of the international media, who are raising the issue of public security for the 2016 Olympics to be held in Rio.