Since the 1960s, the world has had a rather skewed but enduring image of fashion from Brazil: body-conscious beachwear, Havaianas sandals and diaphanous tunics resplendent with tropical prints.
Today, the country’s assortment of sultry swimsuits and effervescent resort wear continues to sell spectacularly well, both domestically and abroad — but that perennial success often seems to overshadow the rest of Brazil’s buoyant luxury fashion industry, including ready-to-wear, shoes, accessories and jewelry.
What’s more, it has perpetuated the myth that Brazilian style can be reduced to its most pedestrian, predictable and patronizing cliché: “Life’s a beach,” where Brazilian designers are interested in dressing only the scan
“This intensely repeated image is often accompanied by preconceptions and prejudices that do tend to level everyone — but it is also, clearly, very annoying,” says Graça Cabral, chief of institutional relations and strategic partnerships at Luminosidade, the company that organizes the country’s two main fashion events, São Paulo Fashion Week and Fashion Rio. “We are not happy all the time; we are not dancing all the time; we are not sunny all the time; we are not all on the beach having caipirinhas and showing off our marvelous sculptural tanned bodies.”
Although São Paulo Fashion Week has made notable progress in positioning Brazil’s largest city as the world’s fifth most important fashion capital in just 15 years, following Paris, Milan, New York and London. And while it has nutured an exceptionally diverse club of designers with a range of signature styles, aesthetics and approaches, the message of design diversity has been slow to reach those whose opinions often matter most: international consumers and less well-informed tastemakers, some of whom wield great power and influence in the global fashion industry.
tily clad whose feet seldom leave the sand.