10.05.2008
Artistry in the blood
Brazilian design, from fashion to architecture, is
usually recognised simply for its flamboyance, but it is only recently that its
unusual mix of influences is being embraced for its inventiveness, originality
and sheer diversity
Think Brazilian design and the first things that spring to mind may well be plastic flip-flops and miniscule beachwear.
But there is more to Brazilian style than Carmen
Miranda's fruit basket headgear, and a new generation of Brazilian designers,
mostly based in Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo, are pushing the boundaries of
South American fashion, art and architecture.
Inspired by themes as diverse as urban disorder,
impoverished sugar cane cutters, the Amazon rainforest and even the gothic
movement, Brazil's young designers are charting new territory and winning
accolades the world over.
Last year the Brazilian clothing industry made
$34.6bn, making it the world's sixth largest textile producer and responsible
for 3.5% of Brazil's GDP. Some $2.4bn of that revenue came from exports.
Brazil's fashionistas are also gaining influence.
Alexandre Herchcovitch (right), currently the country's best-known fashion designer,
was listed as one of Brazil's 100 most influential people in a recent survey by
a respected Brazilian news magazine.
Carolina Gold, a London-born Anglo-Brazilian
designer based in São Paolo, runs Amapo, one of the country's most celebrated
fashion labels, with her business partner Pitty Talian. Gold says the
explanation for Brazil's growing success abroad is its diversity. "A
little bit of everything exists within Brazilian fashion," says Gold.
"Our work always carries a tropical perfume," says Gold. "The
colours we use are strong; it's very tropical."
Like many Brazilian designers Gold believes her
country's unmistakable national identity is a defining factor in her work's
success. "I'm of the philosophy that the more you look inside yourself the
better your output is. And that when you just look outside you get
confused."
Gold cites Maria Bonita as one of the Brazilian
labels that most excites her. The label's collections draw heavily on
traditional north-eastern Brazilian styles, giving the country's rural back
lands an urban twist.
"It's completely different to our work... but
it is still linked to the Brazilian roots," says Gold, whose clothes are
now sold in London, New York and Tokyo.
"All of our collections start with the print.
Because Brazil is a hot, tropical place these prints work well. I think [the
overseas buyers] like the artisan-type Brazilian style, it enchants them,"
she adds.
For decades Brazil's tropical chic has enchanted
the outside world in a variety of forms; from the white concrete sweeps of
Oscar Niemeyer's architecture, inspired by Rio's undulating mountains, to the
rubber Havaiana flip-flops that have become one of the country's best known
exports and worn by Brazilian street sweepers and super models alike.
Julia Bolliger, head of journalism at Brazil's leading design and "experimental art" magazine Zupi, plays down the idea of "Brazilian-ness". "A global exchange of influences" means Brazilian designers find their inspiration as much abroad as at home, she believes.
"There is no such thing as typically Brazilian or typically London design," she says, pointing out that there are "Americans doing excellent oriental art, Brazilians making European design [and] Argentines who are completely influenced by German fashion illustrations."
She does, however, admit that Brazil's complex colonial past and rich history of European, Japanese and Middle Eastern immigration make the country rich pickings for designers. Bolliger argues that this "vast array of cultures" provides the Brazilian designer with a "wealth of graphic icons, clothes, colours and identities."
"Because of all this historical and cultural baggage we certainly have something original in these parts," she says.
The artistic backgrounds of many Brazilian designers also gives them an advantage over others, Bolliger says.
"Even the biggest designers here have had an extremely strong artistic background before they moved into design, which really adds a huge wealth to their work," she says.
"The interesting thing about Brazilian designers - and this is something that should be a maxim for designers across the world - is that they concentrate less on technique and focus more on artistic freedom. I think that all professions here are more based on creativity and the natural intensity of our people and less on studies and rules."
Examples of this artistic freedom can be found around virtually every corner in Brazil, on billboards and buses, in shop windows and showrooms and of course on television. It can also be found in the work of the Campana brothers, two São Paulo furniture designers who have become world-renowned for their so-called spontaneous architecture projects.
The Campanas are best known for their eccentric furniture designs, which employ everyday materials used in the country's slums to produce luxurious sofas and chairs, like the Favela Chair, made from a mesh of plywood.
"Translating the Brazilian identity into design is the most important challenge for us," Humberto says in a recent interview. "The challenge is to make a portrait of our poor, beautiful and culturally rich country."
Campana traces this new creative freedom back to the end of Brazil's military dictatorship in 1985 when a host of exiled artists and intellectuals began flocking back to their home country.
The Campanas are not the only brothers making a name for themselves. Graffiti artists Gustavo and Otávio Pandolfo, better known by the title "Os Gemeos" or The Twins, have also taken the world by storm with their distinctive street art, which can today be found in art galleries across the world fetching five-figure sums.
With more and more finance being pumped into the industry and new designers springing up on a seemingly daily basis, the Brazilian design boom and its impact on everyday life looks set to continue.
For fashion designers such as Rodolfo Murilo, one of the youngest members of this new troupe, it is an exciting time to be starting out in fashion. Aged just 22, he is currently the chief designer for Carlota Joakina, a label owned by Gloria Coelho, one of Brazil's most respected designers who has showrooms in New York, Paris and London.
"I think Brazilian fashion is now moving into a new phase," he says. "There are lots of young Brazilian designers now dreaming about having their own labels. Brazil is in fashion. Universities are opening new fashion courses all the time. We are feeling that the labels are being watched all the time by the entire fashion world. The eyes are on us. You feel observed. It's great."
Tom Phillips
back | top
Comments
Insert your comment
JPer
26.05.2008
Joao Pessoa and Paraiba has a great history in the arts, I’m not sure the above article is about Joao Pessoa specifically but Brasil in general as most of the articles appear to be.
artistically inclined
26.05.2008
How much of this is actually going on in Joao Pessoa?