Mapping Brazil - Fashion: Events

Growing interest in fashion culture
Despite all of the consumer-related aspects previously mentioned, we should not fall for the wrong idea that there’s no serious knowledge about fashion or real interest in fashion beyond clothing among Brazilians. Apart from the information on fashion and styling disseminated on TV or through retail publicity efforts in online and offline advertisements, Brazil’s urban populations have had access to major art exhibitions that have fashion as a centrepiece, reaffirming a global trend that this is indeed a subject that attracts crowds to museums.

In 2010, the country saw one of the first results of a fashion-centred cultural project financed by a federal government incentive, the law known as ‘Lei Rouanet’, in an exhibition called ‘Rio São Francisco navegado por Ronaldo Fraga’ (San Francisco River Navigated by Ronaldo Fraga). This 13 ambience art installation project recounted fashion designer Ronaldo Fraga’s inspiration for the development of his 2008 collection and his research into the story and aesthetics of the Rio São Francisco in Brazil. It was first presented in Minas Gerais, where it attracted 40 thousand visitors. It arrived in São Paulo in 2011 at the Brazilian Culture Pavilion at Ibirapuera Park and in 2012 was shown in Rio de Janeiro – a box office hit in each city.

In June 2011, the Biennale building at Ibirapuera Park hosted the exhibition Pretty Much Everything, a curated retrospective of the 25-year-career of the renowned Dutch photographers Inez Van Lamsweerde and Vinoodh Matadin. Before its presentation in Brazil, it had only been shown in the Netherlands and France. Launched as part of the São Paulo Fashion Week, the exhibition stayed open to the public for three weeks following the fashion event with enormous success.

Fashion photography exhibitions have been exciting audiences in major cities in Brazil. In 2014, the arrival of fashion photography darling Mario Testino’s exhibition In Your Face was highly anticipated and the buzz around it forced the Brazilian Art Museum (MAB) in São Paulo to extend it. Not to mention the blockbuster success enjoyed by David Bowie’s exhibition at the Image and Sound Museum (MIS), also in São Paulo, where fashion played an important role.

The more than positive response to the exposure of cultural aspects of fashion have inspired an array of ‘branded-content’ exhibitions in Brazil, and major luxury brands have started to include the country in their global circuit of art-related projects. Chanel, for instance, took up residence in the OCA building designed by Oscar Niemeyer at Ibirapuera Park with the exhibition Little Black Jacket, which brought Karl Lagerfeld for an opening night party that electrified the Brazilian fashion crowd. In 2015, it was Hermès’ turn to celebrate iconic items and present to Brazil its itinerate experiential exhibition Festival des Métiers in which the brand’s artisans interacted with the public while reproducing their daily meticulous production routine.

These are just a few recent examples of how artsy cultural elements have increasingly been added to the more mundane clothing/style mind-set generally associated with fashion in Brazil.

Two decades of Brazil in a global fashion calendar
In 2015, the São Paulo Fashion Week (SPFW), considered the fifth most important fashion week in the world by both the market and the press, celebrates its 20th anniversary. At the same time that constantly new processes of production, the power of the consumer society and the influence of new media are changing the game of fashion distribution, the fashion week in Brazil remains crucial for brands. What was once the trade domain of specialised professionals is now the starting point for viral fashion content. It is the place where brands come face-to-face with influencers and play a game of seduction with customers: it is the time when they transform clients into fans, buyers into partners, and journalists, bloggers and web celebrities into ambassadors.

In terms of fashion-related events, the São Paulo Fashion Week stands as the most important platform mostly because it works as a hub for a pulverised industry in Brazil and affects a wide range of players in the broad supply chain of the fashion business. Its role for industry and trade is just as important as its role for branding and consumer outreach.

When considering the São Paulo Fashion Week, it is important to know that despite being run by a private company, it has always been committed to the organisation and development of the fashion industry and fashion culture in Brazil. The SPFW is financed by a hybrid investment, partly coming from the city and partly from private sponsorship. Unlike other fashion weeks abroad, designers and brands do not have to pay to show at the fashion week. This is a fostering initiative of the organisers, as they understand that it is still very expensive to become a player and invest in high fashion design in Brazil, and this somewhat fragile business needs such a boast.

In the line-up, you can find conceptual and experimental work from small atelier brands showing right next to the work of larger mainstream brands with a fashion design approach. The São Paulo Fashion Week offers a broad overview of Brazilian fashion design, from resort to luxury-targeted brands, with creativity and quality remaining bottom-line characteristics. The diversity and freshness welcomed by SPFW has become its blueprint and stronghold in an ever-competitive market.

In 2013, after a long-standing request, SPFW made strategic changes in order to allow a longer production and planning period between the runway show and delivery of the retail collection. Since then, the Spring/Summer collections are shown in April and the Autumn/Winter collections in October, similar to the schedule followed by the main European and US fashion weeks.

As an industry event, the São Paulo Fashion Week is the only fashion week in Brazil at present. Fashion Rio, which was held from 2002 to 2014 by the Federation of Industries of the State of Rio de Janeiro (FIRJAN) is temporarily on hold awaiting a new outlook that is being discussed by a committee led by FIRJAN. Many brands from Fashion Rio are now presently showing at the São Paulo Fashion Week as part of their continued business strategy. At this moment, Rio de Janeiro is rethinking the formats, goals and investments for fashion events. The Fashion Business event is also going through changes and has not happened since 2014. As for Claro Rio Summer, it was a one-time event.

In terms of fashion trade shows, Minas Trend is among the most relevant, having occupied the spotlight in the absence of its main competitor in Rio. Promoted by the Federation of Industries of Minas Gerais, it focus mainly on women’s’ apparel and accessories, twice a year. Prêt-à-porter and FENIN in São Paulo are the largest apparel trade shows in Brazil, catering to a broader audience. Additionally, more curated smaller events, such as +B, organised by ABEST (The Brazilian Association of Fashion Designers) and Contemporâneo, bring a strong pool of fashion designer brands from all over Brazil together in São Paulo. Starting in October 2015, they are joining forces in an integrated project. Also, APEX (Brazilian Trade and Investment Promotion Agency), ABIT (Brazilian Textile and Apparel Industry Association) and ABEST (Brazilian Association of Fashion Designers) invest to finance the participation of Brazilian design brands in international tradeshows such as Who’s Next, Mode Citê, Tranoi, Coterie, Magic and Miami Swim, among others.

In terms of industry players, a few other events take place, mostly in São Paulo. There is the Couro Moda trade show for the leather segment, Francal and TMFashion for shoes and accessories, Inspiramais for the accessory components industry and a Brazilian edition of Premier Vision for textiles.

Return to Mapping menu