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Brazilian fashion has progressed to
more than just carnival wear and bikinis. While cameras
have captured several noteworthy designs, it still has
some way to go beyond bizarre beachwear as seen in the
recent Fashion Rio showings for next summer.
RIO is fashionable and Rio is fun, but
can its young designers be taken seriously for something
beyond bikinis?
The answer from Fashion Rio, a five-day
showcase of 2006 spring/summer collections which ended
on Sunday seems to be: Not yet.
“There’s a lot of potential. The problem
with any sunny country is that people live to go to the
beach, so they don’t really care about dressing up,” said
Uscha Pohl, editor and publisher of VERY Styleguide magazine.
“The clothes are very commercial and
very wearable, but there’s not a lot of high concept.”
Pohl conceded there were exceptions.
She cited designer Alessandra Migani, whose collection
entitled “A Day in the House” featured models gracing
one of the few old two-storey houses left in the Ipanema
beach district.
From crystal headgear to chandelier-tangled
hair, there certainly was no shortage of “high concept”.
Crystal headdress made several models
look like they were wearing candelabras, and their elaborately
quilted skirts and bloomers evoked the French chorus girls
Toulouse- Lautrec liked to paint.
Blame it on Rio – or blame it on Gisele
Bundchen, the Brazilian ubermodel who put Brazil on the
fashion map and whose international success set many here
dreaming of following in her steps.
Bundchen, appearing at the Rio show for
the second time, gladly accepts the blame.
“The designers have improved a lot and
the organisation owes nothing to Paris,” Bundchen, who
will parade for the Colcci label, told reporters.
But Fashion Rio is still mostly a local
affair, graced by telenovela actors who preen and wave
at each other across the catwalks, hordes of aspiring
models and Naomi Campbell, who has become something of
a fixture here. While Campbell avoided a repeat of last
season’s “wardrobe malfunction” that left her topless
on the catwalk, the transparent fabric of the TNG dress
she wore this season left little to the imagination.
If the fashion is fun, it is also good
business.
“Brazil loves fashion. Brazil loves style.
Brazil loves to be well dressed,” said Fernando Valente
Pimental, CEO of the Brazil textile and apparel industry
association.
Pimental said that textiles and garments
in Brazil grew by 8.5% last year into a US$25bil (RM950bil)
a year industry, but less than 10% is exported – and the
future doesn’t look much brighter.
In an increasingly globalised market
place, Pimental said Brazil probably couldn’t compete
with countries such as India and China for the mass market.
So, he said, Brazil must work on niche
markets, winning customers with the romance of its image
and the glamour of cities like Rio de Janeiro.
In a country that long looked to Europe
and the United States for inspiration, Brazilian designers
are starting to assert their Brazilianness.
“It used to be that when you talked about
Brazil, you just talked about carnival. Now it’s time
to talk about more, especially when the world is starting
to look at Brazil,” said Ronaldo Fraga, who designs for
the Lei Basica label.
Still, Fraga’s show illustrated the Brazilian
dilemma. His models featured cargo shorts topped with
wide metal-encrusted belts that would look silly on the
beach – or anywhere else. – AP
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