Tuesday March 23, 2004
Seeking a Delicate Balance in São Paulo
By Michael Kepp
SAO PAULO — Call it the discovery channel.
The recent São Paulo Fashion Week attracted foreign buyers looking for alternatives to current global trends, from a fresh look in designer jeans to a little-known stylist who possesses the elusive quality of being creative and commercial.
Around 72,000 people from 10 countries came to the twice-yearly SPFW to see the winter 2004 collections of 37 designers, on par with last July’s edition. Top designers included Alexandre Herchcovitch, Fause Haten, Lino Villaventura, Reinaldo Lourenco and Forum, the signature line of Tufi Duek. Other ready-to-wear labels like Zoomp, Lorenzo Merlino, André Lima, Gloria Coelho, Ellus, Triton, Iódice, Patachou, Carlota Joakina, Ronaldo Fraga, Ricardo Almeida, Sommer, Uma, Osklen, British Colony and Vide Bula showed, as well as leading Brazilian beachwear maker Rosa Chá.
The event also drew a cadre of top models. Homegrown favorite Gisele Bündchen led off for Zoomp in a black, semitransparent, glittery tunic over a black T-shirt with a Black Power-printed theme, while Naomi Campbell wore a fluorescent lemon one-piece Rosa Chá swimsuit, whose twists, turns and overlaps gave her a gift-wrapped look.
This SPFW was unusually creative and far from commercial, according to most local and foreign buyers, fashion consultants and others in attendance. “Given that the no-growth Brazilian economy in 2003 made it a rough year for local designers, this SPFW reached a brave level of creativity that got closer to the consumer without making a lot of commercial concessions,” said Brazilian fashion consultant Gloria Kalil. “Nearly all the stylists put on strong shows.”
Zapping, the secondary line of Zoomp, featured what Kalil called “a playfully innovative collection for young people.” One model wore colorful striped tights, a pink and black jaguar-print skirt, a pink fur vest and a red wig — a kind of “light clubber” look. Another wore a wedding cake-tiered skirt, lace tights and a bride and groom ornamented headband.
Lorenzo Merlino made use of contrasting fabrics that paired well, such as a short corduroy dress worn over a longer silk organza dress, one that got raves from both Kalil and Carol Lim, an owner of Opening Ceremony, a SoHo (Manhattan) boutique. “Merlino really knows how to pair clothes creatively,” Lim said.
Opening Ceremony, which bought clothes at SPFW last July, came back for more, in part, because, as Lim, put it, “Brazilian designers offer alternatives to current U.S. and European trends that are both creative and commercial. We sold 70 percent of everything we bought from Brazil at the last SPFW and will easily move, at a discount, the remaining 30 percent.”
This time around, Opening Ceremony was buying from seven Brazilian designers for its upcoming fall season, among them 100 pieces each from Lorenzo Merlino (corduroy blazers, pants, skirts and dresses); Patachou (vibrant knitwear, long sweaters, wool leggings and wool-braided scarves), and Herchcovitch (long capes and long black wool coats inspired by Brazilian horror movies.).
Intrigued by the July edition, Selfridges buyers said they wanted to see more. At last July’s SPFW, the London emporium bought clothes for a May 3-31 event, called “Brasil 40°” that will feature over 30 Brazilian designers.
For Brasil 40°, Selfridges is picking up Herchcovitch T-shirts featuring Disney prints with a sinister twist (a skull with Mickey Mouse ears or an evil Snow Queen), as well as pieces from six other designers including two small, new, independent São Paulo labels that didn’t show at SPFW. One was Carmelitas, which featured hand-beaded evening dresses and tops. The other was Neon, whose swimwear features black and neon geometric prints on a white background, as well as unusual cuts and details.
“Going to a lesser-known fashion week gives us the excuse to explore a country in search of unknown stylists with so refreshingly different a point of view, that finding them can make the whole trip worthwhile,” said Kit Li-Perry, Selfridges’ buying manager. “That’s what we found at Carmelitas and Neon.”
The French foreign buyers — from department store La Samaritaine; L’Eclaireur, a five-store Paris chain, and for Onward Kashiyama’s Paris boutique — seemed interested in more commercial casual wear, especially designer jeans.
Pascal Reveau, the buyer for Onward Kashiyama, was mostly buying jeans from Zoomp and Ellus, perhaps Brazil’s two biggest names in the category, because, as he put it, “They’re sexy and salable.”
“Both Zoomp and Ellus feature sexy cuts that push up and accentuate the female butt, something French women will like,” said Reveau. “Zoomp’s denim also has a nice woven texture and its jeans feature eyecatching details like leather buttons and side zippers.”
Michael Hadida, the buyer for L’Eclaireur, is mostly buying Ellus designer jeans because of their low-waisted cut and snug fit, partly due to stretch fabric. “Ellus jeans, because of their sensual cut and fit, buck the French intellectual approach to fashion, while still being commercial.”
He also liked Zoomp’s colorful, playful tops, some of which expose the navel, which he said young Parisians would find fashionable.
Catherine Coppin, the buyer for La Samaritaine, is also buying Ellus because of the cut and high-quality denim. But she also plans to buy 100 pair of jeans of a new São Paulo brand, Clube Chocolate. While the brand did not show at SPFW, last December it opened a multibrand store that’s generating buzz here.
“Clube Chocolate jeans use thick crosshatched denim that gives them a nonflat look, and also feature a slim cut and an attractive light wash over a dark indigo base,” said Coppin. “These and the Ellus jeans will be very salable at our store, which attracts a younger crowd than our Parisian competitors like Bon Marché and Le Printemps.”
Both Coppin and Selfridges’ creative director, Harvey Sutton, also liked Reinaldo Lourenco’s collection and said they might buy him, if not now, in the future. Lourenco’s collection featured black, draped jersey skirts and dresses with fringe and rabbit fur details. “Lourenco suits our London customers who want something commercial and cutting-edge at the same time,” Sutton said. Coppin commented, “Lourenco is somewhere between conservative and sexy, which is what we’re looking for.”
Virtually none of the foreign buyers came with a fixed budget. “We’ve come here with an open mind and an eye for something fresh,” said Sutton. “Budgetary concerns are secondary.” As Coppin put it, “We’re looking for product, not price.”
Buyers overwhelmingly concurred that Brazilian fashion comes with competitive, affordable price tags, even when factoring in import taxes and an exchange rate that has overvalued the local currency, the real, against the U.S. dollar, and made dollar-based Brazilian exports more expensive. Sutton added that a strong euro (against the dollar) wasn’t a factor in Selfridges’ buying strategy and that the store buys Brazilian fashion in dollars, as do other European and U.S. buyers.
And nearly all the buyers felt more encouraged to buy at the SPFW because of their expectations that the world economy would soon pick up.
“We came to Brazil to buy, in part, because we believe the French economy will get out of its slump,” said L’Eclaireur buyer Hadida. “But increased demand will be specific, which means we have to buy carefully by targeting our customer base.”
Local Brazilian buyers at the SPFW came with the same priorities as foreign ones — the need to find something different that they couldn’t find in their markets. Bila Mello, who owns three São Paulo casualwear, multibrand boutiques called Due Donne, bought a lot of pieces from British Colony, a Rio de Janeiro-based designer.
“British Colony features knee-length denim bermudas and casual silk tops that can be worn together to give a young São Paulo woman a more laid-back Rio de Janeiro look,” said Mello. “Most São Paulo designers produce more serious clothing, making such clothes hard to find here.”
And Leo Zanata, the owner of an up-scale multibrand boutique called Mona, in the northeastern town of Maceio, came to the SPFW because “only in São Paulo can I find the kind of fashion that local female businesswomen and politicians’ wives want, something that is discreet and innovative at the same time.”
Zanata is buying pieces from Uma’s winter collection, which features black, high-twist crepe blazers and low-waisted pants and belts. Some blazers are closed by two black crepe belts, and some pants look double-belted because of detailing just below the zipper.
Coppin of La Samaritaine also liked Uma’s collection. “It’s a trendy, but commercial kind of female businesswear that French women would buy.”
