This past week, WeAr has visited Brazil in order to check creativity and possibilities in one of the biggest countries in the world counting roughly 200 million inhabitants.
The local currency, the Brazilian Real, is at an interesting level for foreign buyers, which makes it worthwhile to look into possibilities. In terms of fashion, creativity and quality are at a high standard throughout the brands and designers as well as in manufacturing.
Despite a poorly coordinated timing between São Paulo Fashion Week and Veste Rio, the latter emerged into a well-visited event. Veste Rio happened one week ahead of São Paulo Fashion Week. We would like to encourage all fair organisers to better coordinate their dates in order to make it easier and more rewarding for international buyers, as it is almost impossible for international buyers to see both and at the same time decreases the number of visitors for both events. At Veste Rio, buyers were seen amongst others from Mexico, the U.S., France, Uruguay and other Brazilian states. None of those buyers we talked to were able to extend their trip to São Paulo. They prefer to visit Rio de Janeiro as an event attracts not only with the venue itself but also with its surroundings. Rio de Janeiro has a lot of emerging creativity and is a great place to find Brazilian brands and discover how they present themselves.
To experience fashion in Rio de Janeiro, visit areas: Ipanema, the adjoining Leblon and Jardim Botânico. There one can see noteworthy mono-brand stores like Osklen, Farm, A. Niemeyer for ready to wear, Havaianas for Brazil’s famous sandals or Salinas for swimwear, but also Dona Coisa, one of the best Brazilian multi-brand stores and a treasure chest to discover Brazilian designers that will function as a jewel in every retailer’s portfolio.
The fair itself was well organised and hosted in a wonderful location near the brand new Museo Amanhã in the harbour area. The views to the sea are incredible and the renovated industrial halls are professional and iconic at the same time.
Exhibiting designers presented a mix of jewellery, swimwear, accessories and ready to wear. The exhibitor list was not very large, but well selected.
Interesting was the set-up of the fair: it combined the trade event with an outlet show in an adjoining building starting on the second day of the event and open to end-consumers. This attracted a lot of public interest and encouraged the consumer to buy more designer brands.
WeAr advises combining such a trip with São Paulo. Rua Harmonia in Vila Madalena and Rua Oscar Freire in Jardins have many creative stores, designers and brands to check and get inspired by. Brazil is not only a Mecca for swimwear but for fashion in general and worth the time to be discovered.
WeAr has covered Veste Rio on our Instagram page for further insights and was invited by renowned Texbrasil, a government organisation helping to strengthen the Brazilian fashion industry.