Registration is open for the 2014 edition of the BtoBe contest

Casa de Criadores and Texbrasil (Brazilian Fashion Industry Internationalization Program, maintained by Abit and Apex-Brasil) have opened up registration for the second edition of BtoBe (Brazilians to Be) sponsored by SEBRAE (Brazilian Micro and Small Business Support Service).The project, whose main goal is to discover, train and promote new entrepreneurial designers, has two categories – Fashion Entrepreneurs and Fashion Students. The winners of the competition will be included in a series of activities for training and business promotion on the foreign market. Registrations are open from August 12 to September 8 and can be done online here, where the contest rules are also published.In the “Fashion Students” category, students attending fashion colleges or university courses recognized by the Ministry of Education or recent graduates (one year out of school) may compete. In the “Fashion Entrepreneurs” category, professionals that have a company that has been open for at most three years can participate. Six projects from each category will be pre-selected by the contest’s organizers and will be assessed by a commission of teachers and professionals at the end of the contest, which is set to take place during the 36th edition of Casa de Criadores, on October 23.In addition to training and international promotion activities, the student winner may also take part in the next edition of Casa de Criadores, for the S/S 2016 season. Last year, the winner of the first edition of BtoBe in the Fashion Entrepreneur category was Parana architect and designer Heloisa Strobel Jorge, with her Reptilia brand. In the student category, the winner was Sao Paulo’s Nathan Henrique de Sousa, of Universidade Anhembi Morumbi (SP), with his Nosotros label.

“Our goal is to work in partnership with Apex-Brasil to develop a global business mentality, providing support for the designers to enhance their activities in various areas,” says Evilasio Miranda, Manager of the Fashion and Design Center at Texbrasil. For Andre Hidalgo, Director of Casa de Criadores, the project has gained momentum after going nationwide and adding a new category. “Casa de Criadores has always been where new talent is encouraged and BtoBe has proven very efficient at finding this new talent,” he explains.