Lilian Pacce, Camila Villas and Marilia Biasi, ‘Brazil: Creating Fashion for Tomorrow’

0:12Hello and welcome to the Monaco Weekly. This time we have very special guests, leading Brazilian fashion voice Lilian Pache, UNWTO sustainability specialist Camila Villas, and Brazilian designer Marília Biasi. They were all curators of Brazil Creating Fashion for Tomorrow, hosted at the Brazilian Embassy in London. For this year's event, the theme is A Chain of Women. Let's hear it from this amazing trio.

0:45Lilian Pache, Camila Villas and Marília Biasi, welcome to Monaco Radio. It's a pleasure to have you here. This is a Brazilian all over here at Monaco Radio. Thank you so much for having us. And it was great attending the opening for, you know, Brazil Creating Fashion for Tomorrow. Lilian, tell me more about the event. This is the second time running, of course. There's a different kind of focus this time. But tell us about the event. When did it start? The idea of the Brazil creating fashion for tomorrow is to highlight Brazilian fashion regarding sustainability and innovation. So our idea is to have different editions focusing on different aspects of this very complex industry.

1:31And tell us about the focus this year. It's called Chain of Women. Explain. I think it's in the title, but explain. It's in the title, but it's always good to highlight why we are giving this title. Because 8 % of the fashion industry is women workforce. But usually the men occupies the highest positions and also about transparency because we don't care about who made our clothes or, you know, the whole chain. And when we decide to have this chain of women, it's because the brands that we choose, they support other women. And not just hiring there, but contributing with them, collaborating with them, women from very remote areas, from communities.

2:24And at the same time, highlighting the handcraft behind these works. And that's what I'm going to bring Camila here as well, because you work with sustainability as well. So tell us, it's not only just female craftsmanship, but the way Brazil does design, right? Which is quite sustainable. All the brands there were very sustainable with very innovative methods in the way they make their clothes. Can I just, you see, craftmanship? Yes, see? We need to get a new word for that, right? Craftwomanship. Craftwomanship, yes. Yes, I like that. Yeah, so going back to your question, for us it was very important that the companies already had the sustainability, the environmental and social aspects in their core business.

3:15So it was not supposed to be like a capsule collection, it was something that was already intricate to the business. And I think we have two different aspects. One is about the social aspect where, as Lilian mentioned, they empower communities and also celebrate craft and womenship and hand techniques and maybe methods that would be lost from generation to generation. So we really wanted to celebrate that. And I feel that that's what the brands want to do as well, to give these women a decent living wage and also a way of living that can rely on those techniques. Because also I feel the market now is asking for that.

4:02So I think it all comes together. And then the environmental side, We were trying as much as possible to choose pieces that had natural fibers, like I think it was Marina Bitu that worked with banana fiber, and then we had a lot of raffia and burici and carnauba straw. So I think we managed to have both the social and environmental aspects throughout the exhibition. Marília, I have a question for you as one of the curators for this exhibition, because you are a designer yourself, right? Tell us a bit more. How did you start working with this exhibition? And perhaps about your work as well, because, you know, you're a woman, you're doing very well here in London, incredible design.

4:49I know you for many years. So I think it's something that you care a lot, right? I can feel it. Yes, I do. This is the second edition of the exhibition and I think it took almost a year to bring everything together for the first one. So the embassy offered this space to us And when they offered, like, and they came up with this idea of having a fashion event there. I was like, yeah, we need to talk about sustainability. There is no way we're not going to talk about that. So then we create the exhibition around that. And I've been working in this industry for almost 20 years now. Yeah, and it's always, like, the main subject, like, for me.

5:31because I work with lots of brands. I've been working in the UK for 12 years now. And it's a bit of a struggle for companies that are established to move things into more sustainable ways. And sometimes it's also for small brands that are starting, sometimes it's also a big challenge because of costs. It's not as cheap as doing in a no sustainable way. So it's a thing that is always like I try to balance because the brands to survive, they need to have a profit. So I've been always very interested on all the ways that we could make things more sustainable. And every brand I work with, like I am working at Kazemi, I always try to push into more sustainable ways.

6:17And I know it's something that can be done suddenly, especially for small brands that doesn't have the budget for it. But I'm always working towards that. is something that I'm very interested in. And I generally think the market is asking for female-led brands as well. And as you say, not in the high positions as well, which is completely dominated by men. So how was the curatorial process? Because many of the brands, perhaps all of the brands, they are female-led there in the exhibition. So that's super interesting. Clearly there was a process there. It was just not good fashion, but people, women at the top as well.

6:58Yeah, yeah, sure. That was the first step for the curatorial process. And then researching their production process was the next step. And really trying to bring the most amazing pieces, you know. Even the display of the exhibition, we try to hang the special pieces on the wall like artwork. Because they are unique. Because it's handmade, handcrafted. So it's impossible to have two the same. So this was the main idea. Also bringing different communities and different artisanal techniques. Because Brazil is huge. So we try to have people from many different states, from Brazil, and then different points of view, different social collaborations.

7:49We have like an indigenous designer and a trans designer that went to Atacama Desert and did an amazing workshop there with the landfill in Atacama Desert. Because all the global north sent to the global south all the waste. So we have to change this. And I saw you at the opening. You were wearing incredible earrings. Can you tell us about the earrings? It's beautiful. Yeah, I'm really into the indigenous culture and community for many, many years, for decades, actually. And I have the pleasure to know some of these communities. And my earrings is from Achaninka indigenous people. they live in Acre which is almost in the borders of Brazil and Peru and they have these amazing artifacts made by feathers Fantastic and Camila another thing I really enjoyed the exhibition it was a mix of very as you say small brands but also big groups that are doing very well like Farm Rio but still sustainable still with amazing ideas that was an incredible mix.

9:11I wonder if you can name perhaps some of the names that are at the exhibition and that you're a fan perhaps as well. Yes, of course. So Farm Rio for us was really great to have them for the second time. We had pieces from the Yanawa group. It's been seven years that they work with them. So they choose a piece from 2021 and we were working together in terms of materiality as well. So they decided to work with a clean viscose, which is a lensing type of viscose that has a closed loop. For 20 days, four women were working to create the piece using five kilos of glass beads, which was amazing. It's fantastic for us when we have this type of collaboration, when the brand really engages with the exhibition.

10:00And we also had smaller brands, but also very important, like Flavia Aranha, for example. She's one of the first designers in Brazil who really had sustainability in the core of the business. We had... Catarina Mina. Catarina Mina from CERA. She works with the Rendeiras. She works with 300 women. They are all artisans and they really celebrate the lace techniques that they have, which is very particular from this region, the northeast region of Brazil. Leni, Leni Nehemiah, it's one of the amazing pieces of the exhibition because it's a kind of couture made by Buditi. The construction is amazing, everything is amazing, and the social work behind the pieces is amazing as well.

10:51So Leni is very committed to this as well. And we have Pati Bo, Patricia Bonaldi. She has a school, an embroidery school in her hometown. And she trained already more than 400 women. So it's an amazing job. And Lilian, I want to ask, of course, you've been working with fashion and talking about fashion for many years. The textile industry in Brazil is huge. is a very important industry for the country, right? So I think it's even more important than how it becomes sustainable. But I wonder if you can talk about the size of the fashion industry, because, of course, it employs a lot of people. It's a very powerful kind of industry there, right?

11:33In Brazil, it's the second industry that employs most. I don't know. Yeah, that employs most people. Yeah, it's the second one. But, you know, the politics in Brazil, for them, fashion is not an important business. It's unbelievable. So the government, you know, it's an industry that doesn't have the same incentives as, for instance, automobile industry or pharmacy industry. You see, maybe the values have to change. I completely agree. And one thing that I'm very curious about, As a Brazilian designer here in London, how do you think not only the British, but maybe the Europeans or people outside Brazil perceive Brazilian fashion?

12:22Do you think perhaps the exhibition and the work you do is also to promote Brazilian fashion and show the amazing things we have, the amazing brands, the amazing techniques that we have? Yes, I think people are very interested in Brazilian design in general. and I was very surprised when I moved to here and my first job was for a brand that sells the Brazilian lifestyle here. So I actually felt like I got more connected to the Brazilian design and art and everything that I had to start researching when I moved to here because then I was trying to translate all this amazing heritage that we have into clothes to sell to the British market and European as well.

13:04So I learned so much more about Brazil being here than when I was in Brazil working for brands there. Because I think sometimes, like, I worked for very established brands in Brazil, and, like, sometimes you look a lot outside, and now, like, I had to come outside to look inside, I guess. That's a very good point. But one thing that I'm proud, Camila, living in London for many years, but if you see that in Europe, I think there is more interest for Brazilian brands. I mean, we mentioned Farm. They opened recently a store here in London. I think they're expanding. But I see other Brazilian kind of fashion.

13:40Do you notice that as well, that interest for Brazil? Yes, I noticed the same. And I think it's, I have a 16 year old and now he's in Instagram and then his friends, they are wearing t-shirts with Brazil written on it. Brazil core. Yeah, Brazil core, right? I love it. Yeah, and I think it's just amazing to see Brazil out there. And as you said, Farm Rio, but also we have VIX selling abroad. And we have Malvi now presenting with us and they maybe want to expand. And it's great to see even Brazilian technology. Malvi, for example, they have the yarn of the future. So it's the first Brazilian company that managed to have a recycled yarn made from post-consuming garments, which is a big breakthrough.

14:32So I think we couldn't be more proud of Brazilian fashion. Yeah, and we had also jewelry and accessories. So, for instance, Teresa Xavier, she works with the design of original people, but then she adds more value on that. And it's a very handcrafted work. And Silvia Furmanovic, Silvia has many collaborations, but we choose this one with artisans from Chile. And the jewelry is made by horsehair. So the pieces are incredible. And also Flavia Aranha, she does these pieces with clay. And Jarina. Jadina is a seed, but it's like ivory. So we call Jadina, the plant, ivory. The materiality and the design both are really important.

15:34Thank you very much, Lilian, Camila and Marília. It's been a pleasure. The exhibition is on until Tuesday at the Brazilian Embassy in London. For more information, go to bcft.uk. The show was edited by Mariella Bavin. Thank you very much for listening.