Sao Paulo kicks off winter Fashion Week

SAO PAULO: Sao Paulo Fashion Week (SPFW), the top such event in Latin America, kicked off Monday to showcase joyful and colorful designs of its 2013 winter collection.

Unlike in previous years when it was held in the cavernous Biennal pavilion of the city's Ibirapuera Park, the show featuring 20 Brazilian designers is being held at a new venue: the Villa Lobos Park.

"Brazilian fashion continues to show a fresher outlook, a lighter way of seeing things and this has something to do with our DNA," SPFW's creative director Paulo Borges, told a press conference.

"It has something to do with colors, transparency, lightness and joy. What is the DNA of Brazilians? There is much talk of happiness and I strongly believe in this. It is a trend," he added.

The Osklen label will get the show rolling with a presentation hosted by a leading art gallery in this huge metropolitan area of 20 million people, the financial hub of booming Brazil, the world's sixth largest economy.

Ronaldo Fraga, Tufi Duek, Ellus, Joao Pimenta, Colcci, Alexandre Herchcovitch, Forum and Reinaldo Lourenço will then take center stage with presentations at the Villa Lobos Park venue.

Organizers have also altered the show's dates to adjust it to the international calendar and give designers more time to roll out their collections.

Thus, the SPFW's winter collection will from now on take place in October-November instead of January and the summer collection in March-April instead of June.

Borges explained that the aim was to extend the interval between the launch of collections and delivery to retailers in a bid to "professionalize" the industry.

"The Brazilian fashion industry is young.

The Brazilian economy is young and only recently found a way of establishing a world presence," he said, noting that 95 percent of the country's fashion output was for domestic consumption.

According to TexBrasil, the Brazilian Fashion Industry Export Program, this Latin American giant is the fifth-largest textile and fourth-biggest apparel producer in the world.