Favela fashion hits the runway
- Filed under: Entertainment, Famous, Fashion
- Date: Jun 18,2007
Forget about the favela which is the Brazilian equivalent of a shanty town think positive and think that Favela is the new chic on the runway. Not as expected but it rocks the runway during the Sao Paulo Fashion Week. Where do they get their designs and ideas? They design and produce clothes and accessories by recycling jeans and patches of fabric donated to the project. The idea of developing the project worked out so well that the clothes and accessories produced by the seamstresses and embroiderers from Paraisopolis have already even been exported to Lebanon, Portugal, Spain and Italy.
Since it was founded in 1993, the Brazilian group has worked to engage young people from the poorest shanty towns of Rio, drawing them away from a life of gangs and drugs.
It has done this most famously through music - a mix of reggae, pop, hip hop and rock along with distinctive Brazilian percussion, providing role models for young black men in particular, where few existed before.
It has been a remarkable tale of success, despite the most difficult of circumstances.
Their story has been told in the acclaimed film Favela Rising, they have played alongside the Rolling Stones on Copacabana beach, and in venues across the world, from the Barbican in London, to New York’s Carnegie Hall. Read more on Favela Fashion
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