Crônicas do Brasil | Retalhos Cariocas
Let the Crônicas do Brasil begin. I’ve been to Rio a bunch of times now, but it wasn’t until my third trip to Brasil that I made it to the cidade maravilhosa. It mostly happened out of circumstance but I think that passively I wasn’t in a rush to get to the most famous city in Brasil, because there would probably be mad tourists and that type of bullshit there. I went to São Paulo, Florianopolis, even Brasília before I made it to Rio. When I did, I lost it and couldn’t believe I had fronted like that. The craziest thing was that my first trip there was for less than 36 hours. I bombed around town like a madman with my homie Cassiano on a quest to link up with baile funk legend Mr. Catra. As we rang strange cell number after strange cell number and had more than one cab driver too shook to take us to the hood we were trying to get to, we ended up at Catra’s – a story for another time - the point is I didn’t even barely get to open my eyes to the city but I knew it was one of the illest places on earth.
So perfect to start this series there then. Rio is amazing in so many ways, one of the dopest is that commerce is all over the place. If you want to get your hustle on – the lane is all yours. So for entrepreneurs in fashion, music, and art its possible to pop off through completely unconventional methods, the type of stuff that is more prohibitive in some ways in the US where untraditional commerce is pretty marginalized. A perfect example of this is the Retalhos Cariocas. The Retalhos Cariocas is a group of girls in Barreira do Vasco, a favela in Rio’s Zona Norte, who have created a progressive line of women’s wear that blends traditional Carioca style with global trends. Retalhos translates into “scrap” in Portugues and is the central tenet of the brand. All the materials used are excess fabrics and other items donated from Brasilian garment factories and fashion brands, giving the Retalhos Cariocas a green lean from the ground up. As the company has quickly grown, it has evolved into an organization that employs and trains people from the community and become a rallying point for the entire favela.
The girls behind the brand, Silvinha Oliveira, Vivian Santos, Luciana Meireles, and Daniella Estevez have already gotten shine from Vogue Brasil and Jornal do Brasil and their designs are being rocked by Brasilian celebs like Banda Afro Reggae (the group from the movie Favela Rising) and Fernanda Pontes. I had a chance to meet the girls through some old friends of mine and spoke with Luciana recently about the Retalhos Cariocas movement. I don’t normally cover women’s gear obviously, but I really felt this was an amazing program with amazing people and the type of story that personifies the hustler spirit of the Carioca people. More product shots for the ladies after the jump. Photos by Rafael Moraes and Luciana Meireles. Enjoy!
How did Retalhos Cariocas come together?
Silvinha Oliveira started the project and led the entire process from production to the space and machinery that are used today. She was selling pieces that were produced by her and her mother, the pattern maker Fatima Souza in some exhibitions in Rio de Janeiro. Once in Santa Teresa, one of the most traditional neighborhoods of the city, Silvinha met another designer, Vivian Santos, and they started working together. Six months later, in August 2008, they met Danella Estevez and me through mutual friends. From there we started to disseminate our work more and invest heavily in innovative pieces.
Who started it?
It all started when Silvinha graduated in fashion and decided to build her own brand. Without financial resources but with great motivation and support of the association of residents in the community where she lives, Barreira do Vasco, in the north zone of Rio de Janeiro, Silvinha has a space, machines and donations from companies that keeps donating fashion scraps material from which all the pieces are made.
Who is involved in the group now?
Our main team is composed of five persons. Silvinha Oliveira is the founder and designer. She creates and designs new pieces, she also sews. I do advertising and communication, work with the media and am responsible for our Web pages. Daniella also trained in fashion and is responsible for research in fashion and always brings new trends to our meetings. Fatima is a pattern maker, ends our pieces and is responsible for our new department of costumes. Vivian Santos creates and finishes new accessories such as necklaces and earrings.
What is the group’s mission?
To talk about our mission is always a great satisfaction. This is because we believe that with our products we can do the work that we like and which we believe. Our goal is to use fashion not only as a source of income, but also as a tool for positive change where we live and in other places too, such as using recycled materials, as we do with scrap material and offering professional training for people who hardly have the opportunity through the courses we offer in our area, in the weekends and free for the people of the community.
What are the products the Retalhos Cariocas make?
Our pieces are all produced from donated scrap material by companies that give through the association of residents. We use comfortable and practical materials for daily wear and also stuff for nightlife too. The colors and prints are always very colorful and always come together. We are not afraid to dare and not to use many colors and accessories in the same look regardless of the so famous “dictatorship of fashion.”
Where are they sold?
At the beginning of the project, our products were sold in some traditional fairs in Rio de Janeiro. We found the competition´s pieces monotone, with little variation and no finishing touches. Then we decided to work our uniqueness and sell our pieces in our own space, in our community and invite customers who from different parts of the city to interact with us in our community and in the bazaars on the first Sunday of the month.
What are the prices?
We sell our pieces for affordable prices but enough so that it’s fair to the workforce employed. Compared to the shops that sell excusive piece like we do, they definitely have very high prices, so we try to do the opposite.
Who are the customers?
We have customers from all parts of the city from the south to north, from Patys as we call the rich girls to the girls of the slums, all of those that wants to be different.
What attention has Retalhos Cariocas received from media in Brasil?
Since when we were in the Fashion Rio, the most important event early this year, if only to meet people of the fashion business, we are receiving great attention not only from the specialized media, but also from NGOs (Non-governmental organizations) and projects that have the same philosophy. Everyone is very interested in the use of donated materials in addition to innovative design and colors. The media definitely is a great and powerful channel for dissemination of our philosophy.
Can people outside of Rio buy the Retalhos Cariocas’ products? Or people overseas? How?
Nowadays, we sell only to the city of Rio de Janeiro, but we have buyers from other states and countries in touch. At this time we are building our base so we can soon meet the highest demands. With the increase of our production we will begin this month to work with contractors and we will have the some new seamstresses graduating from our courses.
What are the Retalhos Cariocas’ plans for the future?
We want to increase our production, hire more people, know other countries, but not to become a large corporation. Our main goal is to continue producing unique pieces and paying fair wages. Our plan for the future is for our work to be our livelihood, to make people believe in their goals and achieve them.
It seems like there is a lot of positive energy in the Retalhos Cariocas, can you tell me how it feels do be working with the group?
We always work with joy and know nice people. We know that positive mental energy help us attract people who think positively too. We have a large network of friends we’ve met since we began this work who are also doing projects with the same philosophy and it always becomes very exciting for both sides. We used to say that the coolest of all is that we are part of a group of people that is aware that everything we do is not for money but for art.
For more info on this amazing group go here. A new Retalhos Cariocas website is also set to launch within the next couple weeks. Like I said, more product pics after the jump.
