CGTN America. Design Focus on Foreign Consumers in Sao Paulo Fashion Week, 2015. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X_CmVyQjpLU.
This video and interview shows the power that Sao Paulo has in the fashion community. Of course Paris and other famous cities are above it in terms of Fashion prestige, but the level at which the designers are trying to out perform their western competitors and succeeding is incredible. An interview with several models show how Sau Paulo is the Latin American gateway to the Fashion community. The fashion brands in Brazil see that it is difficult to breach that next level of wealth and into the larger fashion world. Brands and designers alike see the opportunities that the fashion week brings to them and they want all of the press, they want to show the world that they can compete on a global stage, not just in Brazil. The later half of the video focuses on the brand Osklen and its founder. He says that he has had a difficult time achieving that next level because of the economic difficulties in Brazil. He then goes to say that the brand is getting close to reaching that level of creativity and economic balance so that in the future they may rise to the top.
Sao Paulo Fashion week, and the reason why I chose this video, is to show that this process take time, but we can see by the words of everyone interviewed that their hopes and dreams are high. Just like the suitcase traders that participate in this industry, they hope to become the next best thing. Not only do the designers in Sao Paulo feel this way, they inspire the suitcase traders that see the fashions play out as middle class aspirations in telenovelas such as Windeck. The cultural connections that Sao Paulo fashion brings to Latin America are incredible, being that is it the only fashion capital in the area. Not only does it elevate Lusophone countries with fashion and style it spreads these economic aspirations across those same countries.