Note from BW of Brazil: Last week BW of Brazil brought you brief coverage the latest edition of the São Paulo Fashion Week, one of the two main annual fashion events in the country and, as usual, it showcased a spectacle full of models who looked as if they came directly from Paris, London and Rome, even with the African theme of the new designs. As has been regularly featured here, “blackouts” on Brazilian runways are nothing new. So now the second major fashion event of the year, Fashion Rio takes center stage and for the second year in row, black models make a statement by parading topless in public (see video of act below). In an act in celebration of the November Month of Black Consciousness as well as a new agreement designed to feature at least a few more models of color, black models perhaps captured more attention in a short act than they normally get during the near week of the fashion event. So, again, there is an agreement that 10% of the models featured in the show with be of African descent, but let’s not get too excited. Why? 1) 10% is still quite a meager quota for an Afro-Brazilian (preto/black + pardo/brown) population estimated at 100 million and, 2) A 10% quota was promised a few years ago but was not honored at the actual show. Let’s just wait and see what happens.
Models remove their clothes in an act for black consciousness in Fashion Rio
About 40 models took part in the act in front of the Píer Mauá. First night of parades of the season takes place on Wednesday.
by Giovana Sanchez
A group of about 40 artists and models took part in an act in the Zona Portuária, in front of Píer Mauá (in Rio de Janeiro), where the first night of parades of the season autumn/winter Fashion Rio will take place late on Wednesday, November 7). According to director of the group Palco dos Mil Sonhos (meaning Stage of a Thousand Dreams), Leonidas Lopes, the presentation is a celebration of the Month of Black Consciousness (November).
The presentation came a day after the signing of a commitment by the company putting on the event, Luminosidade, and the Public Defender Rio de Janeiro, recommending a quota of 10% of black models on the catwalk.
“The term of the commitment is a celebration of a step that can bring a space that is still not there in Rio. The aesthetic design sold by fashion does not meet the proposed use of the majority of the population,” said Moses Alcuña, public policy coordinator of the NGO Educafro.
Modelos negros protestam na Fashion Rio
Source: G1
If there is 100 million people of African decent in Brazil …would it not be practical to have your own fashion shows, beauty contests etc …instead of always begging to be included ….embraced by the white man …..I don’t understand it …Stockholm syndrome in overdrive
Akenatuon if you knew something about Brazilian culture we don’t understand those guettos of race and those constructions of different white and black culture.
Brazilian are proud of their African European and indigineous ancestry. But in the end of the day has this wish of being a blonde white rich European / American as in the movies.
I think to fight for our right and our need to be physically represented it is the most important thing to unify the nation.
Stocolm syndrome has beyonce rihana Halle Barry and all your supposely black ladies who never ever use their African hair, their African nose and most important those beauty ladies have not the black skin colour of most of us.
Inclusion is a much more beautiful path. For Brazilians ….I couldn’t speak for anglophonic audience. But I can for Brazilian experience of race, culture and nationalism.
It was an amazing protest. Straight to the point. We don’t want Afro studies or Afro history. We want the Afro history inside the Brazilian history.
We want inclusion and equality.
Fuck inclusion and equality! Stop begging to be accepted by the whiteman! Create your fashion shows! Create your own shit!
Fashion (worldwide) has always utilized African resources or motif to push forward. Black models should get their own and then some…