Fashion Rio – Eco Survivor Chic Rules

Anyone who suggests that Brazil has little to add in the global world of style should have spent Monday in Rio de Janeiro, where two cleverly crafted and artfully staged shows spoke loudly about our generation’s obsession with ecology and the threat our own species represents to the planet on which we live.

There were two contrasting collections, one by Redley, chock full of prints and staged in a tropical rainforest and the other print-free and austere by Mara Mac presented in the tented city of Marina Gloria, where all but four of the shows in this season of Fashion Rio are staged. But both spoke about our greatest modern fear – even greater surely than the specter of unemployment in the current downturn – and that is what life will be like if or when the polar ice caps melt.

Neither of these labels could be described as “designer brands,” i.e. an international label embodying one individual’s taste, which made the performances by these high-street brands all the more impressive.

Redley’s creative director Jurgen Oeltjenbrun's vision is surprisingly upbeat. Judging from this Fall 2009 collection, he expects people to party hearty after the ecological apocalypse and, more importantly for fashionistas to look good while doing so.

Staged before noon under the dappled light of the Tijuca rainforest, located, remarkably, as close to Ipanema Beach as the George Washington Bridge is to the West Village, the collection was a wonderfully counter cultural happening inspired by the novel “The Alternative” by William Hedgepeth, a cerebral commentary on Sixties optimism and communal living. Yet the looks that strutted along the leafy catwalk were all about survivor chic: people finding the residue and rags of a civilization and yet still managing to make them into cool clothes.

Made of macramé cuts and rustic fabrics mixed with eco graffiti prints, this show was an optimistic interpretation of the future in a country whose Amazon Forest is the lungs of our globe.

“It’s all about sustainability,” commented Oeltjenbruns, a German whose Portuguese language skills may be limited, but whose sense of what’s relevant and commercial are very much spot on.

Seven hours later before the local fashion top-hitting nomenclature - rival TV style hosts Lilian Pacce and Gloria Maria - Mara Mac presented more survivor's chic but for folks who expect to be able to attend classy dinner parties after global warming has turned the Alps into a muddy hill.

In the half light as the show was starting, one correspondent wondered out loud, “Is this Max Mara or Marky Mark?” But, what hit the red Formica catwalk was neither, but a darkly subtle view of how elegant women can throw together looks from simple fabrics like jersey, cotton felt and wispy wool. Shown in various shades of gray and off-white, the clothes had an international ethnic feel – with lots of drop crotch yet slinky dhoti pants and cunningly well-cut coat dresses, decorated with Japanese texts and symbols.

Arran sweaters so small they looked like scarves and elongated ballet slippers on models that weaved between mini mountains of wood pulp added to the quirky panache of a show that seemed both contemporary and, above all, relevant.

http://www.fashionwiredaily.com/first_word/fashion/article.weml?id=2343