MARIAZINHA BOCCALETTI

The gliding of the scissors on the fabric, without resorting to pencil and paper, just to the clients’ wishes, revealed the talent of Mariazinha Boccaletti, or Maria Lulu. She relied on nothing but her own sensibility to match the fabric to the client’s personality. At this showing, the Memory Center of the Unicamp tells a part of her history, contained in a photographic collection that consists of 1020 images, taken between 1958 and 1992. The highlights are photos of the fashion shows done by Mariazinha at the Campinas Tennis Club and the Weekly Artistic Culture Club during the 1970’s and the 1980’s, of social events, winners of beauty pageants, and also of those chosen as “Campinas’ top ten most ellegant”, dressed in her creations.

Still surrounded by scissors, fabrics, threads and ideas, Madame Bocalletti passed away on June 10, 1992, aged 78. She had been one of Campinas’ most important fashion designers between the decades of 1960 and 1980, a favorite of the local elite, in a moment that saw the establishment of the first high fashion maisons and the arrival of prêt-á-porter clothing – which gave impulse to the fashion industry in Brazil.