São Paulo Fashion Week

São Paulo Fashion Week (SPFW) adopted the format we know today (its longest-lasting and most successful) in 2001. It inherited its structure – smaller, with fewer participants and taking place with a more traditional frequency – from PhytoErvas Fashion and MorumbiFashion Brasil. 

With each event, the São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro fashion shows have developed a more robust business model, made a name for themselves on the international calendar, and witnessed the rise of new talent. But above all, they have witnessed and shaped changes in customs and values.

This major ethical and aesthetic transformation has led to inclusion playing a stand-out role in recent years. One example took place on the first day of the 26th annual event in 2009, when 20 black models staged a show in Ibirapuera Park to protest the almost complete absence of black and indigenous participants.

In 1993, producer Paulo Borges and cosmetics entrepreneur Cristiana Arcangeli created Phytoervas Fashion, an event that was the precursor to SPFW. There were three days of fashion shows from nine brands including Alexandre Herchcovitch, Fause Haten, and Glória Coelho.

In July 1996, Ibirapuera Park hosted the first Morumbi Fashion Brasil, the new name for São Paulo’s fashion week, with a line-up bringing together 31 brands at a cost of around BRL 600,000. Gisele Bündchen, whose international career was starting to take off, modelled for the brand Zoomp.  

The event held 1998 in became more prominent, and Directv (channel 505) broadcast the fashion shows live (20 in the spring-summer 1999 edition) from tents at the Jockey Club. 

The presence of the international media grew and British model Kate Moss was the big name in spring-summer 1999/2000, appearing for Ellus. The couple Ashton Kutcher and Demi Moore, both American actors, attended the Colcci show.

One of Brazil’s first internationally recognized fashion creators, Zuzu Angel, mother of the activist Stuart Angel, who was kidnapped and killed by the civil-military dictatorship (1964-1985), was the theme of Ronaldo Fraga’s collection 'Who Killed Zuzu Angel', in the spring-summer 2002 edition. 

One of the most iconic SPFW shows was the one marking Jum Nakao’s farewell, where models with Playmobil-like plastic wigs showcased an all-paper collection, which was torn apart at the end of the show. This was Nakao’s way of questioning the direction of the industry.

The ever-controversial Ronaldo Fraga departed from the norm of using young, slim bodies by bringing in seniors and children to address abandonment and showcase his trends based on the play ‘Giz.’ 

The 26th annual SPFW was marked by an investigation initiated by the Public Prosecutor’s Office and those in charge of the event after the daily newspaper Folha de S. Paulo reported that of the 344 models who appeared in 2008, only eight were black. 

SPFW signed a Conduct Adjustment Agreement that committed it to having 10% black, Afro-descendant, or indigenous models in each show. 

At SPFW N42, the designer Ronaldo Fraga presented a cast of 28 transgender models, including Veronika from the band Veronika Decides to Die and Carol Marra, to showcase his collection ‘El Día Que Me Quieras: A Song, a Dress, Many Stories.’

Brothers Emicida, a musician, and Evandro Roque de Oliveira (known as Fióti), a designer, debuted at SPFW with their brand LAB Laboratório Fantasma. 

In 2018, the giant IMM Participações, partner of events such as Rock in Rio, Cirque du Soleil, and Rio Open, bought 50.1% of the shares in Latin America’s largest fashion week from Luminosidade, a branch of the Inbrands group – owner of Ellus, Salinas, Richards, and VR. 

SPFW N53 launched the SPFW+IN.PACTOS Festival – Creativity, Fashion, Art, Sustainability, Innovation, Knowledge, proposing reflections on the changes necessary to achieve sustainable development goals by 2030. 

A few virtual shows were maintained, and it attracted a slew of influencers, artists, and even politicians, such as councilwoman Erika Hilton and indigenous leader Sonia Guajajara, who became the Minister of Indigenous Peoples in 2023.

The focus was on diversity, representation, inclusion, and a strong influence of Afro-Brazilian cultures.

SPFW N55 was hybrid: 31 in-person shows and 10 broadcast via video. 

Just like the previous year, the Komplexo Tempo in the Mooca neighborhood remained the main venue. Senac Lapa Faustolo, Shopping Iguatemi São Paulo, and other historic locations also hosted fashion shows and parallel events.