LOOKING FOR TALENT WE ENDED UP IN THE MIDDLE OF THE 'GREAT MADNESS'
February 21, 2005
It should be known by now, the EVErs are always on the move in their search for talent. Some of them like to get messed up with jetlag, frantic deadlines and appointments, many different spoken languages; they physically rip off entire pages of the World Atlas and put them in the blender, all at once; after this, they call their travel agent and let the poor thing deal with hallucinatory itineraries naming India after Japan after the US… some other EVErs take it definitely easier: ONE place, ONE love.
This is the case and the ONE place is Brazil: after barely a month (let’s say 2…) to adjust to the jetlag (3 hours), to learn how to walk, dance and move head down (south of the equator, you know, down under.. the phenomenon is called capoera, though) and to digest the cultural gap (c’mon!!) the reason of our trip came up: Fashion Rio and SPFW, more specifically the projects dedicated to the young lions of the carioca and paulista fashion design: Rio ModaHype and Amni Hot Spot. But we will talk it about it later; however after so much fashion we needed to rest, so a couple of weeks went by and slowly but surely we got swallowed in a hot, loud, colourful, sens(X)ual wave called LA GRANDE FOLIA: Rio de Janeiro Carnival. Oh boy. you may have seen it on TV, but it is nothing, nothing like the real thing. You will perpetually dip in a state of stupor and drunkenness, partially because from sun up to sun down is stupidly iced cold beer, from sundown to sun up is caipirinha; partially because by accidentally focusing on the movements of the ‘mulatas’ sambaing (just forget what the NY Times said about the girls of Ipanema), their hips and feet will challenge your vision, making you seasick; then add loads of music and colours everywhere, literally explosions of them.
Everything starts on Friday, you wear on your devil or angel wings (in our case, but anything goes really) following migrations of people to different parts of the city: here you’ll find a so called bloco, a bunch of percussionists (the bateria) and singers, possessed by the Orixas (syncretic divinities from the African culture), hypnotizing with their repetitive beats millions of people surrounding them as close as it gets; from one bloco to the next, enduring fatigue and sleep just nourishing oneself with the pure energy produced by this harmonic chaos, you make it to Sunday and Monday, the days of the Parade in the Sambodromo, the championship of the Samba Schools. We were there, not barely assisting, but being part of the show, we walked the Sapucai avenue for all its lenght (about 1 mile), singing and dancing, feeling under our feet a warm trembling, caused by 400 percussionist, 200 loudspeakers and 50.000 people singing along.
The aesthetic effect is amazing, about 2000 people dressed up in very different costumes, all harmonically blended together. There is so much creativity in the air, such a perfect fusion of colours, shapes, fabrics, concepts, music, lights, happiness, seriousness, commitment… all of a sudden, in the middle of the parade, I had a feeling of dejà vù, I felt that emotion already, I felt that spirit, that beating soul made with a fusion of the same ingredients: it was on ITS catwalk!! Somebody could say that a carnival costume is nothing like a fashion design outfit, and I agree to a certain extent, but instead of looking at the differences, I look at the similarities: the need and will to transform and decorate the human body, the search of beauty, the attempt to sum up inspiration, concepts, materials, shape in a single creation, the joy of expressing emotions through a piece of fabric, the global vision of mixing sounds, lights and colours to obtain a breathtaking effect. It is all there.
Maybe we’ve found the next location for ITS?
