41ª SPFW: our colored cotton by the hands of João Pimenta

The colored cotton attended the 41st São Paulo Fashion Week – SPFW, one of the biggest fashion weeks in the world, thanks to the partnership of Cotton Natural Color with the fashion designer João Pimenta who used sustainable raw material to create your Summer 2017 collection.

The collection consists of 41 looks. The clothing made with knits and plane fabrics of organic colored cotton from Paraíba and handcrafts with fillet and fishing-net lace were provided by Natural Cotton Color, that produces and exports clothes and accessories to USA, France, Japan, Dubai and Australia.

Francisca Vieira presented the plume, of the species that is already born with the color, when invited the designer to make a collection for the brand (launched in March at Expo West California – USA). From this meeting came the designer’s idea of also making his own collection. “The goal was to give more visibility to the colored cotton by the hands of one of the most creative and sensitive Brazilian designers of our time,” the CEO of Natural Color Cotton.

The collection mentions the regimentals and uniforms workers to strengthen timelessness in contrast to the fast fashion system. “You have to respect the clothes which dresses. It takes commitment to durability. The uniform also is the genderless dress apex, concept always present in my work, “said the creative designer.

João Pimenta traveled for the first time to the Northeast of Brazil. In January he embarked upon the Paraíba dry region to know the entire production chain. In Tavora, visited the settlement where families grow, harvest and get benefits from the certified organic colorful cotton by the Biodynamic Institute – IBD. In the hinterland, São Bento, met spinning, weaving and artisans. And also received recycled cotton yarn with PET bottles and fabrics used in the production of hammocks from Santa Luzia Redes e Decoração (Santa Luzia Hammocks and Decoration).

In his journey through Brazil’s Northeast, the designer found that the city of Campina Grande, in the 1930s, was the world’s largest exporter of cotton, the so-called White Gold – only surpassed by Liverpool in England. Today, the state of Paraiba stands for the production of colored cotton developed for 20 years by the Embrapa (Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation) technology and innovation. “The production still small, but the ecological concept is strong, especially for the global market: the production of mesh compared to that common dyed industry generates savings of 87.5% of water, a valuable resource increasingly scarce in the world”, explains Francisca.

 

The designer landed in Juazeiro do Norte, at Ceará, and in the way of Paraiba did the same path of the Tropeiros Borborema (Borborema Troopers), group of men carrying voluminous cotton bags for several and exhaustive days. “These uniforms of the fashion show they could be this troop´s wear,” said João Pimenta. It also highlights some embroidery. Other references are embroideries that recall the carcasses of animals on the road and also crosses the garments of Lampião gang. In some parts there is reference to the northeastern  artist Bispo do Rosário. Some pieces were dyed with colors ranging from yellow to red – the heat and earth energy – creativity fuel. Everything is revealed in this collection as a result of the designer’s encounter with a profound and welcoming Brazil.

Collection speaks of strength, resistance, austerity without losing tenderness.

On the catwalk there was the presence of gold disabled athletes medalists in world championships and Pan American  to the sound of the Bahia´s orchestra fruit of Neojibá project, which teaches people to play and fabricate plastic based instruments.