Friday 13 August 2010

PURE Exhibition... The Brazilians Have Arrived!












The PURE Exhibition kicked off last Sunday, at Olympia in Kensington and I was lucky enough to find myself inside the vast exhibition halls where it was very busy. All 950 brands at the Trade Show are supposedly hand picked for their quality and representative of the middle to high end fashion market. Amongst the exhibitors were some exciting and colourful Brazilian labels represented by ABIT/Texbrasil.  Brazil is so much in the news today what with the Olympics 2016, the next World Cup and the Sao Paulo Fashion Weeks making the headlines.  And fashion wise there are some amazing designers emerging from this beautiful country including designer labels such as Alessa.

Particularly outstanding amongst the Brazilians was Totem, with bright and brilliant prints, and sexy, glamourous swimwear from Despi. Also of interest was Natural Cotton Color, a label that is both eco and fair trade: the cotton is grown especially so that it does not require dying or bleaching chemicals and much of the detailing is provided by prisoners who earn days off their sentence for their work.

Andre Ungaratto is an unknown label in the UK but it's homage to hippy chic was very popular with buyers from Europe.

Totem stand at Pure












What caught my eye was this vibrant and structured dress by Ursula Felix.
























Overall the three days proved an interesting insight into the fashion industry with catwalk shows and experts on stage giving talks such as the 'buy your way through the recession'.  A great opportunity for anyone wanting to work in the fashion industry!
Kudzai