Project title: Amazon Flavor - Brazil
Selected for scholarships 2009-2010, Course of Fashion Acessories and Shoe Design, School of Fashion, IED Rome

The brazilian cuisine is well known worldwide for its abundance of vegetables and fruits and spices, making the brazilian flavor exotic and tasty. Brazil is an enormous country, and each region has its own unique culture and cuisine according to its tradition and history.

In the South of Brazil the cuisine has a touch of Europe, for the European immigration to support on the coffee plantation fields in the end of the XIX century. In the Northeast of Brazil the cuisine is a mix of Portuguese and African, for the Portuguese colonization in 1500, which began on that region, and the huge amount of slaves broughten from Africa.  In the other hand, the North of Brazil, where the Amazon vegetation is prevailing, has a cuisine entirely indigenous influenced.

When the Portuguese discovered America there were more than six hundred indian tribes in the brazilian area. The main vegetable used for the feeding of these tribes was the manioc. The indians would handle the manioc in very different ways, forming many kinds of food. The cultivation of the manioc has around of ten thousand years, and it all started with the indians. The manioc can be a poisoning, so the indians developed varieties. These varieties we can see clearly on the Amazon cuisine, all the typical dishes take the manioc, such as the tapioca, the tucupí (fermented poisoning liquid from the manioc), the maniçoba (the manioc leaves grinded), and the vatapá ( a stew with few vegetables, shrimp or fish, and manioc dough).

The North region is surrounded by rivers, the main one is the Amazon river, which provides a diversity of fauna. Whence we can find different types of fishes served in dishes, the most known is the pirarucú.

As for myself, I was born in Brasília, the capital of Brazil. I was one of the firsts of my family to be born out of the North region. Therefore the Amazon customs has been always part of my life, it’s in my roots, it’s part of my origins. Besides having a huge admiration for the culture, it’s the one I most relish.

Taking all these facts from the Amazon cuisine, I created a small collection with accessory, shoes and clothes inspired on this theme. We can see many organic shapes, fish scale, vivid and strong colors, all the elements that transmit the Amazon flavor. Bon appétit!