Creation, work, and passion: the creative showcase of Casa de Criadores

For this 56th edition of Casa de Criadores, the event that continues to promote independent creators in Brazilian fashion, returns to the Centro Cultural São Paulo, in the Liberdade neighborhood. In total, 33 fashion shows will take place, including 2 comebacks and 3 debuts. Beyond clothing on a runway, the gathering establishes itself as a scene of experimentation, memory, and politics — carrying in each piece narratives, dreams, and aesthetics.

For André, it is there that a “showcase of Brazilian creativity” is created, with space for voices that challenge standards and re-signify the time of creation, as proposed by Fábia Bercsek with her circular design. Names like ALEBRITOxStudio115 and Casa Paganini evoke, respectively, authorial freedom and sensitive theatricality as forms of resistance. From the ancestry of NALIMO's collection to NotEqual's activism, through the ecological aspect of Studio Ellias Kaleb and the memories of UMS458-LL, each brand present highlights the living and politicized process that Brazilian independent fashion continues to carry out, alive and present.

We had a brief chat with the project's director, André Hidalgo, and with seven other designers about their motivations, desires, and expectations for this edition. Check out below:

André Hidalgo:

NOTTHESAMO: With over 27 years in the project, what moments do you consider fundamental milestones in the history of CdC? And what motivates you to continue leading the project after so long?

André: There have been many historical moments and memorable fashion shows over the years, many of them etched forever in my memory. Every name we launched or that passed through the event left its mark. Some fashion shows were so powerful that they created true collective experiences of catharsis, where the audience and creators lived something unique and transformative there, live, on the runway.

I also cannot fail to mention the spaces we occupied, many of them architectural landmarks in the city of São Paulo, such as the Centro Cultural São Paulo, where the event takes place today, or iconic places like the Vale do Anhangabaú, the Praça das Artes, the Pacaembu Stadium, among others. Each place helped us tell the story of Casa de Criadores in dialogue with the city.

What motivates me to continue is, first, this legacy built with a lot of work and passion, which I see as a significant contribution to Brazilian fashion. Secondly, the emergence of new generations of creators who are increasingly powerful, politicized, articulate, and consistent, transforming the very concept of fashion, uniting creation, social impact, and new possibilities for the sector in Brazil and the world.

NTS: What are the main expectations for this edition?

A: The return to the Centro Cultural São Paulo, without a doubt, is one of the highlights. The CCSP is a symbolic and fundamental space for the city, not only for its fluid architecture, with multiple entrances, ramps, and gardens, but for what it represents: a place of meetings, exchanges, coexistence, and creativity.

It is this environment that enhances the spirit of Casa de Criadores. When we gather students, fashion professionals, journalists, influencers, artists, and the general public, the event becomes a great showcase of the creativity of the city and the country. Fashion, design, music, and culture intersect and become tools for inclusion and strengthening the creative economy.

Moreover, there is always anticipation for the debuts. New brands arrive bringing oxygen to the event and to Brazilian independent fashion, revealing other narratives, other aesthetics, and new ways of thinking about clothing.

NTS: How does Casa de Criadores intend to continue renewing and supporting new voices in fashion?

A: We are advancing on several fronts. Besides the event, we are launching a cooperative of designers from Brazilian independent fashion, which will be a game-changer. I can't disclose all the details yet, but it is a robust project that includes, among other actions, an acceleration program for independent brands, offering real tools for development and professionalization.

We are also working on a training program focused on the environmental and social impacts of fashion. We want designers to deeply understand the role their creations play in the world and to develop authorial, innovative work that has a positive impact, both socially and environmentally. This project will be a significant milestone for Brazilian fashion, of that you can be sure.

NTS: What do you see as the future of independent fashion in Brazil?

A: The future of independent fashion in Brazil depends mainly on a market more committed to investments. It is no longer possible to romanticize creativity without ensuring structure, resources, and real support for those who are creating. It is necessary to invest in professional training, access to tools, technological innovation, communication, and also in business structuring. Only then can we transform good ideas into strong, sustainable brands.

Innovation needs to go hand in hand with solid training, awareness of socio-environmental impacts, and a creative vision. Without consistent investments in these areas, independent fashion risks remaining restricted to niches when it actually has the potential for so much more.

Casa de Criadores is attentive to all of this and wants to be an active part of this transformation. Besides revealing talents, our goal is to foster an ecosystem that values professional development, positive impact, and the construction of consistent brands that engage with new times and the urgent issues the world presents us. This is the future we work for every day. And it is a future that needs to be built collectively, with the support of all sectors. Fashion has always been political in itself, but now it is time for it to also learn to do politics.

DESIGNERS:

Fábia Bercsek

NOTTHESAMO: What motivated you to create this collection based on circular design? And how was the creative process?

Fábia: The main motivation for creating this collection arose from the urgency to re-signify the relationship between fashion, time, and consumption. In a world saturated with excess and waste, I have been proposing a new perspective — clothing as a living language, carrying memory, history, and affection. Circular design, in this context, is not just a sustainable practice, but also a poetic and political act of reconstruction.

The "WORLD EXPO 2025" reinforces this perspective through creative upcycling, where common pieces, often considered disposable, are transformed into unique creations. These “banal” garments gain new layers — manual, artistic, and conceptual — and become vehicles of expression. Each piece is a living organism, rebuilt with a new purpose.

The creative process, as always, is deeply intuitive and sensory. I don't start from a fixed plan, but from a state of active listening and sensitivity to my surroundings. Everything I live, feel, and absorb becomes part of the process — from everyday images to emotional experiences. I am driven both by intentional visual references and by spontaneous discoveries, those that emerge by chance and seem to “choose me.” I like to think that I let destiny guide the path, transforming random encounters into creative starting points. I sift through fabrics, details, memories, and with this, I compose a kind of poetic collage that brings the pieces to life.

NTS: What does it mean for you to return to Casa de Criadores by opening the event?

F: Returning to Casa de Criadores to open the 56th edition of the event is, for me, a symbolic moment of renewal, celebration, and affirmation of identity. It is like reopening a cycle, but now with a more intense creative maturity, a vision even more connected to my artistic truths and the mission of the brand.

FÁBIA BERCSEK® is a hybrid space where art, fashion, poetry, and performance meet. Being at Casa de Criadores is occupying a space that values experimentation, authenticity, and critical thinking, everything that has guided my work from the beginning. And opening the event carries symbolic weight: it is like announcing a new phase, not just for the brand, but also for the creative scene itself, which reinvents itself with each edition.

I feel that this return is laden with meaning. The fashion show is almost a metaphor for my journey: a living collage of past, present, and possible futures. Returning to the runway, in this context, reaffirms that it is possible to create fashion with soul, with speech. It is to occupy, once again, a place where creation resists — and inspires.

ALEBRITOxStudio115

NOTTHESAMO: You have gone through very different experiences from Alexander McQueen to Ginger. How have these experiences influenced your current view of independent fashion?

ALE: Each place is an experience! Alexander McQueen is something very magical, because you see things happening very easily, and you see that everything is possible, both in modeling, fabric, fashion show, casting, everything is very possible! And everything is meticulous as well. So I learned a lot.

And at Ginger, Marina and I had a very cool match; she let me have a poetic license, very free to create.

I believe that having gone through Ellus, spending four years at the forefront of the brand, taking care of E-Commerce, fashion shows, wholesale... gave me a lot of experience to create and respect the DNA of each brand. So, even though my DNA is quite different from the DNA of Ginger, for instance, I think that a good designer can capture the essence of the brand, improve it, and refine it through experience. And that was what happened at Ginger.

Ellus was a school for me because it was the first brand I worked for when I returned from my training at Saint Martins in London.

I opened my brand with Casa de Criadores, and in 2016 I was invited by Adriana Bozon to do Ellus; after that, I went to McQueen, then returned and stayed at Ginger, and now I am focused on my personal projects.

NTS: What excites you the most about this reunion with Casa de Criadores?

A: Casa de Criadores, for me, opened the doors to everything. It is where I truly showcase my work, my portfolio, where I do what I believe. I can express myself without worrying about the DNA of other brands; it is where I respect my brand and my name. I do, as much as possible, what I believe and what I think is feasible.

I love doing fashion shows; I am passionate about it! I think it keeps me alive, and I love working with what I love! It is so gratifying after delivering a fashion show that I believe only those who love and do truly understand.

Regarding the reunion, this is already the second edition I've returned to. I did the last edition, and now it is the second edition after five years away from CDC. For me, it's been very good because I'm returning to show what my work truly is after having gone through all these brands and experiences. And there's also a maturity there; I am very grateful to André and the entire Casa de Criadores team for believing in my work and allowing me to do what I love.

Through Casa de Criadores, I can express myself as a designer, expressing my art as a designer!

Casa Paganini

NOTTHESAMO: You say "Raízes" is a spectacle. What do you want to provoke in the audience with this presentation?

Casa Paganini: I want to provoke in the audience the idea of meticulous fashion, made with care, respecting processes. Many of the techniques present are generational, passed down from mother to child, which takes time to be built. This idea of time starts from manual work, to the models' movements, to the live instrumental soundtrack. Spoiler alert, haha.

NTS: How was it to balance manual and sustainable processes with the idea of creating something grand, almost theatrical?

CP: I must confess, quite simply. I think that manual processes are already theatrical by their very nature; the act of weaving a filet lace dress, for example, is for me like poetry in motion that takes weeks to be written.

When I say that my fashion is theatrical, I don't just refer to the spectacle itself. But rather to the entire tangle of movements that precedes the construction of a piece. Sometimes I joke that our work here in the studio is like an orchestra. The movements are synchronized. If one makes a mistake, everyone makes a mistake; if one gets it right, everyone gets it right.

NotEqual

NOTTHESAMO: The collection stems from the circus universe as resistance. How did you transform this theme into pieces that provoke and converse with the present?

NotEqual: We think of the circus theme beyond aesthetic iconography, but also in its sociocultural presence. We looked at the freak shows of the early twentieth century and how figures/characters were built from the spectacularity of the "exotic," and also how these itinerant artist communities lived in their entirety after the ring disassembled. We have drawn a lot from Benjamin de Oliveira and the political representation that comes from acting as counterculture.

Today, we see the circus in the streets, at traffic lights, reclaiming that public space in a performative way — but without losing its characteristic of cultural guerrilla.

With this, the clothing on the runway will present itself with many layers, sometimes in transparencies emphasizing the construction. In partnership with Tear Têxtil, we explored distressed and printed denim in contrast to the exuberance of brocade and damask fabrics, referring to illusion through fantasy.

NTS: The collection mixes theatricality and politics. For you, what is the power of fashion as a language of resistance?

NE: Here at NotEqual, the clothing is already designed so that the corporeality that the usage gives it the form, and not the inverse.

So, thinking about the circus, which in its costumes subverts classic proportions creating new silhouettes, we created the collection to question standards, since the political action of a black brand comes from its birth, it is a positioning against an imposed system.

Studio Ellias Kaleb

NOTTHESAMO: What inspired you to look at extinct and endangered animals as a starting point for the collection?

Studio Ellias Kaleb: In our brand, we always seek inspiration from elements of nature: the aesthetics of flowers, trees, fungi, and birds. It is something that always awakens in me and has always awakened me to create fashion. This time, I decided to draw inspiration from animals that no longer exist and those that are being destroyed.

There is a question of misdirected human power, that instead of caring for nature, ends up destroying and bringing this sense of urgency that things end. And I want to take advantage of this moment in fashion, this door we have, to show, speak, and bring this immediacy of contemplation that things end if we don’t take care.

And that everything in life needs care, needs cleanliness, needs to be treated with importance, especially because we are part of it too. We are a bit of every animal too, a bit of every creature, every tree, every plant. It is as if the human being itself were a compilation of animals. So, I see that we are a reflection of nature and the universe.

With this, subjectively, we will present these connections through performance, through fashion, taking advantage of this space to dialogue, to speak, and to bring this reminder of the nature that surrounds us — and of which we are also a part of this great link.

NTS: The collection speaks about urgency and instinct. How do these ideas transform into fashion?

SEK: The collection is as if it were a great cauldron with a mix of visual elements, sensitive elements, invisible elements, those that we do not see but feel.

Some types of animals, for example, can see colors that we cannot, like bees. Or whales that can feel much more than we can.

This collection is not intended to provide an answer per se, but to bring respect, an appreciation of this entire universe around us, trying to bring a connection.

UMS458-LL

NOTTHESAMO: UMS 458-LL always works as a major ongoing project. What can we expect from new layers or developments in this next chapter?

UMS458-LL: In this new collection, we seek to explore new materials, textures, and colors. We will bring collaborations with airbrush artists, thereby seeking to further strengthen our relationship between fashion and art.

NTS: What was the biggest personal or creative transformation that occurred during the development of this new collection?

UMS: In developing this collection, I revisited some moments of my adolescence, such as the year I lived in Nebraska in 2009, places/people/experiences, and somehow mixed them with more recent memories.

NALIMO:

NOTTHESAMO: What sensation do you hope to evoke in the audience when presenting this first collection?

NALIMO: Casa de Criadores is a fundamental space for independent fashion and for voices that challenge standards. Being here is more than presenting a collection. It is to affirm that fashion can be political, ancestral, and transformative, a stage where stories like mine and so many others gain visibility and strength.

I want the audience to feel that each piece is more than just clothing. It is living memory, it is resistance. I hope to provoke emotion, reflection, and pride, so that everyone realizes that the forest is not a distant landscape, but a collective body that pulses within us. That people leave the fashion show with the feeling that wearing this collection is also an act of struggle, memory, and love.

NTS: Where did the main inspirations for this collection come from?
N: This collection was born from the encounter with the history and legacy of Chico Mendes, the strength of the women and children of the forest, and the trip I took to the Extractive Reserve that bears his name, in Acre. From Chico's family that carries his legacy. Every color, texture, and shape carries the soul from there. It is a collection inspired by activism, ancestry, and the certainty that art can stitch the future.