SPFW N60: Brazil’s runway as a global and local map

Written By Anna Beatriz

Once centered on São Paulo’s iconic catwalks, Brazilian fashion has outgrown its urban shell, and this season, it came home to itself. The 60th edition of São Paulo Fashion Week (SPFW N60) was more than a milestone; it was a rediscovery. From the Bahia coastline to the forests of Pará and the streets of Tokyo, the week unfolded as a cartography of style, where identity met imagination.

Fashion, after all, has always been about place, and this season, Brazil wore its geography on its sleeve.

The World Inside Brazil

This season's SPFW has been a map of emotions, with each designer translating a region, a feeling, or a memory into fabric. Meninos Rei revisited the Recôncavo Baiano — a tapestry of African heritage and Afro-Brazilian pride — with vibrant prints and symbolic accessories that carried the rhythm of Bahia in every seam.

David Lee looked East, not for escape but reflection. His “Nascente” collection channeled Japanese minimalism through kimono-cut jackets and fluid tailoring, serene, structured, and modern. FOZ built the fictional “Povoado Poesia,” an imagined town woven from patchwork, ribbons, and northeastern craft, blurring nostalgia with fantasy.

Each runway became a destination. Each look, a passport stamp.

The Six Trends Defining the Season

As Terra summarized, six strong currents defined the SPFW runways: less fleeting trends, more aesthetic movements.

The White Shirt Renaissance: crisp, architectural, and now endlessly versatile.

Wide-Leg Freedom: trousers that redefine comfort with couture structure.

Printed Dresses: storytelling in motion, from Bahia florals to graphic abstractions.

Hip Volumes: sculptural silhouettes that celebrate form rather than hide it.

The Red Rush: accents of passion and protest woven into minimal palettes.

Statement Accessories: not decoration, but punctuation.

The takeaway? Brazilian fashion is shedding excess but keeping emotion. The silhouettes may loosen, but the stories remain taut.

Revisiting the Past, Designing the Future

It's hard to speak of the past without glancing at the future, and this year many designers made sure to highlight that. They kept their eyes on what’s coming without forgetting what has been. Amir Slama, celebrating 35 years in fashion, returned to his archives, only to rebuild them through the lens of sustainability. His research through the Amazon led to pieces that blend sensuality, ecology, and nostalgia, proof that innovation doesn’t always mean invention.

Marcelo Sommer’s UÓ line, stitched from thrifted fabrics and vintage sportswear, echoed the growing movement of up-cycling. It’s the new luxury: not about excess, but awareness.

Where once SPFW spoke of glamour, today it whispers of grounding.

The New Language of Luxury

High fashion in Brazil is shifting, away from exclusivity, toward authenticity. The most coveted commodity on the runway wasn’t a logo, but a story. Craftsmanship, sustainability, and cultural lineage now hold the same prestige once reserved for imported silks.

Designers are no longer content to imitate Paris or Milan. They’re rewriting what Brazilian sophistication looks like, and it smells of sea salt, red clay, and patchouli.

Beyond the Runway

SPFW N60 proved that fashion here isn’t merely seasonal — it’s cyclical, ancestral, emotional. As Brazil steps into its next fashion chapter, it carries the wisdom of its past and the ambition of its future.

In this edition, style became geography, and clothes became culture.

High fashion, once confined to the catwalk, now walks barefoot, through Bahia’s sands, through Amazon rain, through memory and reinvention.

XOXO, Fashion Stock Market

Cover Photo: SPFW N60: inspirado em férias de verão, Bold Strap mescla looks com efeito molhado e vida noturna — Foto: Fabiano Battaglin/gshow https://gshow.globo.com/comportamento/moda/noticia/spfw-n60-da-bahia-a-asia-veja-os-lugares-que-inspiraram-os-desfiles-desta-edicao.ghtml

Editor: Felicity Field

Anna Beatriz
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