Handred balances drama and precision at RioFW

At Rio Fashion Week, Handred founder André Namitala used the idea of akashic records — a field of memory accessed through meditation — as the starting point for a collection concerned with what is concealed and revealed.

Baroque tension shaped the clothes: light against shadow, restraint against excess. Dense colour and layered styling met carefully controlled construction in leather, taffeta, gazar, wool, velvet and cotton.

Manual interventions were essential to the surface. Embroidery, pleating and ceramic applications developed with the SSSopro studio gave the collection material depth without losing the contemporary ease associated with the Rio label.

A live performance by Companhia de Ópera da Lapa, conducted by Cyrano Sales of Rio's Theatro Municipal, heightened the drama. Yet the strongest message was technical: Handred's atmosphere rested on increasingly precise atelier work.