Penha Maia brings ‘Brutalismo: Corpo urbano’ into central São Paulo

Penha Maia chose the Viaduto Santa Ifigênia — close to her own atelier — for the presentation of ‘Brutalismo: Corpo urbano’. The open setting made the collection visible to people moving through central São Paulo rather than limiting it to an invited fashion audience.

The Paraíba-born designer looked to the city's concrete architecture and to figures including Lina Bo Bardi and Le Corbusier. Their attention to social function informed both the location and clothes built with strong proportions, structural seams and the grey language of exposed concrete.

Maia framed occupying the city as part of the work. The show connected garment construction to public architecture, asking what changes when fashion enters a shared urban space instead of borrowing it as scenery.