SPOTLIGHT
The craft behind the country
Long-form features on the techniques, cooperatives and clusters that make Brazilian fashion materially distinct — and on the people who keep them alive.
People · Culture · Language · Heritage · 24 September 2026
FROM CAFUNÉ TO BOROGODÓ: THE WORDS THAT MADE BRAZILIAN PORTUGUESE
The grammar sailed in from Lisbon. The soul came from everywhere else. A guide to the everyday Brazilian words inherited from Indigenous, African and Arabic languages, what they really mean, and why Brazil sounds nothing like Portugal.
8 min read
Craft · People · Sustainability · 23 September 2026
STITCHED DREAMS: THE WOMEN BEHIND PATBO'S EMBROIDERY
Every hand-beaded PatBO piece — including the ones worn by Beyoncé — starts at a free embroidery school in the interior of Minas Gerais, where designer Patrícia Bonaldi has trained more than 500 women since 2015. This is the craft story behind the celebrity headlines: the atelier, the techniques, and why Bonaldi calls handmade work "the foundation" of her business, not a marketing detail.
8 min read
Business · People · NYFW · Global expansion · 23 September 2026
PATBO: MEET THE BRAND THAT DRESSED BEYONCÉ
A workshop of Brazilian artisans in Uberlândia, Minas Gerais, spent 60 days hand-embroidering a bodysuit for the biggest stage on Earth. Here's how the label behind it, PatBO, went from a Harrods buyer's lucky find to the only Brazilian name on the official New York Fashion Week calendar — and where to shop it, wherever you are.
8 min read
3 articles tagged “People” · page 1 of 1
Production map
Where things are made
Denim & jeanswear
Toritama & Caruaru, PE
One of the highest-volume denim ecosystems in the Americas, built on dense networks of small workshops.
Knitwear & jersey
Blumenau & Brusque, SC
Technically advanced mills with strong finishing capability and growing low-impact dye infrastructure.
Footwear & leather
Franca & Novo Hamburgo
Historic shoe clusters serving both mass and premium markets, with established export logistics.
Cotton & agroecology
Ceará & Paraíba
Organic and naturally coloured cotton grown by family farming cooperatives with certification pathways.