The 29th edition of INSPIRAMAIS, an exhibition that showcased over a thousand materials for the footwear, clothing, furniture, and jewelry industries took place from January 23 to 24 at the FIERGS Events Center in Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil.
Inspiramais Connection
An aisle full of materials, innovative in both design and technology, with over 900 all-new products developed based on the study of fashion inspirations and references that guided Inspiramais. The research is the basis of the materials launched at INSPIRAMAIS in charge of Walter Rodrigues, the stylist, and coordinator of the Design and Research Center of the Brazilian Association of Companies for Leather, Footwear, and Artifacts (Assintecal) he uses the pyramid method of inspiramais products, the 10% refers to value and purposeful innovation, 30% is assertiveness, and business strategy and 60% equals know-how, offer a competitive price, Walter pointed out that when we earn money in the 60% we have money to innovate, during a press conference organized a day before the event.
Trends in fashion materials 2025
The theme of the research is the Intergenerational inspirations, which is the 10% of this methodology. For the first time we have 5 generations living together simultaneously, we are more attentive to “ageism”, supporting initiatives of older people to make their dreams come true, whether it is studying, starting a new career, or even a new adventure. There are 8 billion of us on the planet, many of whom have the potential to consume fashion products. There are 2 themes inside of intergenerational: Stimulating and Tech Form.
Stimulating: There is an eccentric dynamism that can be seen around the world through profiles of people +60, where it is common to see ladies with colored hair and clothes, stimulating the consumption of vivid clothes and accessories. There is this same eccentric dynamism when we visualize the most recent generations, because of the achievements achieved in the way of expressing themselves, emphasizing individuality, gender, and body identity. These new generations can, through colors, shapes, and signs, communicate the freedom to be whoever they want to be.
Tech Form: If on the one hand, the materials bring stimulus and essence thanks to this force, colorful, creative, free of ties in combinations of materials and colors, we have another facet, which indicates a significant value for everything that is dysfunctional. Fabrics with technology, leather treated like silk. We look at the ingenious beauty of simplicity, seeking the strength of materials through the subtraction of excesses, the power of fundamental foundations and performance technology.
In the 30% of the pyramid, there is Homo Faber: Originality, creativity, beautiful, original things. Nowadays, the creativity inherent in humans has been replaced by the need for high production and stratospheric volumes, trivializing creation and resulting in the standardization of consumers.
In short, the technical skill was disconnected from imagination, from the process, and what we see as the market, and society is only the final and ephemeral result, losing the notion of the real value and impacts(positive and negative) of things. In a market where the value of companies and products is trans material –i.e., it transcends materiality to what is beyond the product that the consumer wears: regenerating the planet, caring for communities, creating relationships in networks with consumers –the intangible value of this relationship depends on truth and originality. The themes are Pragmatism (quiet luxury) Geometry (angled soles, geometric figures on things), and poetry (create industrial embroidery, look at craft).
Finally, 60% of the pyramid is Primal, it highlights these ancestral instincts, to be inspired by colors, textures, and finishing effects, it adds a great deal of seduction and luxurious hedonism to them. Primal: touch, feel, fabrics with rustic aspects, rough textures.
According to Gilles Lipovetsky –Pleasing and Touching -An essay on the society of seduction: “There is a history of seduction, of its rituals, of its social inscription in the collective whole. And on this plane, there is no doubt that our era differs from all those that preceded us.
Hypermodernity marks a rupture, an important discontinuity in the millennial history of seduction, due to de-traditionalization, the de-symbolization and individualization of their practices, but also of the social surface and the strength of the attractive powers in the functioning of our collective universe”. Therefore, in the Primal theme, it highlights these ancestral instincts, to be inspired by colors, textures, and finishing effects, it adds a great deal of seduction and luxurious hedonism to them, the themes are Ethereal (seduction), legacy (ancestral, western street style, denim, plaid, heavy soles).
Silvana Dilly, the superintendent of the Brazilian Association of Companies for Leather, Footwear, and Artifacts Components (Assintecal), emphasized that the exhibition took a qualitative leap in this 29th edition. She said, “We had a very qualified visitation, along with an intense political agenda with representatives from the state and federal executive and legislative branches. At the opening of the event, we welcomed the CEO of, Alexandre Birman, who highlighted the importance of the exhibition in launching fashion materials. We took a leap in representativeness.” She also highlighted the international attendance of buyers from the main markets in Latin America and Europe, as well as significant players from the country’s major footwear production centers.
FWO interviewed Alexandre Birman to learn more about the plans for expansion in the USA of Arezzo & Co., the leading footwear brand in Brazil and the largest in Latin America.
Q: 1. What does it mean for Arezzo to participate in Inspiramais?
Arezzo & Co is a 51-year-old company that has always been present in tradeshows, one of our brands that I founded in 1995 is Schutz, which I created out of Lineapelle. So Inspiramais has an amazing number of suppliers from all the top of materials you need for a shoe collection, from soles to ornaments to leather to textiles so it is an honor to be opening this great show.
Q: 2. What are the plans for the expansion of Arezzo in the USA?
Today 10% of our business is for the USA, especially in E-commerce, we have 5 flagship stores to create brand awareness, and our main channels are department stores, we are big suppliers of Norstrom, Saks Fifth Avenue, Bergdorf Goodman, and so on. We acquired an international brand last year, called Paris Texas. We have invested a lot; we have 3 beautiful showrooms all in NY.
Q: 3. What is the relevance of Shutz in the Arezzo portfolio?
Shutz will turn 30 years old in July 2025, and I will be turning 48 years old, so it´s my whole life dedicated to building this brand that today is part of Arezzo & Co, Shutz is less than 18% of the revenue, and we have 14 brands today, Shutz is a beautiful and amazing brand now we are entering to lifestyle, it is the first Brazilian brand that is coming from shoes to become a full of brand.
Innovation Arena
In addition to business, which is the focus of the show, there is a lot of quality content confirmed, one of the keynote speakers was Jordana Guimarães, Co-founder of Fashinnovation, the greatest global platform showcasing innovations via ways of technology, shaping the fashion industry with the topic: Fashion Technology toward sustainability. During her conference, she shared 6 practices of technology for the fashion industry: 1. Collaboration & Partnership, 2. AI for merchandising and buying based on personalization of e-commerce, 3. Circularity-resale, 4. Excess of inventory for new materials or upcycled collections, 5. FIT technology, 6. Venture arm internally at brands.
After her keynote, FWO talked to Jordana about her impression of Inspiramais and her platform.
Q: You are Brazilian living in the USA, how do you feel to be part of Inspiramais for the first time?
I am super excited because Brazil is a country that has so many natural resources that we can work with in sustainability and if we can push it out to the rest of the world which is going to be my mission, like now taking all this content and pushing it out to our global network.
Q: What is your opinion about the exhibition?
I love it, I think it would be cool to have more diversification in terms of other solutions than just textiles that part of it, what it is here, I think is amazing, I love how companies here, are not pushing that there are 100% sustainable, they say look, we are not doing everything, but we are doing this… There is no greenwashing, people are very honest about also what their issues are, I like it.
Q: What is the relationship between technology and sustainability?
Technology always has been there, even before everything came out, when you think about technology such as manufacturing, like a simple thing, when you can switch that it’s on-demand manufacturing you can already become more sustainable like really quickly, you know not to have access inventory which is the biggest problem right when it comes to the landfills, so I think that’s you know just correlating it there and then understanding that that is already such a huge component of fashion is and then just having a trickle down from that.
Q: Tell us more details about the next edition of FASHINNOVATION in February 2024
February 7th will be the next edition and the digital edition will be February 15 for everybody who wants to watch it, we have for the first time Tonne Goodman Former Fashion Director & Sustainability Editor, Vogue, Mara Hoffman, Founder & Designer of Mara Hoffman, Donata Minelli Yirmiyahu, Chief Executive Officer, Ulla Johnson, Nicole Miller, Founder & Designer of Nicole Miller, Farah Maloof, Head Of Industry For Fashion & Luxury, Usa, Tiktok, Aditi Banga, Head Of Innovation For Fashion & Beauty, Instagram / Meta, Kat Gates, Creative Effectiveness Lead, Google.
Everybody is invited, and it is always free at our events, I feel that is our mission to democratize information to the world.
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With love,
FWO
