Plastic Dreams #1 - Amazon Web Services · Jumpsuit and cap by GUSTAVO SILVESTRE for MELISSA NEON bikini from LYGIA & NANNY ... MELISSA COSMIC SANDAL + SALINAS Hat from ACNE STUDIO

S/S ‘18

PHOTOGRAPHY HICK DUARTE

FASHION MAURÍCIO IANÊS

CREATIVE DIRECTOR ERIKA PALOMINO

ART DIRECTOR KLEBER MATHEUS

BEAUTY AMANDA SCHÖN

with Lee Stafford and Kryolan products

I N D U S T R I A LF E E L I N G S

we want to know how things are made; we want to be part of the inner workings. to present the new summer collection, we entered a melissa factory in order to show fashion that is practical yet utterly feminine

M E L I S S A S A U C E S A N D A L 3

M E L I S S A K A Z A K O V A

M E L I S S A D U B R O V K AM E L I S S A D A I K A N Y A M A

M E L I S S A M E L R O S E

M E L I S S A S H I B U Y AM E L I S S A D U B R O V K A

M E L I S S A S O H OM E L I S S A S O H O

M E L I S S A D A I K A N Y A M A

Jumpsuit from ANOTHER PLACE

Blouse and trousers by VITORINO CAMPOSSkirt from PHSD Shirt by GUSTAVO SILVESTRE for MELISSA

Jumpsuit by GUSTAVO SILVESTRE for MELISSA Dress from HERCHCOVITCH;ALEXANDRE

Jumpsuit by CAROLINE FUNKE

Dress from HERCHCOVITCH;ALEXANDRE

SPECIAL THANKSÀ La Garçonne; Alexandrine; Amapô; Another Place; Beira; Brechó Minha Avó Tinha; Cacete Company; Carol Funke; Coca-Cola Jeans; Gloria Coelho; Herchcovitch;Alexandre; João Pimenta; Ken-gá; Lygia & Nanny; Natalia Pessoa; Också; Okan; PHSD; Vitorino Campos

Overcoat from BRECHÓ MINHA AVÓ TINHAT-shirt by GUSTAVO SILVESTRE for MELISSATrousers from COCA-COLA JEANS

Jumpsuit from ANOTHER PLACE

Jumpsuit and cap by GUSTAVO SILVESTRE for MELISSANEON bikini from LYGIA & NANNY

Jumpsuit by GUSTAVO SILVESTRE for MELISSASwimsuit from LYGIA & NANNY

Jumpsuit by GUSTAVO SILVESTRE for MELISSA Swimsuit from LYGIA & NANNY

IMAGE BUREAU BRUNO REZENDE

PHOTO ASSISTANTS EDU MALTA AND WESLEY ALLEN

ART ASSISTANT RENATA TELES

ASSISTANT MAKE-UP ARTISTS CAMILA DE ALEXANDRE AND PAULA KADIJA

GENERAL COORDINATION RODOLFO BELTRÃO

EXECUTIVE PRODUCER NELBA CARDOSO

CASTING BILL MACINTYRE

MODELS ANITA POZZO (JOY), BERNARDO BRANCO AND DANIELE MOIRANÇA

(ALLURE), BRUNA GRANDINI (BRM), FELIPE ROCHA (PRIME)

Some products may show color distortion or may not be available for purchase.

M E L I S S A D A I K A N Y A M A M E L I S S A D A I K A N Y A M A

M E L I S S A D A I K A N Y A M AM E L I S S A S A U C E S A N D A L 3

M E L I S S A K A Z A K O V A M E L I S S A S O H O

M E L I S S A D U B R O V K AM E L I S S A L A D Y L E S S

M E L I S S A M E L R O S EM E L I S S A S H I B U Y A

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TO DEVELOP THE MAPPING THEME, the Melissa

team started out from the role that cities play in our lives. Metropo-

lises, megalopolises, districts, streets, and alleys determine not only

our choices and manners but also our identity and how we relate.

Encouraged on by the youth culture, we yearn for new ways to oc-

cupy the cityscape. As a reflection of this action, and influenced by

personal landscapes, creators on different media (from Instagram to

performance art) and from everywhere on the globe we catch on to

this look. They may also turn local cultures into universal languages:

the trend of the time is glocal (global + local).

Fashion, of course, is also the product of its surroundings, and the

unique traits of each location produce different creative formats and

different uses of a given piece or item – for example, underscoring

the importance of where, in a complex and interconnected world

where transport and mobility are regarded as social, and even cultur-

al, issues. We increasingly speak of borders, with political scenarios,

crises, and hopes taking up room in the world agenda – from Mexico

to São Paulo’s Cracolândia.

The dream of an inclusive city involves architecture. Drawing boards

and scale models outline a veritable sheet-music on which, unwitting-

ly, emotions are written. Philosopher Alain de Botton coined the term

“architecture of joy,” in which the beauty, adequacy, and comfort of a

space directly affect us.

For this collection, Melissa looks at architecture as a storytelling me-

dium and at the organic flow of communities, inserting producers and

people into new locations.

If home was everyone’s safe haven before, we now desperately seek the

closest WiFi hotspot. In the supermodern age, non-places have become

familiar to us – airports, subways, hotels, markets, malls, and even

stores are physical elements in our lives just as the bedroom in which

we sleep. As the lyrics of an old Samba song go, “To lose yourself,

you must first find yourself.” And, again, technology comes to our aid:

Where am I? Where do I go? This is the everyday question that Goo-

gle, Waze and geolocation apps in general (Melissa’s Swap included)

answer every day. Everything can be mapped.

To add more poetry to the urban jungle, Melissa invited visual artist

Verena Smit to come up with the new collection’s logo, based on a map of

fictional addresses. The soles of every shoe model show the geolocation

of Farroupilha, in the Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul, where the

label’s creative hub lies, alongside patterns that join to form the city

plans. Eight of the main products have been named after places and two

after non-places (Ulitsa, which is Russian for “street”, and Dubrovka,

another Russian term, meaning an uninhabited place). More than just talk

about certain environments, however, the theme for Melissa’s summer

collection addresses an ancient question: “Who am I?”

BY ERIKA PALOMINO

Y O U A R E H E R E !

in an increasingly anonymous world, it has become crucial to review borders and concepts capable of transforming everyday life into something more pleasing

art lends new reflections on migration flows around the world

For D14, Hiwa K came up with the public installation When We Were

Exhaling Images (2017), erecting 20 temporary apartments inside

concrete pipes – caustic irony, for sure. For the 2015 Venice Biennale,

he produced a video documenting how a bell was cast from disposed

ordinance. The Bell Project is on display until August in the famed

KW Institute for Contemporary Art, in Berlin.

But the campaign for freedom is not exclusive to the Documenta 14,

the Venice Biennale, or the São Paulo Biennial. It is scattered in events

and actions of much lesser media penetration, all over the map. Dias-

poras and migrations have fed discourse ever since art has been art.

They were in Paris in the early 1900s, in the studies of immigrant artists

like Picasso, Modigliani, Gris, and Kertész. And they are in the mani-

festos of contemporary activist artists like Cuba’s Tania Bruguera, who

invited artists and activists to develop ephemeral monuments for the

project “To the Unknown Migrant” (2012) on sites where the historic

role of migrants has been deleted or severely assaulted.

Taking the shape of aesthetic objects or social practice, art operates on

consciousness, helping freedom cease to be a no-go zone – as a Kurd

puts it in one of Hiwa K’s videos.

IN A WORLD BESIEGED – as the Western countries’ govern-

ments respond to the greatest migration crisis in history by building

and fortifying walls, refusing to welcome and provide safe passage

to refugees from Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq, Morocco, or Mexico –,

contemporary art provides a lucid, decisive channel for resistance.

The same wire that forms the concertina fences proliferating along

borders lends shape to pieces on display at the 14th Documenta,

which is one of the world’s main art shows and has been held every

five years in Kassel, Germany. The war matériel is there, particularly

in the works of artists who are based in Athens – which is both the

main port of arrival for refugees and the epicenter of Europe’s

current humanitarian crisis.

In a world where symbols of intolerance multiply, D14 artists

draw our attention to individual dramas among banished, for-

gotten peoples, trying to give back to them basic conditions of

pride, hope, and self-confidence. One such artist is Hiwa K,

an Iraq-born Kurd who lives in Berlin as a political exile.

He fled his country before the 2003 Iraq War, crossing the

mountains all the way to the Iran-Turkey border on foot

and finally making it to Germany.

P O W E R S T H AT WA L L S

C A N N O T H O L DBY PAULA ALZUGARAY

ILLUSTRATION LAURA TEIXEIRA

Paula Alzugaray is an art curator, art critic, editor, and journalist specializing in visual arts. She has a doctor’s degree in Communication and Semiotics from PUC São Paulo and a master’s degree in Computing Science from ECA-USP. Alzugaray is managing editor at seLecT culture magazine and edits IstoÉ magazine’s fortnightly section on visual arts.

PHOTOGRAPHY CECILIA DUARTE

FASHION GI MACEDO





O R G A N I CPA R A D I S E

here’s fashion to get out for some dancing and then

get back to the beach in the morning. in the magical

ceará dunes, this mood led us to shoot a fresh,

alluring elegance in looks whose warm tones take inspiration from nature

M E L I S S A C O S M I C + S A L I N A S

M E L I S S A B E L L E V I L L E M E L I S S A K O E N J I


M E L I S S A B R O A D W A YM E L I S S A H A R M O N I C M A X I B O W

M E L I S S A S A U C E S A N D A L 3 M E L I S S A C O S M I C S A N D A L + S A L I N A S

MELISSA CARIBE VERÃO + SALINASM E L I S S A E L A

M E L I S S A U L I T S A

Top from VON TRAPPScarf from GUCCISwimsuit from KIMONO

M E L I S S A U L I T S A

Maxi cardigan from ROOMVest from ISABEL MARANT Trousers by JOÃO PIMENTA

MELISSA COSMIC + SALINAS

Swimsuit from ROSA CHÁ Overgarment from OCKSÅ

M E L I S S A B E L L E V I L L E

Dress from JUISI BY LICQUOR under OSKLEN dress

M E L I S S A K O E N J I

Blouse from MAREU NITSCHKETrousers from GAL Swimsuit from GUCCI

M E L I S S A H A R M O N I C M A X I B O W

Look by YVES SAINT LAURENT

M E L I S S A B R O A D W A Y

Dress from MARTINS.TOM

MELISSA SAUCE SANDAL 3

Blouse by JOÃO PIMENTASkirt from GIVENCHY

MELISSA COSMIC SANDAL + SALINAS

Hat from ACNE STUDIOTop from SALGA BEACHTrousers from CASA JUISI

Look by GILDA MIDANI

M E L I S S A E L A

Vest from MODEM for CARTEL 011Scarf from ALCAÇUZTrousers from STELLA MCCARTNEY



FASHION MANAGEMENT CLESSI CARDOSO

PHOTO ASSISTANTS EDU MALTA AND RENATO TOSO


ASSISTANT MAKE-UP ARTISTS CAMILA DE ALEXANDRE AND RENATA BRAZIL




MODELS EVE MORAES (MEGA) AND MARIANE CALAZAN (WAY)Some products may show color distortion or may not be available for purchase.


MELISSA CARIBE VERÃO + SALINAS

BA

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ITY

WHEN PEOPLE IN FASHION STARTED talking about

hi-lo, they could hardly have imagined what was to come. The idea of

mixing pieces from high-luxury labels with items that were both afford-

able and directional seemed nothing more than one of those moments

when a little common sense makes everything more fun in the fashionista

world. It was an evaluation error, for hi-lo had brought with it question-

ings that went much deeper and were much more relevant.

Every fashionholic is conversant with the codes of high fashion – or

at least knows how to deal with them. But the so-called low is harder

to define. A fast-fashion piece may be low, and so may a particularly

distinctive bijou from 25 de Março (the busy popular shopping street in

downtown São Paulo). The same adjective could apply to any accessory

with smart design at a competitive price, or to the bracelet or leather

sandals you brought from a trip to the Brazilian Northeast, or still to a

head adornment you bought at that small stall in Mexico.

Some things fall into the low-fashion category not only because of their

price or overall lack of polished design, but also because they are pop-

ular, in the sense of not being tied to a certain concept of sophistication

that is now outmoded. The truth is, low-fashion items are often unappre-

ciated because of aesthetic biases – another serious evaluation error

that some reflective thinking may help in correcting.

Mix, union, and convergence are the main engines of future fashion.

These engines are being designed in the here and now, and they can

be fueled only by the aesthetic appreciation of the most different

cultures and origins.

Handicraft is a kind of high fashion that is present everywhere. Brazilian

lacework and braiding, the fabric painting from several African countries,

Eastern European embroideries, Indian dyed fabrics, Japanese paintings

– the list is lengthy, for it is as long as the history of humankind.

The heritage of populations and countries with a Black majority must be

especially taken into account. For a very long time, fashion used to si-

lence those voices and appropriate their codes without giving due credit.

Movements like Afropunk (which makes use of African aesthetics with

elements from Punk clothing and blue-collar dissent) and Afrofuturism

(which anticipates a future where Blacks are a marked presence in

prominent places) are directly connected with valuing those cultures.

Hi-lo is gradually giving way to the all-together – a broader vision that

is able to generate new harmonies, learn from differences, understand

that an item’s value can be assessed in various ways, and create another

concept of luxury. When fashion finds room for appreciating people and

their trajectories, beautiful things happen.

Vivian Whiteman is a fashion editor and columnist at Elle Brasil magazine. She was an editor at the Folha de S.Paulo newspaper, where she covered the first of her many fashion weeks around the world. Whiteman researches the relations between fashion and social behavior change; she has interviewed a robot, is a fan of Miuccia Prada’s fashion shows, and is the doting mother of an awesome girl, who loves to scribble on walls.

you should invest in a less conventional view of hi-lo, one that understands that an item’s worth can create new luxury spins

T H E F U T U R E O F FA S H I O N I S A L L - T O G E T H E R

BY VIVIAN WHITEMAN

DISS IDENT BODIESthe issue of the refugees puts us in touch with deeper wounds, stemming from policies that engendered race and class problems

Artist and researcher Bruno Mendonça has a degree in Social Communication from Universidade Mackenzie (São Paulo) and a Visual Arts extension from FAAP (São Paulo). He has a Master of Communication and Semiotics degree from PUC São Paulo, and his work emerges essentially as papers, performances in which he explores the language of the spoken word, installations, and collaborations. In recent years, he has been a member of Centro Cultural São Paulo’s Critique and Curatorship Group and a guest critic in the 32nd São Paulo Biennial.

BY BRUNO MENDONÇA

PHOTOGRAPHY CASSIA TABATINI

WE COULD BLAME THE STARS for the current moment

– perhaps Saturn, or Mercury in retrograde transit –, but it would be

no use. The present has forced everyone to rethink life’s micro- and

macropolitical issues. Day in and day out, we realize that several

structures, systems format what we ourselves created as a society

have not worked out.

The present unfortunately shows that, even if we have accomplished a

lot, we have failed as well. We may look at this with fatalism – or as the

potential for change. If on the one hand we do see groups moving in the

direction of change, on the other we also watch, on a global scale, entire

nations, institutions, organizations, and other social groups take the op-

posite path, by stumbling on old preconceptions instead of resignifying.

A reactionary wave rolls over the globe, and its main characters are

far-right leaders and the upholders of an increasingly oppressive

economic system, a savage postcapitalism. Within this complex socio-

political and economic equation, one of the clearest factors may be

the massive resumption of migration flows, creating a true paradigm

for the field of international relations – one based on the problem of

refugees and illegal immigrants.

In her paper “A Era dos Muros” (“The Age of Walls”), Brazilian artist

and researcher Giselle Beiguelman discusses the dramatic reality

of a world that, against the tide of waning borders of yore, has been

reinforcing those same borders by means of protectionist, xenophobic

attitudes. Beiguelman’s paper sheds light on alarming data: if after the

end of the Cold War and the fall of the Berlin Wall the number of polit-

ical barriers dropped from 15 to 13, the policy of obstacle-erection after

9/11 has seen that number leap to 50, pointing to a retrograde move in

the face of progressive and expansive ones.

The issue of the refugees puts us in touch with deeper wounds, stem-

ming both from colonial practices that led to catastrophic processes and

from slave-system policies that engendered race and class problems.

If postcolonial issues are now increasingly discussed, one sees, in fact,

a clash between past, present, and future, based on overlapping gash-

es that never healed – a mixture of living and caked blood, the fruit of

centuries of aggression and violence against otherness.

Refugees are a sad reflection of this body that has been irreversibly

commoditized. It’s a body that has fallen victim to its own civilization

and humanity, revealing our entire intolerance, religious or otherwise.

The body of these people is one more body type that the present day

has on display – the living problem that is the subject of poststructural-

ist philosophy, or that different intellectual fields attempt to understand

and/or resolve. They are bodies that derive from a policy which is other

than affection – and which photographer Cassia Tabatini presents in

the images that illustrate this text. In a subtle, poetic way, she shoots

portraits of young refugees and illegal immigrants living in São Paulo,

coming mainly from countries in Africa. We see no victims in her photo-

graphs, but individuals who will be seen, who carry this potency for

change, and who have an interest in a better, humanized society.

In today’s context of post-truths, refugees create – or are – what Art

Theory Professor José Miguel G. Cortés, of the Fine Arts School of

Valencia (Spain), refers to as “dissident cartographies.” That is, they

destabilize because they bring to the fore communities that have under-

gone lengthy processes of invisibility as a result of a Eurocentric view

of the world, a view that created a narrative hegemony of sorts. Such

“dissident cartographies” are emerging, deterritorializing, border-push-

ing, and they encourage us to create new maps.

PHOTOGRAPHY CASSIA TABATINI

FASHION GEORGE KRAKOWIAK





in the more conceptual approach which sees

architecture as a starting point, here’s a cool take on

clothes editing and on wearing your new melissa. let’s play

with outlines, proportions, and unexpected deconstructions

PARALLELL INES


M E L I S S A M A R W E D G E M E L I S S A M A R Y J A N E

V I V I E N N E W E S T W O O D A N G L O M A N I A + M E L I S S A C H A R L I E M E L I S S A K A Z A K O V A

M E L I S S A J A M I E + J A S O N W UM E L I S S A D A I K A N Y A M A

M E L I S S A U L I T S AM E L I S S A K O E N J I

M E L I S S A M E L R O S E M E L I S S A D A I K A N Y A M A

M E L I S S A L A D Y L E S S

Silk shirt from MAX MARAFaux leather skirt from LADO BASICJeans from DIESEL


Cotton coat from RALPH LAUREN from FROU FROU BRECHÓCotton T-shirt from LEVI’S

M E L I S S A K O E N J I

Jeans jacket from LEVI’SJeans from AMP

Silk shirt from MAX MARA Satin shorts from MAX MARA


Jeans from LEVI’SCotton T-shirt from B.LUXO


Sweatshirt from AMPLeather skirt from INFINITI

MELISSA MAR WEDGE

Blouse from PIERRE CARDINCotton skirt from CRUISE

MELISSA ULITSA

Jeans skirt from LEVI’SCotton shirt from LEVI’S

M E L I S S A K A Z A K O V A

Coat from TOMMY HILFIGER Trousers from MAX MARABlouse from PELICAN AND PARROTS


Cotton dress from LACOSTE

M E L I S S A J A M I E + J A S O N W U


FASHION PRODUCERS CAROL PEREOLI AND BIA AMARAL

PHOTO ASSISTANT EDU MALTA


ASSISTANT MAKE-UP ARTIST RENATA BRASIL




MODELS DAIRA (ALLURE), BRENDA PIVATTO (WAY),

SWEIA HARTMANN (WAY), JOÃO ZANELLA (FORD)

Cotton shirt from LEVI’STop from LASERLeather trousers from CRUISE

M E L I S S A L A D Y L E S S

Some products may show color distortion or may not be available for purchase.

VIVIENNE WESTWOOD ANGLOMANIA+ MELISSA CHARLIE

A SPACE’S ARCHITECTURAL DESIGN (or lack thereof)

has a deep influence on how we feel. The natural lighting and the num-

ber of room dividers in a home, for example, are definitive elements for

the kind of relationship we form with the people with whom we coexist.

The “Casinha” (“Little House”,1942), the first house that my grandfather,

architect Vilanova Artigas (1915-1985), designed as a home and where I

played as a child, only has doors to the outside and a single bathroom. For

scholars, it is a formal delight. For me, it has always been the home that

he made for his girl (my nana). Experiencing that free space was crucial to

crystallizing their ties of confidence and complicity as a long-lived couple.

Walking along the fascinating spaces in the São Paulo Museum of Art

(MASP), one hardly wonders about the gender of its conceiver. Lina

Bo Bardi, the author, called herself an arquiteto (using the male-gen-

dered form of the noun in Portuguese). Still, she went down in the city’s

history – a feat even now rare for women in this domain.

In 38 years, the Pritzker Prize (“the Oscars of architecture”) has only

recognized two women: Iranian Zaha Hadid (1950-2016) and Japanese

Kazuyo Sejima, who shared the award with her partner in the SANAA

studio. In Brazil, more than half of professional registrations filed with

the Board of Architecture and City Planning (Conselho de Arquitetura

e Urbanismo, CAU) belong to women; but, paradoxically, few female

names reverberate widely in the market and on the media.

Carla Juaçaba, from Rio de Janeiro, departs from norm and has been mak-

ing a name for herself in this still limited group. She won the first edition of

the women-oriented Arcvision Award (2013). Her work walks the line be-

tween architecture and expography. For the homes she designs, her main

concern is respecting the place’s surroundings and history. “Architecture

can be charming in imperceptible ways,” she says. “Feeling happy inside a

certain space does not involve theorizing about form.”

She devised the scaffolding megastructure for the “Humanidade”

(“Humanity”) exhibition during the 2012 Rio+20 conference on

the environment. “The idea was to pay homage to the geography of

Copacabana,” Juaçaba recalls. The ephemeral material chosen had

to do with the period’s context and the environmental responsibility

that the event required. “Rio de Janeiro was a huge construction site

because of coming events [the 2014 World Cup and 2016 Summer

Olympics], and the material could be reused in other sites.”

Lilke Lina Bo Bardi, Juaçaba prefers to dispense with female attribu-

tions vis-à-vis her work. At the same time, she points out: “Reading the

poetry of Polish writer Wisława Szymborska [1996 Nobel Laureate in

Literature], I think that a man would hardly write like that.” My grand-

father would surely say that architecture doesn’t need to be defined by

gender, but rather by love.

a good architectural design is eye-subtle and heart-intense

Laura Artigas is a journalist, screenwriter, and film director. She studied Cinema in Buenos Aires and wrote and directed the documentary feature Vilanova Artigas: o arquiteto e a luz (“Vilanova Artigas: The Architect and Light”). She is content director of Desengaveta, a GNT/Globosat TV show. She has a side career as a fashion and lifestyle journalist and manages the Moda pra Ler blog (modapraler.com).

BY LAURA ARTIGAS

ILLUSTRATION FABIO GURJÃO

THE SKIN WE LIVE IN

We’ve been dating for almost five years now. During that time, we’ve come

to realize that the hardest part of a relationship is making such crossings

and that there’s no way of not making them. When you choose to be by

someone’s side, you can’t transform yourself, nor can you nullify yourself

in order to build something. Crossing the bridge with the other person

doesn’t equal giving up what you are; it doesn’t equal ignoring your own

wishes or your own individuality; it means keeping them and still being

able to understand your partner’s wishes and individuality.

We lost a lot of time forcing ourselves to do what we didn’t like to do,

annulling ourselves, thinking that, by opening ourselves up to others’

wishes, we were giving up our own self, giving up our own life for our

loved one – and nowadays there’s nothing less feminist than that. We

thought that building such bridges and crossing them would diminish us

as whole beings, as if it would make us inferior. Yielding seemed to be

synonymous with being weak.

Getting away from my own self for as far as I feel I’m able of doing it, and

trying to see life through Jonas’s eyes, has expanded my ideas; it has made

me grow and develop further, turning me into someone a little better than I

was before. This third space that couples build in their relationships is bad

only if there is no respect within its limits. It’s bad only if there’s no dialog,

no exchange, and if both sides aren’t equally willing to solve that. “This is

as far as I can go; I can go no further; are you OK with it?” “Yes, I am.”

If we’re willing to do that, we’ll be on track and we’ll be able to carry on

together; but if we aren’t willing, what we’ve built will not have been in vain.

During the time we’ve been dating, Jonas and I have learned to deal with

distances. The easiest one is the geographical distance: it’s an eight-

hour ride, and then everything is solved. Contrary to what many people

think, our greatest predicament has never been the fact that we do

long-distance dating and can only meet twice a year. Our longings – the

yearning to touch each other, to be near each other, to talk to each other

– have always been there! They’ve always been quite latent! But along

our journey we’ve come to understand that the comings and goings that

are necessary in a relationship are to be found not in the Brazilian high-

ways, but inside ourselves.

I’m talking about natural barriers between human beings here. I’m talking

about the efforts we need to undertake to build any relationship, be it sex-

ually loving or not. We need to cross bridges every day – with our friends,

families, and so on. It’s these bridges that put us on our feet; it’s them that

show us other ways of existing and that alter other universes and, at the

same time, develop our own.

MY RELATIONSHIP WITH JONAS has always been a

journey, not just literally but distant as we are geographically, he in Minas

Gerais, I in São Paulo. Between us lies a bridge connecting two different

worlds, two distinct universes, two people that are essentially opposites –

and not because I like onions and Jonas don’t, nor because he’s reserved

and I’m more gregarious, nor because he likes to sleep on his back and

I like to sleep sideways. It’s simply because people aren’t alike, no matter

how many things they may have in common. Well, there lay the long bridge

that we, in so many different ways, had been trying to cross all those years.

I started all alone; I packed and went into the fray – so tired, so alone!

And Jonas there, far away, sitting on a rocking chair at the edge of his

universe, waiting for me to arrive and calling, “Come, honey.” And I kept

answering, “I’m coming.” But the closer I got to there, the angrier I felt

– after all, I was doing all the walking and carrying. When I reached the

vicinity of Jonas’s world, I stayed just for a little while; my bad mood and

the tiredness of the journey didn’t allow me to enjoy it. The closer I got to

him, the farther from home I felt. I left annoyed. I was despondent and

furious – so furious that my heavy steps shook the wooden structure of

the provisional bridge we had built between our two universes. I reentered

home, found myself again, and shouted from afar, “Now it’s your turn

to come to me!” And come he did. He left his world and came towards

mine. This second crossing was even more complicated than mine, for the

bridge wasn’t in good repair anymore. Jonas then got even more hurt than

I had; he twisted an ankle, got dirty, cut himself, stopped to get some rest,

and considered quitting, and all the while I kept saying, “If I did it, you can

do it too. It’s your turn to come to me.” And come he did.

When he arrived, he was in worse shape than I ever had been. The bridge

was even more demolished than before, and Jonas was sad, exhausted,

angry, and way distant from his own universe. You always miss home. He

wasn’t willing to stay, and I wasn’t going back there. He left alone, and his

furious steps destroyed that bridge once and for all. We remained a long

time at the edge of our respective worlds, shouting to each other. There was

no helping it; we had to yell because there was no way we could get close

enough to simply talk. So we shouted and shouted for months on end; we

didn’t understand each other, we didn’t listen to each other, there wasn’t a

bridge anymore. But we got tired of yelling, so we decided to rebuild it, this

time with a really permanent structure, so that our heavy steps – who would

always be there – wouldn’t make it crash down.

Jonas and I were aware that it would take time; you can’t build a sturdy

frame overnight. We both would have to do our part; each one of us would

have to take one step at a time, hammer some nails, and tighten some

screws, so that we’d meet in the middle of the bridge. And when we finally

met there, everything made sense. We both had had to set out. The journey

had been faster and simpler this time; we had seen more of each other, we

had listened more to each other, and we hadn’t been too far from home.

Being in the middle of a bridge isn’t as comfortable as being at the edge

of it, still within a space you know so well. The bridge isn’t of the covered

kind, it isn’t sound, nor is it familiar. There is a lot of rain, a lot of wind,

and a lot of sun. It is a third universe that arises when two natures meet,

and this third universe contains a little of our natures and ends up being

an extension of ourselves.

love knows no borders, but it’s crucial to take the first step in the right direction

FLOATING CONNECTIONS

Nátaly Neri studies Social Science at the São Paulo Federal University (UNIFESP) and owns a booming YouTube channel called Afros e Afins (“Afro and Such”), which covers themes that range from Black beauty care to female empowerment.

BY NÁTALY NERI

ILLUSTRATION CATARINA BESSELL

Refugee Social and Financial Integration

Project: Abraço Cultural (“Cultural Hug”)

A language school that offers French, English, Spanish, and Arabic

courses and where all the teachers are refugees. The project enhances

income generation and cultural exchanges experiences between refugees

and the local community. www.facebook.com/abcultural

Prejudice against Refugees

Project: RefugeesAre.US

With an eye of absolute empathy, an international group of ad profes-

sionals created this campaign, which confronts the stereotypical preju-

dices against refugees. refugeesare.us

War and Vulnerability Situations on Borders

Project: Clowns Without Borders

Circus professionals and other performance artists bring art, humor, and

entertainment to places where children and families experience high-cri-

sis situations, such as wars and natural disasters.

clownswithoutborders.org.uk

SOCIAL NETWORKS ARE ALWAYS with us now,

so we end up allowing a ubiquitous crowd, ranging from

acquaintances to celebrities, to enter our lives – and yet we feel

increasingly lonely.

The paradox of being lonely in a crowd has already consolidated

as a reality. In fact, megacities are the places where we feel

the loneliest; and the metropolis, which seemed to be the very

antidote to loneliness – boasting a dense population and countless

possibilities for culture and commerce –, has showed itself to be

just the opposite.

With so many stimuli, the residents of the megalopolises have

become more distracted and more self-centered, unconcerned

with the state of their perception. In everyday life, this

neglectfulness produces moments of an absolute lack of empathy.

It is well known that depression, anxiety, and loneliness levels

are higher in urban environments than in rural areas. In 2013,

according to The Guardian website, a ComRes research study

showed that 52 percent of Londoners felt lonely, making their city

the loneliest in the United Kingdom.

The good news is that empathy is a human skill: just like playing

an instrument, doing sports, or dancing, it can improve through

exercise. The first step is to be aware of the existence of the other,

which may be an individual or a situation we are not used to.

To sharpen our views and improve the way we perceive events

around us, we have selected here some people and some projects

that fight invisibility in a sensitive and creative way.

INVISIBILITY / MEGACITIESSome initiatives that deal with hidden problems in big cities

Homeless People’s Vulnerability

Project: SP Invisível (“Invisible São Paulo”)

A group of friends has joined efforts to show what used to remain invisible

in the largest South American city. They have created a thoughtful and

warm Instagram profile where the homeless can tell their life stories.

www.instagram.com/spinvisivel

The LGBT Community’s Vulnerability

Project: Casa 1 (“Home #1”)

Located in downtown São Paulo, Casa 1 is the result from a crowdfund-

ing campaign to create a cultural and support center aimed at the LGBT

community. Under the leadership of journalist Iran Giusti, it was opened

in January 2017, and the idea now is to establish 150 other such homes.

From 10 a.m. to 10 p.m., Casa 1 provides not only a dwelling for persons in

high-risk situations, but also a program of courses, debates, and activities

for that community. www.facebook.com/casaum

Women’s Visibility in the Publishing Industry

Project: Leia Mulheres (“Read Women”)

To make women visible in literature, three female friends created Leia

Mulheres, a literary group that operates almost all over Brazil and intends

to stimulate the reading of books and other literary texts authored by

women. leiamulheres.com.br

stop, listen, see, and think about it – that’s the dynamics of not being just one more person in the crowd

EMPATHY IS THE WORD

Luiza Futuro is a cultural researcher with a master’s degree from Goldsmiths, University of London, where she built on her knowledge of culture and society by means of an interdisciplinary approach that combined mainly affection studies and feminism. Her aim is to challenge the possibilities of knowledge creation regarding cultural studies.

Anonymity in Big Cities

Project: Talk to me

A movement that encourages strangers to talk to each other in the cities.

It is a platform that helps to establish conversations and, in so doing, to

fight the excessive anonymity and indifference in metropolises.

talktomeday.org

War on Drugs: Cracolândia

A project led by José Carlos Matos

Part of downtown São Paulo is nicknamed Cracolândia – “the Land

of Crack”. The best-known and most anticipated rallying cry there is,

“Here’s bread, my brothers!” This is the announcement that José Carlos

Matos, 47 – a street sweeper who every day leaves Embu das Artes, in

Greater São Paulo, and takes at least four buses to get to Cracolândia –

has arrived to pass out bread and water to the homeless drug addicts.

INVISIBILITY / WORLD BORDERSGet to know some initiatives dealing with hidden questions in several of

the world’s stark places, such as country borders

The World’s Refugee Crisis

Movie: Human Flow

A documentary feature that was made during the Chinese artist Ai Wei-

wei’s journey through 22 countries, visiting refugee camps and borders.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=rWgC5pCR1AE

BY LUIZA FUTURO

ILLUSTRATION LAURA TEIXEIRA

ALEX DIAS, ONE OF THE HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE CAST

PHOTOGRAPHY HICK DUARTE

AND NICOLAS GONDIM

DREAM FACTORYit was a magical day where 600 guests got to know the factory where melissa shoes are made and then witness the new collection launching. anyone who was there will never forget it. check some of the emotional moments they shared

ON MAY 17TH, we launched the Mapping collection with a

catwalk show in Fortaleza, Ceará. It was a great surprise for all of our

600 guests, who had gathered for a brunch at the Marina Park hotel and

then boarded coaches, which were to carry them to an undisclosed des-

tination. This was Fortaleza’s Melissa plant, “the factory of dreams”, as

Edson Matsuo called it. The guests entered it in groups of 20 people,

who were shown the main production stages, from raw-material selec-

tion and choosing the shoe sole molds through the moment a Melissa is

ready to go. “It was a dream we made come true – for a very long time,

we had wanted to provide an experience that showed our production

process,” Raquel Scherer explains. “Logistics had kept us from achiev-

ing that goal, but we finally succeed,” Paulo Pedó says. “By bringing the

guests here, we didn’t want to show them only the machinery; we want

them to know the people who make Melissa happen.” Erika Palomino

was creative director for this project, which integrated the collection’s

theme into the industry’s universe.

The staff from each plant sector explained the production processes

to the visitors, who were simply delighted with the main manufactur-

ing building of the giant factory, which works 24/7 and employs over

2,000 people. Creating this unique visiting experience had taken seven

months of planning, including many meetings and many visits by the

creative team to Fortaleza.

In an adjoining shed, a kind of lounge was installed to serve drinks and

finger foods, and the Zabumbeiros Cariris band presented a show there

at the end of the visit. As soon as the last visitor group finished this tour

of the factory, a large stack of boxes was removed so that everyone could

enter the “catwalk room”, which had been carefully hidden until then.

This room had just been adapted: the impromptu catwalk was some con-

veyor belts, which kept operating until the first fashion models entered

the room. Following Roni Hirsch’s set design, seats had been improvised

with crates and repurposed PVC sacks, which were aligned to form two

70-meter-long “roads”. The room gained a movie-set lighting, signed by

the award-winning stage director, Caetano Vilela. The soundtrack mixed

industrial elements with ethnic tones and the sophisticated tessitura

commanded by DJ Felipe Venancio. Maurício Ianês designed both the

wardrobe (inspired by industrial uniforms and the factory itself) and the

fashion show performance; the catwalk had four different entrances, and

that aimed at creating the feeling of a large sidewalk, with people coming

from all directions. There was a cast of 50 professional fashion models

from Fortaleza, São Paulo, and Rio, plus 130 workers from the local

factory and the Melissa factory in Sobral, Ceará, who customized their

looks with cute words and messages on their jeans and T-shirts.

There was much applause at each worker’s entrance on the catwalk, and

one of the event’s highlights was the pre-recorded testimonial by Neillyana

Rodrigues, who told her inspiring life story and talked about her love for

Melissa. When Rodrigues walked the catwalk, she was full of pride – and

almost all the presents shed some emotional tears.

BRUNA

BERNARDO BRANCO

BRUNA GRANDINI

MAKE-UP ARTIST FELIPE RAMIREZ WITH MODEL ANA HERRERA

MALU BORTOLINI

in an unprecedented action that took place as the factory kept operating, artist maurício ianês created a catwalk performance boasting 50 professional models and 130 workers – a cast that prioritized diversity

the models’ looks were inspired by the factory workers’ own uniforms and other garments, and all was then rounded off with flags, like mexico’s and ceará state’s. the styling was seasoned with a little bit of beach fashion, plus visual elements from the production line. on the catwalk, workers wore customized t-shirts and vests. in the make-up, touches of color and joy

MAURÍCIO IANÊS AND THE WORKERS

ALINA DORZBACHER

PLASTICLOVERS

RICK WANDERLEY

LUCIANO SANTOS

GABRIELLA NUNES

PLASTICLOVERS

Gabi Farias (@gabsfarias) is 23 and a typical Gemini – “ever changing, never satisfied,” she warns. The Psychology senior admits that playing an active role in the Melisseiras world is a way to self-accomplishment: “The only steady things in my life are my marriage to Arthur and Melissa.”

THERE WERE FIVE OF US INSIDERS in atten-

dance at the Melissa show – black, white, brown, straight,

gay, men, women, cis, and trans. It was a group as diverse as

the brand, in a plural venue.

Mateus (@mattkeus) gave a good translation of how we felt:

“I had always wanted to watch a Melissa show. The employ-

ees, the thrill of being side by side with the entire team, along-

side cool people like Edson Matsuo – it was all utter magic.”

A visibly moved Guilherme (@ufano_) added, “When the show

was beginning, I felt truly immersed – it was like a dream that

I would never want to wake up from. The music started, the

models climbed on the runway, and my heart skipped! Then

it was the factory workers’ turn to strut, and the amazing testi-

monial that we all heard from them was the pinnacle. I had to

hold in the tears to keep my makeup from smearing.”

For me, those are the mementos of a fascinating day. As soon

as I stepped inside the factory, I smelt that smell that I love

so much. I couldn’t hold back the tears, so difficult it was to

believe what I was experiencing. But it was true – there I was

making history! The collection, the people, the smiles, every-

thing at Melissa brings up joy and spontaneity. And we all felt

very special during every moment there.

My words and impressions mend with the trip itself, the

Fortaleza heat and ocean; the crystal-clear shine of the water

and the smooth breeze perfectly describe summertime in the

tropics. Adriana (@drikgoncalves) said that she loved seeing

the factory workers in the role of top models. And of course,

hearing a testimonial from someone who feels accomplished

just by working there made us think about how important it

is to make dreams come true. Besides, we had the chance to

discover the operations on the production line that shape the

Melissa shoes that we love.

I concentrated on some of those images as I listen to Leonard

Cohen on the turntable. The Canadian crooner’s deep, sooth-

ing voice is in stark contrast with the bright visuals, the colours,

and my heartbeat. Just like his voice in “Dance Me to the End

of Love” involves me, the Melissa show was a feast of wel-

comes and hugs. Hugs from the staff, hugs from strangers, but

each one a hug that was contagious for its tenderness alone.

I left there lost in thought. My thoughts didn’t know where to

settle. So many new models, so many interesting people, so

many wonderful stories, that desire escapes me and leaves

me surprised to see that I could fit so many wishes inside.

how a passionate team had an opportunity to find out more about the melissa brand

BY GABI FARIAS

PHOTOGRAPHY HICK DUARTE AND NICOLAS GONDIM

ANA BEATRIZ

NEILLYANA RODRIGUESPHELIPE SEVERIANO

FELIPE ROCHA

CIBELE RAMM

during the 30-minute show, models came from four different entrances, strutting among the conveyor belts and creating an effect of street randomness. the guests gave them a standing ovation

SABRINA VIEIRA

LUCAS DE ASSIS

PLASTIC DREAMS #18

EDITOR IN CHIEF ERIKA PALOMINO

EDITOR PATRÍCIA FAVALLE


GRAPHIC PROJECT AND ART DIRECTION KLEBER MATHEUS

VISUAL ID VERENA SMIT

GRAPHIC DESIGN RENATA TELES

PROOFREADING CÍCERO OLIVEIRA

TRANSLATION MARIO VILELA

CONTRIBUTORS AMANDA SCHÖN, BILL MACINTYRE, BRUNO MENDONÇA,

CASSIA TABATINI, CATARINA BESSELL, CECÍLIA DUARTE, CLESSI CARDOSO,

FABIO GURJÃO, GABI FARIAS, GEORGE KRAKOWIAK, GI MACEDO, HICK DUARTE,

JULIANA AZEVEDO, LAURA ARTIGAS, LAURA TEIXEIRA, LUIZA FUTURO,

MAURÍCIO IANÊS, NÁTALY NERI, PAULA ALZUGARAY, VIVIAN WHITEMAN

ELLE FADANI

Documents

Plastic Dreams #1 - Amazon Web Services · Jumpsuit and cap by GUSTAVO SILVESTRE for MELISSA NEON bikini from LYGIA & NANNY ... MELISSA COSMIC SANDAL + SALINAS Hat from ACNE STUDIO