Creativity and fashion are no longer terms popular only within factories of end products in Brazil. For the last few years, Brazilian makers of raw material for shoes no longer offer just black leather and traditional heels to their clients.
The development of designs, prints, moulds and different adornments has also become a race within heel, sole, upper and leather factories in Brazil.
According to the stylist at the Brazilian Association of Footwear Designers and the like (Abeca), Iveti de Lima, most of the shoe component factories have designers among their employees or outsource this kind of service.
"Industries are creating very much," stated Iveti. According to her, Brazilian factories are specializing themselves in the tropical style, inspired on elements of the Brazilian nature itself.
How to take nature to a shoe heel? For stylists the formula is not so hard. At the Abeca stand at the Fimec, the shoe component fair that went on up to the end of last week in the city of Novo Hamburgo, in the southern Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul, it was possible to see heels with textures and colors that imitate trees or stones. "Inspiration comes from nature," explained the stylist.
Flowers in Leather
Aplic Colour, a maker of leather from Novo Hamburgo, is one of the sector companies that takes creativity seriously. Among the leathers offered by the company are from glossy ones to those with textured prints with pictures of butterflies or imitation of snake skin.
The main product in the Aplic Colour spring-summer line are leathers inspired on flowers: an orange lily, or a lilac orchid. Flowers were used as a basis for the development of textures and colors.
To reach the final result, a professional at Aplic Colour went to a park and photographed a wide range of flowers. Inspired on flowers, the creative team at the company developed the collection for the next warm season.
Despite not being a large company, Aplic Colour has five people in the product development team. The company produces 17,000 meters of leather a month and employs 50 people.
"Six years ago shoe industries showed us what they wanted and we produced it. Now they come to see what we have to offer," stated Camila Balbinot Mattes, one of the members of the development team at Aplic Colour. The company still doesn’t export leather, but the shoes and artifacts made with their products are sold abroad.
The Novo Hamburgo region, where the Fimec takes place and where Aplic Colour is based, has a great range of professionals who operate in the design of shoes and raw material.
The National Service of Industrial Education (Senai) in the city also offers courses in the area and there are also private schools, like that of stylist José Maria Carrasco, one of the oldest stylists in the sector. Feevale University Center, also in Novo Hamburgo, has a shoe design graduation center.
Anba – www.anba.com.br