Project takes designers from the Amazon to the world and leaves a mark on local employment – World

In the first year of activity, Amazon Poranga Fashion supported 14 designer brands from the Amazon and showed them in ten fashion shows, leaving paid work for 260 local professionals, according to a person responsible for the project.

“Last year, we had 14 brands, this year we intend to increase to 16 or 18, depending on acceptance”, said Jessilda Furtado, head of the association that created the project, in an interview with Lusa in Lisbon, where she visited at the invitation of those responsible of the Feel the Amazon Project in Portugal, to participate in the Month of the Amazon, an initiative that ended this week.

Some of the designers who showed last year “will no longer show this year because they have already achieved a lot of notoriety”, since the idea is to give other brands the conditions to “be in the same place”, he said.

According to the person responsible, the objective of the project is “to reach the entire Amazon region”.

In practice, “the project aims to give more visibility to designers”, and “it is giving good results”, because “it is attracting attention”, he added.

Apoiar – Associação Amazónia de Produção, Organização e de Incentivos Artísticos, chaired by Jessilda Furtado and overseeing the project, seeks incentives so that fashion art creators and entrepreneurs “can be in their rightful place” and “to strengthen local entrepreneurship, through the art of Amazonian fashion”.

Initially, the project was almost entirely financed by the Brazilian federal government, in the order of 150 thousand reais (around 27 thousand euros) through the Secretariat of Culture, but even in the first year of its life, it also received help from other entities, such as the college of Santa Teresa, of fashion, of the Brazilian Micro and Small Business Support Service (Sebrae), of some small companies, highlighted Jessilda Furtado.

“This project came from a need that we identified, because the creative economy and local culture is much more seen through theater, music and dance. And we saw that we had magnificent artists of fashion creativity who were very well known in our region and were more successful outside their home than at home”, he said.

According to the person responsible, the first year involved more than 400 workers, 260 paid and the rest volunteers, most of whom “are already fashion students or work in fashion”.

The Amazon Poranga Fashion mentor added that “the brands brought work to the seamstresses” and involved “other services”, a result of the requirement that all consumable materials and people to work in the ateliers come from the Amazon.

For this year, Jessilda says she has “promised”, but not guaranteed, funding from the Brazilian State. However, the faculty of Santa Teresa “proposed to cover all the costs of the workshops and courses this year”, said the person responsible for the project, who brought two of the project’s designers with her to Lisbon.

This year, the idea is also to invest, “not only in clothing, but in accessories”, said the person responsible, who also admits the possibility of “creating an online store where craftsmen can be in one place to sell” your products.