Diante da pandemia da Covid-19, o designer de joias Fernando Jorge resolveu lançar sua coleção virtualmente através da plataforma Net-a-Poter, que é parceiro da marca há sete anos. O lançamento acontece nessa quarta-feira, dia 16.

Para essa ação, a marca produziu imagens, campanha e vídeos para que o Net-a-Porter pudesse apresentar a coleção para seus personal shoppers e clientes VIPs. A iniciativa conta com o apoio do Fashion Label Brasil (Projeto customizado de internacionalização de moda brasileira), da ABEST (Associação Brasileira dos Estilistas) em parceria com a Apex-Brasil (Agência Brasileira de Promoção de Exportações e Investimentos).

A nova coleção Flame, de Fernando Jorge, nasceu do amor de Jorge pelo movimento na joalheria e do desejo de experimentar novas formas e silhuetas após o grande sucesso de um trio de coleções que exploraram o círculo. “Eu queria criar uma sensação de movimento dinâmico e edificante”, explicou o designer em entrevista à revista VOGUE UK.

Inspirado nas curvas das joias das décadas de 1930 e 1940 de artistas como Suzanne Belperron, a coleção tem um toque retrô atemporal que é marcado com o ponto de vista totalmente contemporâneo de Jorge. Os diamantes engastados diagonalmente nos brincos Flame são acentuados por linhas delicadas e contornadas de ouro que se movem para cima para iluminar e nivelar as curvas do rosto de uma mulher. 

On Thursday, the 10th, the 3rd edition of "FASHINNOVATION Worldwide Talks: NYFW" will take place. The event will feature more than 70 industry leaders, including: Rachel Zoe, Rebecca Minkoff, Mara Hoffman, Ngozi Okaro: Custom Collaborative founder, Helen Aboah: Urban Zen CEO, Derek Blasberg: YouTube Head of Fashion, Abrima Erwiah: Studio One Eighty Nine Co-Founder, Nigel Barker: Fashion Photographer, Amber Venz Box: LIKEtoKNOW.it Co-Founder, Katia Beauchamp: Birchbox Co-Founder.

Oskar Metsavaht, Osklen brand founder and creative director, attends the event once again. To access the event full schedule, click here. aqui.

To watch the 3rd edition of "FASHINNOVATION Worldwide Talks: NYFW", just register on the website: https://fashinnovation.nyc/3rd-worldwide-talks-2020/ ]

The Covid-19 pandemic totally changed the Brazilian fashion scene and required rapid adaptation with digital solutions that will not be used only during the crisis. With that in mind, Apex-Brasil (Brazilian Agency of Promotion of Exports and Investments), ABEST (Brazilian Fashion Designers Association), ABIT (Brazilian Association of Textiles and Apparel) and Abicalçados (Brazilian Association of Footwear Industries) came together to start a partnership and launch the Brasil Fashion Now project, which will be featured on the BLANC Fashion digital platform - www.blancfashion.com. 

With an initial duration of six months, Brasil Fashion Now is an action that takes place via Fashion Label Brasil (Program of Internationalization of Value-Added Brazilian Fashion), Texbrasil (Brazilian Fashion Textile Industry Internationalization Program) and Brazilian Footwear, fashion export programs in partnership with Apex-Brasil. It aims to introduce, facilitate and generate exports of Brazilian innovative and unique brands for international retailers, a model known as B2B (business to business). The project will appoint an exclusive space for Brazilian brands on the digital platform, which currently has more than 10k buyers from 60 registered countries. 

Apex-Brasil's Project Manager, Flavia Egypto, points out that the agency had already been planning the growth of digital initiatives in its fashion projects - Fashion Label Brasil, Brazilian Footwear and Texbrasil. “Current circumstances have accelerated these initiatives and solidified the need for a joint venture to gain strength in the international market. We are confident that it will be a successful action ”, Egypto points out.

ABEST's president, Alberto Hiar, reinforces that, with the pandemic happening in the world, it was necessary to accelerate existing movements in favor of the use of technology in the designer fashion products export process. "We identified the need to respond immediately to this demand for digital services by members, because through it international buyers will have access to a diverse range of products", Hiar explains.

For Texbrasil's executive manager, Lilian Kaddissi, it was necessary to understand the best way to support companies in the current scenario: “At this moment, we felt it was important to listen to companies to understand the best way to help them. With that, we gathered information to set up online actions that would meet all their needs. It is through initiatives like this that Texbrasil brand members are able to expand their business, even with the present physical limitations ”.

Abicalçados' Commercial Promotion coordinator, Letícia Sperb Masselli, points out that Brasil Fashion Now brings Brazilian footwear closer to international buyers on a safe and convenient digital platform, “combined with proactive commercial efforts, in complete harmony with the new business models”.

To join the project, ABEST, ABIT and Abicalçados brand members must contact their association expressing interest until August 10th. 

The asking price to take part in the Brasil Fashion Now project is US $ 1,600 for the six-month period. It includes, among other benefits, the development of an exclusive web page with a digital Brand Book on the BLANC Fashion platform, and a personalized and exclusive commercial effort to market the brand.

News article previously published at O Estado de S.Paulo
By Fernando Scheller

Entrepreneur Oskar Metsavaht, one of the main references when it comes to the association of fashion and sustainability in Brazil and founder of Osklen brand, says that brands should embrace the sustainable cause without losing sight of the financial viability of the business. It is better to climb a mountain little by little than to try to reach the top in one shot – consequently not backing down the search for less polluting practices nor is the company forced to close its doors for good. 

The concept embraced by Metsavaht is called “as sustainable as possible”, that is, a performance as sustainable as possible. He recalls the case of a prototype, years ago, of an Osklen T-shirt made from 100% organic cotton, but whose final price – even for a premium brand – was not viable for the customer. After that, Metsavaht realized that it is better to take smaller steps to achieve his goals. 

“We had two options: either to discontinue the sample or to do it in another way. With a solution of 80% regular cotton and 20% organic cotton, we saw that the final sample was viable ”, remembers Metsavaht. “The important thing is to be transparent: it is about the customer looking and having the proper information about the textile fiber content of that piece.” 

Osklen’s sustainable approach began in 1998, following a partnership with Embrapa (The Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation) to grow organic cotton. Since then, the company has evolved its production chain to work with a variety of raw materials and alternative processes – such as textiles made from recycled PET bottles, fish scale “leather” and the development of natural dyes – and the brand has received several international recognitions for this work. 

Although Osklen was sold to the Alpargatas group – which also owns the Havaianas sandals label-, Metsavaht continues to act as the brand’s creative director. He not only gives guidance on the latest fashion trends, but also continues to touch on projects to expand the company’s sustainable footprint. 

Brazil + France

Transparency is also the name of the game for French brand Veja – which is known in Brazil as Vert. The company- a success among young hipsters in Europe- has outsourced its entire production chain in Brazil. Its cotton use is organic, grown in the Northeast, and the rubber is extracted sustainably in the Amazon rainforest. “But that does not mean that we are perfect. And we make it very clear ”, says Beto Bina, manager of production chains and brand innovation. 

In addition to looking closely at its production chain, Veja is also careful that its sales success does not end up having an inadequate impact on the environment. “The company’s growth was very organic, it was never leveraged by outside investors or put money into marketing to bring consumers artificially,” he says. “We will never work with paid advertising.” 

The concept also extends to the issue of governance and the treatment of employees. The fact that Brazil has strong labor laws influenced the choice of Veja for the country. “This would be way more difficult to do in China or India, for example,” explains Bina.

Osklen leveraged its brand exposure by investing in technology for its e-commerce. Conceived by Oskar Metsavaht, the company is based on the pillars of sustainability, lifestyle, design and fine art that guide its business to quality and sustainable products – all aligned with the DNA of innovation.

Now, with its digital revamping, the company’s challenges aim at orchestrating its e-commerce with a focus on offering an innovative shopping experience, bringing customers closer and engaging them in a cascade of entertainment, education and information. Through the Oracle Commerce Cloud (OCC), Osklen managed to have a unified and more agile online sales platform, thus ensuring that its customers are reached organically with content and merchandise of interest.

Alicia Billberg, Global E-commerce manager at Osklen, explains that the path to digital presence is something that the company already has as a premise to offer more quality service options to its consumers. “Osklen has been a pioneer in the industry since its inception in 1988, and we want to continue- as we always did- to bring luxury aligned with sustainability. Therefore, our e-commerce is a tool to expand our mission in offering style based on genuinely Brazilian products. The partnership with Oracle made this possible, as we now have a robust tool that will allow us to scale future demands “, Billberg commented.

This is the opportunity to apply cloud technology on the brand current and future changes – something that retailers always demand. The path to digital presence is something that has no return and change is necessary to ensure market competitiveness. Osklen’s use of Oracle CX Commerce is paramount to leveraging the company’s business, as well as engaging its customers in e-commerce and preparing for future demands. 

With a three months speedy implementation and its e-commerce up and running since January 2018, Osklen already has benefits and positive numbers that reinforce that the change was satisfactory. In addition to having a robust system with a server that supports high demands, Oracle CX Commerce allows the segmentation of the website layout for each customer, provides an organic flow through its search system and reduces the pages loading time.

In addition, Billberg says that there was an improvement in Osklen’s internal team. “As we have many already automated and implemented processes in OCC, our E-Commerce team can be even more dedicated to the business. With this, we have increased productivity, availability to outline new strategies and think about new business opportunities”. 

Among the implementation highlights are the following: 

• 20% increase in customer loyalty and retention rates

• 20% increase in time spent on the site 

The next steps for Osklen include to double sales in its digital market in a two years period and branch out the brand to the US, with the opening of a store in Miami. “We are focused on expanding Osklen and continuing to manage the brand from Brazil. Collaborating with Oracle allows us to have a multi-site, domain, language and currency platform, which facilitates our international strategies to promote our merchandise in other markets,” Billberg concluded.