What Amazonian designers can teach global fashion brands

Proper training is a key bottleneck holding back Amazonian talent, says Ferreira. During its five-month training programme, MI offers budding Indigenous designers full-scale support, from design and tailoring to business, marketing and sales. The programme runs with support from Sebrae, a Brazilian micro and small business support service. “We partner with many experts in their fields to offer the best training we can, working towards financial independence for our students,” she explains. “We want to be a facilitator for our peers to live off their culture.”

When the pandemic eased, Ferreira and her mom, co-founder Seanne Oliveira, took their project to the leaders of Parque das Tribos, Brazil’s largest Indigenous community living outside of forest-based Indigenous villages. Located in Manaus, the community houses members of 35 different Indigenous groups. In November 2021, it played host to the first in-person edition of MI’s training programme; 32 people representing 15 Indigenous groups attended. The second edition, held in early 2024, and the third edition, which kicked off last week, each garnered a further 25 participants. With MI’s local fashion shows, the programme has become well known in Manaus and there is a waitlist for future editions.

Despite the strong appetite for training, there are challenges. Younger trainees are often impatient to start their own businesses, but often give up at the first sign of obstacles, says Ferreira. “Even if they find the business more challenging, older members succeed more often, because they have the patience to go on despite the ups and downs,” she says.

Championing local crafts on the global stage

When brands partner with Indigenous communities and benefit from their crafts, their names and contributions should be acknowledged, celebrated and fairly rewarded, says Ferreira. Increasingly, homegrown brands are role modelling this dynamic, including Brasília-based Tamã, a brand formed from a collaborative initiative featuring designs from Indigenous and African descendants in traditional communities, known as Qulombolas. Expenses are listed alongside products for transparency, and revenues are shared equally among the creators. Tamã buys illustrations and paintings from Kayapó women, who receive a share for each creation sold, while the revenue from some T-shirt sales supports associations defending the Indigenous cause.

Maurício Duarte, a Kaixana designer, is the only Indigenous name on the official schedule at São Paulo Fashion Week, which was created in 1996 as Morumbi Fashion Brasil and rebranded in 2001, running every February and September. Duarte debuted in 2023 with a collection titled ‘Tramas’ (translating to “weavings”), using natural fibres from native plants like aruma (an Amazonian species of bamboo) and turning them into luxury clothes and accessories showcasing Indigenous basket-weaving techniques. Duarte worked with artisans in São Gabriel da Cachoeira, benefitting hundreds of families from over 12 Indigenous groups. The cast was exclusively composed of Black and Indigenous models. At the time, Duarte told Vogue Brazil that the choice was intended to symbolise the recovery of richness historically taken from these groups.