A Flower From Cerrado

(MENAFN- Brazil-Arab News Agency (ANBA)) São Paulo – As a child, Andrêssa Faiad would nestle under her mother's sewing machine, a singer 666 that produced trousseaus and household items, pretending to sew. By the age of eight, she was already making clothes. That same year, she participated in her first sustainable fashion show, which featured the colored cotton developed by Embrapa, a research division of Brazil's Agriculture Ministry, with the involvement of her late aunt, Marta Gomes Faiad, one of the biologists responsible for the project. At 13, she designed her first wedding dress, and by 17, she had founded her own clothing brand, Callicore Moda Sustentável.

Peças são únicas, feitas com sobras de tecidos e materiais recicláveEach piece is unique, made from fabric scraps and recyclable materialsis

She could have continued as a self-taught designer, relying on her“natural talent, intuition, observation, research, systemic thinking, and a keen eye for fashion, costumes, aesthetics, human rituals, art, culture, and, above all, sustainability”. But she knew the market demanded a diploma, so she pursued Fashion Design, Styling, and Costume Design at Senac and Belas Artes in Goiânia. She later studied Social Communication and completed numerous specializations.

It was the late 1990s, and the term sustainability still felt distant. Ecology was the buzzword (echoes of Eco Rio 1992), and recycling was just emerging as a way to care for the environment. For Faiad, it all made perfect sense.“I had a hyper-focus on butterflies, their species, and a deep connection with everything related to the earth, the planet, and nature,” recalls the designer.

Sustainable fashion workshops by Faiad

“Very early on, I wanted to transform the world into a better place through the language of fashion, and that's how I found how to communicate, by turning what was considered waste into luxury. And the understanding that there's no such thing as waste.” By the way: Callicore is the name given by the German biologist Jacob Hübner to a genus of subtropical butterflies that only live where the ecosystem is balanced.

In her journey to establish her name and her signature fashion, Faiad spent twenty years in São Paulo. In addition to presenting her pieces to various audiences, she conducted numerous sustainable fashion workshops with the Oficina Callicore. She also worked as a costume designer for TV channels and took on the challenge of designing the costumes for the performance of The Nutcracker presented at the Theatro Municipal de São Paulo in 2022. She created 588 costume and accessory items for 388 students from the São Paulo Dance School (Edasp), all in just 26 days.

Stage costumes

Recently, in 2024, she returned to Brasília after living in São Paulo for 20 years. A cancer, which left sequelae, made her realize the need to be close to her family again. Her family has Syrian and Lebanese roots. An aunt, a historian, even wrote a book about Faiad's maternal grandmother, called Flor da Síria, a história de uma mãe (“Flower of Syria, the Story of a Mother”), published in 1996. The title honors the family's business when they first arrived in Brazil in the early 20^th century: Casa Flôr de Síria, which used to sell spices and fabrics from England (and a bit of everything else). The book tells the story of the grandmother, from the arrival of the immigrants to her marriage, her children, emotional losses, historical documents and photographs, as well as stories from her children and some of her grandchildren.

“My great-grandfather was born in 1885 in Tripoli and later moved to New York before coming to Brazil. My grandmother was born here during World War I,” she explains.“According to my aunt's book, during political upheavals in those times, Casa Flôr da Síria, located in Santa Catarina, was frequently invaded and looted by intruders.”

The book was written by an aunt

“My grandmother always supported my career-she was the only one in the family to do so. While she was alive, I was highly determined to achieve my dreams and make her proud,” says the designer, whose collections and pieces are heavily influenced by the Middle East-the culture, the embroidery, the fabrics used, and the tailoring all serve as references.“I've designed pieces for a Muslim clothing brand, creating scarves and dresses for women. In my work, I seek the lightness of fabrics, paintings, and anything that can highlight the positive aspects of Arab culture-something that is increasingly necessary.”

The Brasília-born designer has never traveled to Arab countries-though she certainly would love to-but she once sent a collection to a friend who owns a jewelry store in India. In 2014, he showcased his jewelry along with her dresses at a fair in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. The collection drew a parallel between planned cities like Brasília and Dubai, highlighting their architectural and natural beauty. Beyond fashion, Faiad has a deep love for Arab cuisine and the memories it evokes.“I really miss the family gathered around a table filled with delicious Arab dishes-such a feast of flavors,” she sighs.

Sustainable fashion, a world on its feet

From when she first started-as one of the pioneers in the field-to today, much has changed in the so-called sustainable fashion market.“Everything in this space has evolved, and many new brands have entered the market and gained followers. There's a lot of imitation and little authenticity, but there's also incredible, high-quality work backed by real investment,” reflects Faiad. To her, the term has grown in popularity but has also become diluted in meaning.

“A thrift store that sells second-hand clothes and uses this term is mistaken-what they do is circular fashion. For fashion to be truly sustainable, it must follow a complete cycle of clean, renewable energy. It can be made from waste, reusable, recyclable, ecological, and biological raw materials, and most importantly, everything must be done ethically. There are countless factors that truly define sustainability-it's not just about riding the wave of green marketing.” The designer has always offered a 10-year warranty on her products and services. Today, she has extended it to 20 years-going completely against the grain of fast fashion, where pieces fall apart after just five washes.

Andrêssa Faiad: Going against the grain of fast fashion

In her creations-always unique pieces-she incorporates everything from leftover fabrics from major manufacturers to scraps from the costumes she designs, especially for theater. She also works with a vast array of recyclable materials: coffee filters and capsules, shampoo bottles, cosmetic containers, threads and fibers, and even food peels and seeds, such as avocado, jabuticaba, jamelão, mulberry, as well as spices like saffron, turmeric, yerba mate, and hibiscus. Faiad welcomes clients where she works-“my home office is my showroom”-and is always surrounded by plants. Now, back in Brasília, she is looking to reinvent herself in terms of space and plans to invest more in online sales. However, she has also participated in many open-air markets, festivals, and bazaars-and even owns a Kombi that doubles as her traveling boutique.

During the pandemic, the designer bought the Kombi and took it to Ubatuba, on the northern coast of São Paulo state-a way to make a living during that time. After being stolen, damaged, and later restored, the Kombi is now with her in Brasília, fully equipped with a clothing rack, table, electric power, and a renewable battery. Versatile, the vehicle also serves as a dressing room and a support car for productions.

The future calls for calm

After undergoing surgery to remove four kilos of tumors, followed by chemotherapy and radiotherapy, Faiad was left with some lasting effects. A second surgery impacted on her ability to walk, and now she uses a cane. Despite having her temporary disability benefits denied by Brazilian social security agency INSS, she must keep working-but she wants to do so differently: with less focus on productivity and more on creativity and exclusivity. In addition to cancer, she also suffered a household accident that left her with facial burns. All of this combined eventually led to burnout.

“It was a series of battles in life that made me rethink everything, the need to produce only what's necessary, made to order, with creative planning to return to working with the physical limitations I have now. The issues with my health made me reframe my journey. But, as a true Taurus, I'm stubborn and I fight and resist to this day in this profession, which to me is a mission, because it's not as easy as other professions.”

Another reason to slow down is the concern for the planet's health.“One of the things that made me rethink mass production is that our planet can no longer handle so much production, it can't take so many people stuffing their closets with clothes and accessories. Life is much more than a product, but the life of a product needs to be, at the very least, less disposable than it has been.”

Go ahead:

Instagram:
Callicore Moda Sustentável
Andrêssa Faiad

*Report by Débora Rubin, in collaboration with ANBA

Translated by Guilherme Miranda

SuppliedSuppliedSuppliedSuppliedSuppliedSupplied

The post A flower from Cerrado appeared first on ANBA News Agency .

MENAFN07022025000213011057ID1109181433