Baobab-Brazil-Afro Urban Fashion-DESIGNER

The Baobab tree is  a familiar, yet ancient tree that grows on African soil, and it symbolizes ancestral knowledge. Baobab-Brazil, is a brand of clothing and accessories, created in 2006 in the city of São Paulo by Brazilian journalist and stylist Dara Tenka. The designer was inspired by the relationship between Africa and Brazil and through this brand creates bridges between cultures. It is known that Brazil has one of the largest African diaspora populations outside out the African continent and this is often related to the slave trade. The Portuguese brought enslaved Africans to Brazil to work the plantations after the indigenous people of Brazil had nearly died out, for various reasons, since the Portuguese arrived and so alot of African traditions and history is now a major part of Brazilian culture.

The clothes and accessories are made with Capulanas, traditional fabrics in many African countries such as Mozambique, and worn by Mozambican women for generations. The pieces are both traditional and contemporary, made to bring colour to the wearers everyday life. Brazil has a particular aesthetic comprised of many ethnicities, religions, cultures and behaviours. European and African influences that have taken root on Indian soil. This becomes Brazilian culture – the fruit of multiplicity. Pieces of baobab are unique, the patterns are not repeated in the same. The Baobab brand combines elements of Brazilian culture: urban, African descent, globalized – it makes a “collage” of this diversity and is every bit AFRICA in BRAZIL.