Brazilian-born designer Marina Quinete of New York-based clothing line Uvaia is a designer on the rise. DailyCandy.com recently dubbed her one of five young designers to watch. With its vibrant prints and comfortable fabrics, Uvaia is designed with a Brazilian sensibility that easily translates to the central Texas fashionista. Recently, I had a chance to sit down with Marina and view her latest collection. Cool sophistication is the best way to describe the designer and the mood of the collection itself. You can check out Uvaia this spring at Estilo on 2nd Street. Here are our words.
MyStyle-Austin: I read that you are very proud of your Brazilian heritage and culture. Tell me what it means to you?
Marina Quinete: After I left Brazil six years ago and moved to New York, which I also hold dear to my heart, I started realizing a few thing that I didn’t pay much attention to when I lived there. I started missing the colors, music, and the energy. Brazil has this amazing energy. It has this very amazing, vibrant feeling that I thought would be interesting to try to convey it through my clothes.
MSA: How do you translate that energy through your clothing?
MQ: Everything that we make, we try to use things that remind us of Brazil. We take pictures from trips and use them to make prints for the clothes. Like the pineapple print from the new collection, it was after a picture that we took in Bahia at a pineapple plantation and we sketched it and made a print out of that. Like this print, (pointing to Tribal print pants) we did this after visiting a Native Brazilian Indian reservation and seeing how they paint their bodies. Also the fabrics we make the clothes from are very sexy like the Brazilian women, but without being exposed. The Brazilian woman is not about wearing the bikini, the Samba, and Carnival. It’s also about wearing the silk so the fabric slips on your body, so it gives a little movement and shows the shoulder. It doesn’t have to be exposed but it feels sexy.
MSA: It sounds very sensual vs. sexual. Sensuality is more of a mind-frame but sexuality it physical.
MQ: Exactly. You are totally right. You got it!
MSA: Describe to me the Uvaia woman. Did I pronounce it correctly?
MQ: The name is after a Brazilian fruit. We thought that it was nice because it is sweet and tart and easy to say in any language. If you say it in Portuguese, English, or French it is the same. The name can travel. It was intentional to give Brazil to the world.
The Uvaia woman. We make clothes thinking about us. We are in our early thirties and we are very independent. We travel a lot and have several jobs, lots of friends and we put something on in the morning and we don’t when we are going to come back home. We may go out after work. Sometimes you may be in three different countries with the same outfit. So I need something that travels with me. It is comfortable and chic. It is sexy but sensual. Those are the girls that I want to dress. Girls like me, girls like my sister, girls like my friends. They are well traveled, busy, and they have fun.
MSA: With that lifestyle in mind, how do you choose your fabrics?
MQ: I try to choose fabrics that are very comfortable. They are easy. This kind of silk that we use, it can be worn all day. I was playing with my nephew all day today and you cannot tell if it is wrinkled or not. Most of them are natural fabrics so you cannot escape the wrinkling but we try to make the prints and colors so that way it doesn’t show.
MSA: I know that you like to support Brazilian artists, how do you infuse their work into your collections?
MQ: We invite Brazilian artists to create the prints. Through the brand we like to showcase Brazilian talent. All of my friends that have talents, I want to have them making prints and making accessories. We have so many talented friends in Brazil and I want to make it a showroom for them. To bring this part of Brazilian culture to the world through Uvaia.
MSA: If you could offer one piece of Brazilian philosophy to fashonistas everywhere, what would it be?
MQ: It is hard to say. Brazilians are such philosophers. We have a saying or something for everything. But it is so hard to translate.
Happiness. They shine. Live happy and be confident. Brazilian women, their confidence comes from within. The Uvaia woman is beautiful, independent, and confident. When you believe something, people will believe in you. I am very proud to be Brazilian. I am very proud of what I am making. I think that if you believe in yourself, then people are going to believe in you.
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