This fashion week we’ll all be taking a trip to Rio with Jayson Brunsdon’s Spring Summer 2014 collection. The designer was inspired by the vibrant Carioca culture of Rio de Janerio and we’re expecting that his modern take on the girl from Ipanema will have us wanting to step straight onto a plane to South America.
We asked Jayson Brunsdon to tell us what inspired him about Rio, and his top tips for planning our own holidays to the exotic and glamorous city.
RESCU: Where’s the first place you’d take a first-time visitor in Rio?
Jayson Brunsdon: Corcovado mountain to witness the famous statue of ” Christo” with his arms outspread, towering above you in the clouds!
You get a cable car that soars upwards through the dense green jungle to the top of the mountain and then ascend hundreds of steps until you reach the summit. It’s so high you feel like you’re flying over Rio! From here you look out over the whole city taking in the spectacular tropical beauty of this unique metropolis.
RESCU: Can you share your favourite place to eat for a special occasion and favourite cheap eat?
Jayson Brunsdon: For a special occasion you can’t beat “Brigitte’s” in Leblon, the chicest part of Rio just past Ipanema beach. It’s the jewel in the culinary crown that is the Rua Dias Fereira and named after Brigitte Bardot as she famously visited Rio in the ’60s with her Brazilian boyfriend and fell in love with the city.
For a favourite cheap eat you can’t miss Galito’s on Rua Farme just a block back from Ipanema beach. Possibly the best grilled chicken and beet root salad in the world and definitely the best people watching! The Carioca’s are famous for their physical beauty and this is the spot,day or night,to watch them in their swimsuits heading to and from the beach. It’s quite normal for them to parade about in a bikini at midnight!
RESCU: Where’s your must-stop shopping destination?
Jayson Brunsdon: The street market at General Osorio Square in Ipanema has amazing little vintage jewellery stands, extraordinary fruit the likes of which you’ve never tasted before, souvenir “I love Rio ” bags and fabulously trashy trinkets. The “Baiana” are the women of African descent and at this market you can witness them, heads wrapped in colourful turbans, cooking tapioca and coconut dishes.
RESCU: Walk us through the ultimate weekend in Rio de Janeiro…
Jayson Brunsdon: Friday night Dinner at sunset at Aprazirel, a restaurant in the old Portuguese suburb of Santa Teresa that is made out of a group of tree houses. As you dine you look out over the tree tops and the pastel housed hills down towards the city below.
Breakfast On Saturday at any one of the many juice shops in Ipanema. Order a fresh watermelon juice with a dash of sugar and a bowl of frozen Acai, the Amazonian berry that is the Brazilian super food!
Spend the day on Ipanema beach. You rent a beach chair and umbrella and take in the ultimate Rio experience of the beach scene. Beautiful bronzed bodies, men like gods, girls in g-strings, gorgeous children playing in the surf, soccer balls flying over the view of the “Two Brothers,” the twin mountain peaks that tower over Ipanema and a sea of bright coloured umbrellas. You can buy everything from sarongs to fried empanadas from the beach vendors.
Have a sunset caipirinha on the beach! It’s a Rio tradition and then as the sun sets everyone claps! Stroll back a block from the beach and have dinner in your swimsuit with the locals at “Garrota de Ipanema,” the restaurant where “the girl from Ipanema” was written. Order the sizzling steak and stir it as it sizzles on its portable griller on your table. Delicious!
Sunday go to the “Red beach ” at Botafogo where you feel a million miles away from the city but you’re not…you’re smack bang central! Get the cable car from here up to the towering peak of sugar loaf for the most awe inspiring views of the city. If this views not enough hire a helicopter for an 8 minute fly over Rio. There’s nothing like circling the statue of ” Christo ” from the air!
Finish the weekend with dinner al fresco on the verandah of the “lagoa” taking in the moon rising over Ipanema’s famous glittering lagoon.
RESCU: Tell us about the Rio girl’s style and how it influenced your collection
Jayson Brunsdon: The collection is inspired by the Carioca culture clash, the primal physical beauty and the tropical modernist architecture that makes Rio so exciting.
It’s not so much about what the girls in Rio wear. It’s a dream of the Rio look – a mix of the Carioca clash that has African and Portuguese origins,the funky favella colours, the richness of the greens, the bronzed skin,the turquoise waters. They wear “ra ra” skirts and hoop earrings,their hair wet from the beach. I mixed this with a trashy touch of carnival. Sequins and feathers for a dash of Latino glamour .
