Atlas of Fashion Designers

Karlla Girotto







K

373

Karlla Girotto

When one observes the work of Karlla Girotto, one gets the feeling that she has stored up in

her personal chest a large quantity of objects, ideas, fabrics, sensations and mysteries which

she turns to at the moment of artistic creation. Like in a child’s dream, drawings, forms

and sensations merge to give rise to a series of garments charged with feeling and emotion.

From this same treasure chest come the materials she uses for her collections, fabrics which,

occasionally, are remnants of old garments that she mixes in with new cloth, various objects

and anything else that might emerge from her imagination and the sketchbook in which,

season after season, she does drawings and gradually develops her collections.

Trained in fashion design at the Faculdade Santa Marcelina in São Paulo, this Brazilian

designer of Italian origin burst onto the fashion scene in her country, challenging the in-

creasingly vague limits between art and fashion. In her fi rst shows on São Paulo’s House of

Designers runway for young talents, she already stood out for her highly personal under-

standing of the juncture of these increasingly similar universes, which led to the presenta-

tion of her work in various art galleries in the most important Brazilian capitals.

After presenting various collections during Fashion Rio, the designer has turned her at-

tention toward the increasingly important São Paulo Fashion Week, where her work has

been greeted with much fanfare and critical acclaim. Additionally, she has been able to

further develop her multidisciplinary spirit in the form of intense collaborations on artistic

projects that lie outside the realm of fashion but run on a parallel course to it, such as her

creative forays into dance and theater.

Photography courtesy of Karlla Girotto

374

Karlla Girotto

Sketch and image from the “Singular”

collection.  is multi-faceted Brazilian

designer normally presents the majority

of her collections in the form of a

performance, as can be seen in the

image on the right.

Sketch courtesy of Karlla Girotto

375

Karlla Girotto

Photography by Marcio Madeira

376

Karlla Girotto

- What inspires you?

My life, friends, writers, movies . . . nothing particular and nothing specially. Everything can make my inspirations.

Who knows how the world will be in the next second?

- What is your dream as a designer?

In the right moment of my life, I don’t have dreams as a designer. I work a lot and hard to make everything, I think. I

leave dreams for nighttime and bed.

- What has been the most important achievement of your career?

I’m from a country where everything is very diffi cult. For me, too many things represent achievements. For example,

I fi nished university (my family didn’t have the money, so I studied for free because I was a good student—I had to

go!) and I did many fashion shows and can tell people liked it. In the beginning of my career, I did everything alone:

sewing, embroidery, painting the fabrics—everything.  ese are achievements, but they are also lessons, because this is

how I learned so many things.

- How important are trends?

Feeling the world, social movements, and having a dialogue with the subterranean and underground layers of society

is more important than trends.

- Fashion has always refl ected a certain era. What does fashion refl ect in the twenty-fi rst century?

Invisible, impalpable feelings.  is is the twenty-fi rst century for me. Fashion or not, it’s my feeling of the world

right now.

- What book would you recommend to every fashion designer?

All the books you are able to read!

Karlla Girotto

Rua Picinguaba, 650

034032-000 São Paulo, SP

Brazil

www.karllagirotto.com.br

377

Karlla Girotto

Photographies by Marcio Madeira