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Brazil’s newly elected first lady has been making headlines with her choices in fashion, be it by sporting the red Workers’ Party star at her wedding, wearing pants to her husband’s inaugural ceremony, or brandishing eco-friendly clothes.
Rosangela Janja da Silva (56 years old) is a sociologist who has noticedably altered her style after being put in the limelight when her husband Luiz Inacio Lula Da Silva became a veteran leftist.
This longtime activist of the Workers’ Party, who was married to Lula, 77 last year, has updated her low-key looks.
With a new wardrobe, she has swapped her beloved jeans and sneakers for a collection that is carefully selected to support her most favorite causes.
Benjamin Rosenthal is a Personal Marketing Specialist at Brazil’s Getulio Vargas Foundation.
Da Silva has had the nation hanging on her fashion choices since at least her wedding day last May, when she and Lula paused a grueling presidential campaign to make their five-year relationship official in a glamorous private ceremony in Sao Paulo.
The flowing white, flowy dress she wore to walk down the aisle featured a tiny red star in the shoulder. This was in no way disrespect for the symbol that brought them together: the Workers’ Party Star.
For Lula’s January inauguration, she wore a subtle star in red on her soles.
Although she dislikes this title, calling them “patriarchal”, the first lady made an even more bold statement on inauguration day by wearing pants. It was the first time in Brazilian history that a wife of a president has not worn a gown to the ceremony.
Da Silva chose a pearl-shining pantsuit made by Brazilian designers Helo Rcha and Camila Pedrosa. This is the same outfit that she wore in her wedding gown.
Rocha says that pants are an emblem of women’s freedom.
“From Brasilia up to about twenty years ago women were forbidden from wearing them in Congress,” Lula was sworn into office.
Silk pantsuits were dyed with rhubarb, a classic Brazilian fruit called the cashew, and then elegantly embroided with traditional Indigenous designs.
Da Silva’s blouse, which is stamped with Maria Bonita’s early 20th-century feminist icon Maria Bonita, was also noticed. It features a blazer that has been embroidered in a cooperative by women; a skirt made with fabric scraps and eco-friendly outfits from Brazilian brand Reptilia.
Heloisa Strobel, Reptilia’s founder at 36 years old says that she “infuses the role as first lady with practicality and a woman who isn’t afraid to get dirty.”
You wouldn’t expect her to be wearing a dress so tight she cannot walk.
It is a very accurate description for a typical outfit worn in the past by Da Silva, Michelle Bolsonaro. Michelle Bolsonaro was Michelle Bolsonaro’s wife, a devoutly Evangelical Christian woman, who served as president of Jair Bolsonaro from 2019-2022.
A contrast is also present: Da Silva added a pop of color to the presidential residence, changing the pastel tones that her predecessor had preferred.
Reptilia’s pieces were a hit with Janja, who wore a skirt made of overlapping red hues during Lula’s first foreign visit to Argentina.
Da Silva stated that he wanted to bring Brazilian designers with him wherever he went in an interview for Vogue magazine.
The support is a joy for entrepreneurs in Brazil’s $29.7-billion textile and fashion sector.
Strobel states that Da Silva is “willing to display the most innovative design in Brazil beyond the stereotype palm tree print”
Airon Martin is the creative director at Misci (another favorite brand of Da Silva), and he agrees.
Brazil is known worldwide as the Land of Flip-Flops and Carnival. However, we have an impressive luxury goods industry with amazing silks, cottons,” says the 31 year-old who plans to export his designs internationally.
He adds, “Fashion crystallizes sociopolitical moments.”
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