Sao Paulo To Kicks Off a Week-Long Fashion Fiesta

Latin America's premier fashion event launched a week-long celebration of Brazilian creativity, style and glamor Thursday, dogged by perennial questions over a lack of racial diversity.

Sao Paulo Fashion Week (SPFW) opened the 32nd edition of its winter collection at a cavernous hall in Ibirapuera Park, broadcast live on the Internet for the first time, to showcase Brazilian designers.

Until next Tuesday, it will highlight some 30 labels, including Animale, Tufi Duek, Alexandre Herchcovitch, Gloria Coelho or Fernanda Yamamoto, Reinaldo Lorenco, in South America's largest metropolis of 20 million people.

"Brazil is going through a very privileged moment," said SPFW's creative director Paulo Berges, referring to the country's boom that has propelled into place as the world's sixth biggest economy.