CITY OF GOD

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Fri, 2012-11-23 13:04

AndreaFasanello,rio,ModaFusion,brazil,ethicalfashion,CidadeDeDeus,favelas,CityOf

Rio de Janeiro has always been a very inspiring and facinating city for me. Not just by the beautifull landscape but above all by the complexity and the diversity of its population.

I met a French fashion journalist Nadine Gonzalez, who discovered the creative talent of women in Rio’s slums with Brazilian designer Andrea Fasanello.

She created ModaFusion in 2006. Starting as an social project promoting ethical fashion from Brazil, ModaFusion now designs and develops her own high fashion collections. Brazilian savoir-faire and popular langage combined with modern fashion design makes for unique fashion pieces. ModaFusion juste launched the "Generation City of God", a projet full of young local artists.

I went to Cidade De Deus with her, a 40.000 souls favella, part of the borough of Jacarepaguá, in the Western Zone of the city of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The neighbourhood was founded in 1960, planned and executed by the state government of Guanabara as part of the policy to systematically remove favelas from the center of Rio de Janeiro and settling their inhabitants in the suburbs.

There, I met Greicy Gomes, 21 years old, a girl who is studying and lived in the City of God with her mother, grandmother and little sister. Now, she can realize her dream to walk as a model on the catwalks of a big fashion event in Rio de janeiro.

"At age 14, I came to the City of God. People stopped me on the street and they said I had a atitude to be a model but I did not have the financial conditions to afford a book/portfolio. I have been fighting for this career. I live in a poor community, I have faced many obstacles as I am the daughter of single mom who always supported me doing small jobs like clean up, nail ... Fortunetly, many friends gave us strength and Nadine from ModaFusion was a very important person in my life has helped me a lot. Nadine always believed in my wild beauty : she called me Grace jones."

I followed her in the narrows streets of City Of God with my camera, and we started shooting all along our way, meeting other residents and unexpected locations..

This is a mix of reportage / fashion and above all it's a very spontaneous shooting, no preparation where the story came by itself with real characters. Mix of strong reality and Fantasy.

Models - Greicy Gomes, Cristiane Romao

Agent - Nadine Gonzales / Moda Fusion - Rio de Janeiro

CITY OF GOD

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CITY OF GOD

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