This is how it’s done, people!Photo:Courtesy of Carlos Miele
Look books are usually a basic means for editors to scan through a collection, triggering ideas, filling out mood boards, or finding the right item for a shoot. But designer Carlos Miele has upped the fashion ante, creating a spring-and-summer look book that puts the rest to shame. Inspired by his Brazilian roots, he chose model Caroline Trentini and her famously sexy body (and a few half-naked men) to star in the campaign. The beautiful images are photographed by Michael Roberts — as in Vanity Fair’s celebrated fashion and style director. How fitting, since Roberts spends a good deal of his year in São Paulo, Brazil. Of the designer, Roberts remarks, “Carlos was one of the first Brazilian designers to see little use in insularity. Where others waited to take the lead from Europe and didn’t see the value of an outward-looking philosophy, he was ready to engage the world.” Trading the typically dull captions that list style and fabric descriptions, Tim Blanks, contributing editor at Style.com, waxes poetically about Miele’s new collection and background. We learn that a young Miele attempted to learn the trumpet and drums, “till a congenital lack of rhythm put paid to that dream.” The designer now aims to bridge the gap between the glittery fashion scene and the less glitzy area where he grew up. “It’s important to me to return to society what society gave me,” Miele notes. Thus, he works with struggling Brazilian women, hiring them to sew traditional Brazilian details on his clothing. He calls this process “a new dialogue between two worlds that would never meet, but can and must co-habit.” To be sure, the most sweeping, multitalented look book we’ve seen. Check out more images after the jump. —Kendall Herbst
Photo:Courtesy of Carlos Miele
Photo: Courtesy of Carlos Miele
Photo: Courtesy of Carlos Miele
