Piet, the São Paulo-based label run by creative director Pedro Andrade, announced its exclusive collection with Swarovski, addressing a theme that is unusual to say the least: the peeling walls of Brazil.
Known globally for its collaborations, the streetwear brand has a strong influence of Brazilian culture in its pieces. This time around, Piet brought an unusual theme to its partnership with Swarovski: the peeling walls of Brazil. For creative director Pedro Andrade, this collaboration is a way for the brand to tell us about an underground, undiscovered story Brazil, in a fun and very sophisticated way. “At Piet, we're committed to highlighting Brazilian stories and subcultures globally that, until then, only Brazilians knew. We want to talk about our everyday traditions, things that sometimes we don't even notice ourselves, but which are intrinsic in our lives.”
In a 6-piece capsule collection, the renowned Swarovski crystals appear in diverse forms, such as in the cross of a peeling painting of a Saint, or even in the representation of new asphalt stones stuck to the toe of a boot. Each item reflects Swarovski's technical expertise in creating precision crystals, incorporated with sophisticated and original designs that are Piet's trademark.
The choice of walls came about when Andrade realized that, for years, he had kept photos of various walls he came across in São Paulo and on his travels around Brazil. “There is a strange beauty to the peeling, the mixtures of colors that appear in different layers, and the most diverse ads possible superimposed on the walls. I developed a kind of obsession with this kind of texture, as it always helped me a lot when it came to finding color combinations. It's an involuntary art, which, despite being made by human beings, has a life of its own. It's almost organic.”
Faced with this theme, Pedro found the perfect contrast to integrate Swarovski, bringing the almost aggressive rusticity of many overlapping layers of paint, advertisements, stains and graffiti together with the delicacy and sophistication of the crystals produced in Austria by the celebrated brand.
“They are two different types of beauty, two parallel universes, and being able to bring them together is what made our partnership unique.” The highlight of the collaboration is the boot, which displays a hand-painted and studded toe box, yielding a vintage, yet extremely sophisticated, look.
The collection consists of 6 SKUs and prices range from $200-700 USD. The official launch takes place on July 25, from 6pm, at the Piet Flagship Store in São Paulo, and on July 26, from 10am BRT, at the Piet e-shop.
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