I’m Clara Balbi, a freshman and Journalism major at Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio de Janeiro (PUC-Rio). PUC might just be one of the gratest places in Rio to spot true lovers of the carioca lifestyle. Here, I wander through laid back, avant-garde Fashionistas/os everyday, hang out at the Pilotis, and usually run late for classes.
In my opinion, fashion — like any other art form — is based on expressing your own view of the world through clothes. As Diana Vreeland, Vogue’s editor-in-chief in the '60s and probably one of the most unique fashion editors humankind has seen, would say: “You gotta have style. It helps you get up in the morning.” If I were to define my style, I’d say it is pretty much a jumble of vintage stuff (thankfully, both of grandmas had a great sense of fashion and were just about the same size as me in their youth), girly dresses paired with men shoes, lacy things, and dozens of oversized white T-shirts. Being a Cinema student in another university, I am also obsessed with the work of French director Michel Gondry, nonsense short movies, and anything Nouvelle Vague-related (specially striped items of clothing) .
The thing I like most about street fashion in Rio is that we don’t ever follow rules. This simple fact, which might have turned the city’s traffic into an absolute chaos, has also defined our style aura: we’re elegant, but the word ‘heels’ is practically crossed out of our daily lives; we pay attentiion to our looks, but it doesn’t ever seem like we’re wearing any makeup. Most importantly, being a carioca is not about the traditional and worldwide cliché of wearing swimsuits all the time. It is about being free and stating it through what you wear.