Brazilian Import: People Who Shop Together…
By
May 19, 2010
DIANE VON FURSTENBERG, CARLOS JEREISSATI, CECILIA DEAN
PHOTO BY PATRICK MCMULLAN
Diane von Furstenberg is looking south these days–specifically to Sao Paulo. She opened a shop in the shopping center Iguatemi not quite two months ago, and the numbers suggest that her new presence in Brazil is quite welcome. Last night, the designer held a dinner in honor of Carlos Jereissati, longtime family friend and CEO of Iguatemi, last night at her very busy studio.
Diane gave a toast to Jereissati: “I had always heard Iguatemi, Iguatemi, Iguatemi, I thought, ‘How excited can you be about a shopping center?’ I didn’t really understand what it was. And I have to tell you, Iguatemi is really not just a shopping center, it is really a community. I have never seen it anywhere else—it is a world. It’s 45 years old; mothers and daughters and granddaughters shop and eat and get their hair done and people met and have lunch. It is the only place in the world that is the shopping center that has a soul,” Diane explained.
“In all the countries of the future, Brazil is where the future will be the most pleasant,” Diane continued, urging guests to look into business in Brazil. “It’s incredible how open the Brazil consumer is, and she doesn’t care about the price-she buys anyway. And she buys it for her sister, and she buys it in every color, and she buys it again because she lost it.”
Jereissati remarked fondly of DVF’s taste and aura. “I think the way she is, is very much the way the Brazilian woman is.” Maybe it’s because she “buys anyway.”
He explained other similarities between New York and Sao Paolo. “It is a financial center, working city, people are very crazy-doing a lot of stuff together. They love fashion, they love to go out, they love nightlife, dining, appreciate the best. They really want to have the best in their life and they work for hard to do that. Sao Paolo is the version of New York in South America.”
Before he headed off to the 18th Floor at the Standard Hotel, we asked Jereissati if he suggested a great nightlife spot in Sao Paolo. If any readers plan to head to Brazil, be it for business or pleasure, it sounds like Numero is the place to be.
