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The Art of Alexandre Spyer
(Article courtesy of VENTURA magazine. Adapted by Christina Ramos)

We find it a privilege to be able to bring to our readers the "breaking news" about this wonderful Brazilian artist who is getting a growing attention from the Brazilian public and press. In a jeans-wearing world Spyer revives and fires our desire to be glamorous and exercise our right to beauty... and mystery.

We were delighted when VENTURA magazine (www.ventura-cult.com.br) kindly allowed us to reprint the article about Alexandre Spyer, which came out few years ago in their Summer 2002 edition.

Alexandre Spyer is seen (first photo on the left) with Valéria Valessa, one of the icons of Brazilian carnival and known as "Globeleza". Valéria Valessa is married to designer Hans Donner of Globo TV and Spyer is the artist who beautifully paints her body for carnival, each year in different patterns. "Globeleza" is also exclusively photographed by Renato Neto. What a team!

Young Spyer is a guy-next-door type and it is a real pleasure to acknowledge his low-profile, since he is nationwide known, mainly for his well-known body painting on beautiful Valéria Valessa, an icon of Brazilian carnival. His sculptures and paintings are also superb and he is each and every day increasingly admired in the Brazilian world of fashion.

We believe the images of his work speak for themselves (see left).

Article published at VENTURA Magazine
Written by Cleo La Porte. Translated by Anthony Waugh

“ALEXANDRE SPYER’S CREATIONS TAKE US FROM THE MIDDLE AGES THROUGH TO THE STAR WARS ERA, INTRODUCING A NEW AND DARING ELEMENT INTO THE UNIVERSE OF BRAZILIAN FASHION

Webs, mysterious, sinuous, lace-like spiders' webs... the details which shine forth from these light and finely textured fabrics may be small but they are luminous and absolutely essential: buttons of colored resin, transparent Swarovski crystals, sparkling lights which suggest the diverse tones of tropical nights, when the imagination runs wild and pure fun and freedom are the rule.

In this heated atmosphere, the best option is often clothing with the icy touch of metal and multifaceted crystals. Highlights are the moon-colored, silvery or gilt tones, or the motifs covered in seductively beautiful and finely knit wire, all of which involve, insinuate and suggest a manner of defining the rhythm and flow of a party, or even to maintain the class and art which may be found in Venice's Carnival, in the clothing of past eras and in the pale-faced masks with their strict and correct features.

The daring use of medieval helms, allied to the futurism of the space age, appears as a complete novelty in the aesthetics of fashion: metallic clothing, which provokes as much as it covers, insinuates more than it uncovers.

This is where we find the originality of Alexandre Spyer's creations: he is more sculptor than fashion designer. Unfettered by convention, he mixes the baroque with the modern, the daring, and the result is a widely contrasting effect. When taken with his suave lines and the curves of his abstract designs, the coldness of the fabrics becomes a secondary consideration.

Alexandre's pieces are made out of iron and, in order to give mobility and flexibility to his in-no-way conventional dresses and tops, he uses silicone rings together with the galvanized links and chains.

There is absolutely no dearth of creativity when Spyer paints human bodies, when he creates gowns to be worn at sophisticated balls, nor when he designs luxurious costumes for the rich and famous, guaranteed to get maximum attention when they appear in the Carnival parade.

Before going to Geneva — where the clothes and accessories he created for stores like Le Mouton à Cinque Pattes were a great success — Spyer was responsible for the costumes used in the opening of soap operas like Vamp and of programs such as Fantástico; when in Europe, he also collaborated with photographers Etienne Delacrétaz and Otto Weisser in productions for Germany's Neu Magazine, and participated in the creation of costumes for clubs like Le Loft and for festivals, such as Les Espoirs du Cinéma Européen, in Geneva.