I added an entirely new side to my wardrobe when we lived in Brazil. Not only did I discover new designers; I discovered color! And I discovered the dress that was the icing on the Brazilian birthday parties we attended. In our three years there, I went from predominantly black and dark clothing to colorful and bright everything.
Choosing to dress in colors, not to mention bright ones, was a whole new experience, and one that I embraced on every occasion I could.
I even started to layer colors, leaning less on black as the base color of every outfit. This was otherwise a habit that I had developed while living in Berlin and continued during my years in Copenhagen.
The Brazilian Birthday Party
Kids’ birthday parties in Brazil were like nothing we had ever experienced before. They were planned and executed on a scale similar to weddings. From the invitations, food, table settings, decorations and entertainment, it was more than any one of us had seen living in a very understated Nordic country like Denmark.
But like everything else we encountered during our time in Brazil, we embraced the chance to live it up. And we enjoyed being a part of this warm and loving culture. In the beginning, we walked into these parties having no idea what to expect. But we were consistently gob smacked by the elaborate party themes.
Our first of many lessons was the mistake of arriving on time.
Oops!
For example, at the birthday party for one of my 3-year-old daughter’s classmates, he and his mother were still getting ready when we arrived. They didn’t make an appearance until an hour after the hand-made, wooden-boat invitation stated that the party was to start.
Luckily, we had been informed that even if the invitation was for our daughter, the entire family was invited. And that even included extended family and sometimes even family friends. We also learned that there is a protocol for what to wear to kids’ birthday parties.
Brazilian Women Are Truly Gorgeous!
While the men breezed through in shorts and polos, the women had put a lot of effort into their overall appearance. They seemed to have taken special care to pick out a dress that reflected their femininity and fit their bodies beautifully.
Their hair and makeup were not left to chance either. Clearly, hours were spent with specialists to ensure they came out looking gorgeous. Some even had a stylist chase behind them for the duration of the party. They trailed them to make sure each strand of hair stayed in place and their lipstick looked fresh.
The Dress That Was the Icing
Even if I never went all the way with a hair stylist and makeup artist, I did love getting to wear some of my beautiful dresses, and was excited to collect even more. And for some reason, this particular dress became my go-to dress for such parties.
It was light, happy, colorful, easy to wear and easy to keep clean. It wasn’t too much, but still a lot compared to how I normally dressed for a kids’ birthday party. And it truly felt like this was the dress that was the icing!
So Began My Love for Farm Rio
Early on I learned that any genuine opportunity for me to soak in Brazilian culture through its clothing labels was going to be in Rio or Sao Paolo. My collection of Farm Rio clothing goes deep.
I have at least one dress from each season, and this was also how I found my daughter’s favorite brand, Fábula, as they were housed in the same building as Farm Rio in Sau Paolo.
I felt lucky that Farm Rio was one of the few Brazilian clothing brands that had an actual store in Brasilia, where we lived. So I spent a lot of time at store, as it reflected the Brazil that I wanted to live in and the store itself had created an atmosphere that felt light, happy and inviting.
Ottilia’s love of dresses had started before we left for Brazil as I was already starting to rub off on her, but because of the weather and the ease of just throwing on a dress for any occasion, we both became even more grounded in our love for easy and pretty dresses – especially ones that are a little quirky and tell a story.
Take a closer look at Farm Rio and Fábula here:
what do you think?