São Paulo – Five years after the beginning of sales to Sauce, located in the luxurious Jumeirah Beach Road, in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Brazilian stylist Irá Salles received a special request: to develop an exclusive summer collection of handbags for the brand, which has among its clients prices Deena Abdul Aziz, of Saudi Arabia.
"The client provided me with some references about the colours and models and from then on I started working on the creation that resulted in sophisticated straw handbags with details in orange and yellow, with golden clasps, golden balls and orange beads," explained the stylist. "Some of the products also have violet, lemmon green, turquoise and lemmon yellow frills in crochet. It is all very lively and bright," she said.
According to the stylist, the first contact with the Source buyer was in New York, while Irá was participating in a fair. "The sophistication and artistic details of the products called attention and success was immediate," she recalls. "I normally present the releases at Première Class, in Paris, and notice growing increases in Arab buyers. They love my kind of product," stated Irá. According to her, in the most recent edition, which took place in September 2008, she made contacts with buyers in Lebanon and Kuwait, which have even already placed their first orders.
Brand Irá Salles was established in 1999. The stylist’s workshop is in Salvador, the capital of the state of Bahia. Production of around 250 items a month is developed by the company itself and generates around 35 direct jobs. "We work on a ‘slow fashion’ style, in which the products are made in small scale, some even being exclusive, made one by one," she pointed out. "It is very delicate work with high quality, with special and personalized lining and exclusive and original design, all very sophisticated," she added.
Apart from the handbags, Irá also produces sandals and female and children’s clothes. On the foreign market, however, the stylist only sells handbags and sandals, depending on the country. Of all the handbags produced, around 30% to 40% go abroad.
The stylist
Irá Salles, who defines herself as active, was always creative. Still in her childhood she made products out of papier machê, doll clothes and paintings. Even when small, she already exercised her style, and used vintage spoons belonging to her grandmother, old clothes and loved making miniatures, a characteristic brand of her current work.
Graduated from Parsons School of Design in New York, a school famous for all the great names that left it, like Calvin Klein, Marc Jocobs and Donna Karan among others. Irá started her career working in haute couture together with Carolina Herrera, where she developed models for Uma Thurman and princess Margareth, among other celebrities, but it was with her line of handbags that it all started when she decided to return to Brazil.
Established in Salvador, Irá Salles started creating items worked manually, but always with a modern touch and impeccable finishing in selected quality material. The line grew and then came sandals, a line of household products, female clothes and a line of baby products.
Today the products are sold in over 50 points of sale in Brazil, as well as 30 points of sale abroad distributed between the United States, the United Arab Emirates, Japan, Canada, France, England, Costa Rica, Ireland and Portugal. Apart from that she is recognised by national and international magazines like Vogue, Elle, Marie Claire, American Vogue and American Elle, among other publications.
Contact
Irá Salles
Tel.: (+55 71) 3355-0852
Site: www.irasalles.com.br
*Translated by Mark Ament
