São Paulo – Designers Priscila Barcelos and Rosa Duarte gave their brand a romantic name. They dubbed it Giulietta to allude to the famous William Shakespeare story and also to make and sell romantic clothing for women under the brand. And so they have been doing since 2009. The brand is less than two years old and can already be seen at stores in Brazil and overseas, in cities such as New York, in the United States, and Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates.
Exports to Dubai only started last year, after a buyer from the region spotted the items at a showroom of the brand in a hotel in Rio de Janeiro, the city where Giulietta is based. Priscila describes her brand’s clothing as “feminine, fresh and modern” and explains that she only ships her most elaborate and expensive items to the Emirates. “With lots of shine!,” she says. There is only one importer in the region.
Exports, in fact, still account for very little, roughly 1% of the total produced by Giulietta, according to Priscila. And it is not a target of investment on the part of the company. “Right now, we are focusing on Brazil,” claims Priscila. The brand currently produces approximately 10,000 items a year. Half that volume is produced at Giulietta’s own facilities and the other half is outsourced.
Originality is one of the differentials for Giulietta and is also present in the names given to the collections. The latest one, for the coming spring-summer, for instance, was based on a sunset scene at an urban resort. The current autumn-winter collection is based on the universe of aviation, with items featuring airplane pilot owls and colourful aircraft. The first collection ever launched, in January 2010, was called “Quem não tem cão, caça com gato” (a popular Brazilian saying, meaning he who has no dog goes hunting with a cat) and was based on a kitty that showed up at the door of the designers’ atelier.
Priscila and Rosa are friends. They met while working at a company and decided to establish a brand together. “We shared the same dream, the same interests and tastes,” says Priscila. Rosa studied Fashion at the National Service for Industrial Apprenticeship (Senai) and also in New York, at the Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT). Priscila studied at the Veiga de Almeida University, in Rio de Janeiro, and at the Central Saint Martin’s College of Art and Design, in London.
Contact
Giulietta
Site: www.giulietta.com.br
Telephone: (+55 21) 2429-6388
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum