São Paulo – It is impossible to remain indifferent. One cannot tell if it is due to the feminine character of the items, the texture of the lace, the handmade character of the materials used. The fact is that an ever-growing number of domestic and foreign customers are giving in to the charms of embroidery signed by the designer Martha Medeiros, based in the state of Alagoas and owner of the namesake brand. With two own stores, one in Maceió, Alagoas, and the other in São Paulo, the entrepreneur is present in 24 Brazilian cities. She already sells her embroidered dresses to Spain, the United States, Lebanon and Mexico. From now on, the plan is to grow domestically and abroad, with a focus on markets such as the Middle East.
“The domestic market is going strong now, therefore the focus of our strategy over the last two years was Brazil,” explains Gélio Medeiros, the company’s director. “However, in our planning for 2011, we have resumed the brand’s internationalization and in September we should attend the Vendôme Luxury fair, in Paris, France, presenting products targeted at the Middle East,” he claims.
Foreign sales will also be boosted by a facility in the United States. “We will count on our own office in that country to centralize all our exports,” says Medeiros. “Thus, all stores will be able to order Martha Medeiros products directly, with no need for intermediaries.”
The brand began exporting at the beginning of its operations, in 2005, with backing from the Brazilian Textile and Apparel Industry Association (Abit). “In a way, it was easier to place the product on the foreign market, because the items are differentiated, they are handmade,” says Medeiros.
The main differential of clothing by the brand, which is mostly known for its Renaissance-type lace dresses, is the handmade look that is at once sophisticated, the highlight being the longer models. The raw materials used also include bobbin and filet lace, combined with materials such as satin, zibeline, gazar, silk mousseline and imported findings, such as Swarovski crystals and Japanese pearls.
The combination of such artefacts results in models that please the tastes of personalities such as actresses Marília Pera and Deborah Secco, singers Daniela Mercury and Paula Fernandes and TV presenters Hebe Camargo and Sabrina Sato, among others.
To meet the demand, 200 women organized into cooperative sproduce lace for the brand in the interior of Alagoas. Aside from the hyped Renaissance lace, another highlight is the “good night” lace, made at Ilha do Ferro, by the São Francisco River, near the city of Pão de Açúcar, 320 kilometres away from the capital, Maceió. Everything is very artisanal and feminine, the way Martha Medeiros learned to do it with her grandmother, another lacemaking woman from Alagoas who worked to take the delicate embroidery from her land to the whole state.
Contact
Martha Medeiros
Telephone: (+55) (11) 3062-7907 and 3062-7659
http://www.marthamedeiros.com.br
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
