THE DUTCH DESIGNER Wilbert Das first visited the Brazilian beach town of Trancoso in 2004 on a whim after hearing about it from a friend in the Italian province of Vicenza, where he’d moved in 1988 at the age of 24 and eventually became the creative director of what was then a fledgling denim line called Diesel. Das’s friend had raved about Trancoso’s unassuming glamour, its 17th-century bone-white chapel that fronted the electric blue Atlantic and the fishermen’s houses in Easter-egg hues that line its grassy main square, the Quadrado. Das, now 55, went in June — “the lowest of the low season” — and left completely enchanted: “I’d never been any place like it.” A town of 11,000 people, Trancoso had neither electricity nor running water until the early 1980s, shortly after the first hippies, fleeing Brazil’s military regime, started migrating from São Paulo, 870 miles (approx. 1,400km) to the south. Even today, Trancoso seems not so much frozen in time as indifferent to it.
This story is from the December 2019 edition of T Singapore: The New York Times Style Magazine.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Sign In
This story is from the December 2019 edition of T Singapore: The New York Times Style Magazine.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In
Look At Us
As public memorials face a public reckoning, there’s still too little thought paid to how women are represented — as bodies and as selves.
Two New Jewellery Collections Find Their Inspiration In The Human Anatomy
Two new jewellery collections find their inspiration in the human anatomy.
She For She
We speak to three women in Singapore who are trying to improve the lives of women — and all other gender identities — through their work.
Over The Rainbow
How the bright colours and lively prints created by illustrator Donald Robertson brought the latest Weekend Max Mara Flutterflies capsule collection to life.
What Is Love?
The artist Hank Willis Thomas discusses his partnership with the Japanese fashion label Sacai and the idea of fashion in the context of the art world.
The Luxury Hotel For New Mums
Singapore’s first luxury confinement facility, Kai Suites, aims to provide much more than plush beds and 24-hour infant care: It wants to help mothers with their mental and emotional wellbeing as well.
Who Gets To Eat?
As recent food movements have focused on buying local or organic, a deeper and different conversation is happening among America’s food activists: one that demands not just better meals for everyone but a dismantling of the structures that have failed to nourish us all along.
Reimagining The Future Of Fashion
What do women want from their clothes and accessories, and does luxury still have a place in this post-pandemic era? The iconic designer Alber Elbaz thinks he has the answers with his new label, AZ Factory.
A Holiday At Home
Once seen as the less exciting alternative to an exotic destination holiday, the staycation takes on new importance.
All Dressed Up, Nowhere To Go
Chinese supermodel He Sui talks about the unseen pressures of being an international star, being a trailblazer for East Asian models in the fashion world, and why, at the end of the day, she is content with being known as just a regular girl from Wenzhou.
