A rediscovery of Brazil, a patriotic approach, a celebration of the best that the country has to offer.

Príncipe Real was the name of the most prominent ship which, in 1807, accomplished the transfer of the Portuguese Court to Brazil, and also an official title born in 1815, when John IV elevated Brazil to the rank of Kingdom – it is also the name of one of the noblest and cosmopolitan neighbourhoods in Lisbon. Pau-Brasil, a manifest written by Oswald de Andrade who forecasted a country that would exchange importation for exportation. The work, published in 1925, launched the movement of primitivists and modernists as advocates of Brazilian roots.

From that inspiration, the businessman Rui Gomes Araújo, who was already a partner of IMPERIVM, a representation company of Brazilian brands in Portugal, conceived Casa Pau-Brasil and picked as its plateau the trendy neighbourhood of Príncipe Real, in order to reenact history.

Inaugurated on this year’s April 22nd – it is no coincidence that it took place on the same day that the former colony was discovered – the venue’s proposal, a concept store installed on a Pombaline palace dating from the 18th century, is in tune with the manifest – it renders a tribute, a deconstruction of the image that we are used to, a plunge into the density of Brazillianism and an emergence of singularity, a new understanding of what Brazil really is, through the perspective of the European individual and the Brazilian one as well.

Aware of the concept and the sound curatorship of Casa, the Fashion Label Brasil, an export program of Brazilian fashion established by ABEST (Association of Brazilian Stylists) in partnership with Apex Brazil (Brazilian Trade and Investment Promotion Agency) displays until November 12th the collections of 10 Brazilian brands, complementing the eighteen permanently showed at the Palace.

Clothing, snickers and bags are part of this selective portfolio of brands, such as Cabana, Catarina Mina, Cecilia Prado, Denise Gerassi, Isolda, Lilly Sarti, Martha Medeiros, SERPUI, UMA | Raquel Davidowicz and Veja.

Despite its eminently commercial trait, Casa Pau-Brasil outlines a path focused on becoming a reference of appreciation and sensorial experimentation of the best there is in Brazil. According to Rui Gomes Araújo, from Casa Pau-Brasil, “we want to be the House that shows and depicts the best that Brazil has to offer. From a Brazilian Brazil, of global propensity and international ambition. We are a point of sale, but we also want to become a lab, a stage and a platform for the internationalization of the brands in which we believe”.

From the decor inspired in the ocas (Brazilian indigenous domes) of Joana Astolfi to the multitude of brands with international propensity. From the DNA of the staff to the invitation of the space as a celebration of the Brazilian culture.

Text by Cristiane Cotrim