DaLiciuUs™: 11/2010

On my last trip to Sao Paulo, I was impressed with the elegance of this gentleman. He owns a newsstand

in the Frei Caneca area. It's not usual to find a newsstand owner well dressed with such taste. He is very confident of himself and knows what works for him. The shoes add a touch of formal to a pretty casual combo of pants and long sleeve shirt. The bracelet in leather and 18k gold caught my eyes instantly and I love the big modern watch - a trend that has been seen a lot lately in Brazil. Mr. Gradiz was kind enough to pose for this blogger.

And then I was so excited about this bracelet and thought that it was a genuine men jewelry piece designed by some fabulous Brazilian designer...wrooonnnng! He told me he bought it during his last vacation trip to Cancun. Imagine my face?!? Regardless the source it was cool to see guys well groomed on daily basis. An if during your next trip to Sao Paulo you see yourself around the Frei Caneca neighborhood stop by at his office to say hello and buy cool mags.

Mr. Gradiz
Banca de Revistas Violeta
Rua Matias Aires 95
Consolacao/Cerqueira Cesar
Sao Paulo

Photos by Fernando Dasilva © 2010.

Many times writing for a blog obligates you to be current as much as possible...I like to be current and fresh when I can make that a spontaneous and gratifying act. My career is not well disciplined and I don't manage my time very well. I was in Brazil for a month, from end of August to almost end of September dealing with personal issues and little bit of work.

I got back one day and the next day I flew to Cranston-Rhode Island to be part of the Swarovski Ambassador Training. After I got back I had to dedicate all my time to finish new designs for a customer and, two weeks after that, I was in Mexico City working for a manufacturer. So time went by so fast that I did not manage to blog from the road and add all the news from Swarovski earlier on this space, and that's why I am doing it just now.

The CREATE YOUR STYLE with SWAROVSKI ELEMENTS division was launching the Innovations for Autumn/Winter 2011/12. It was a fabulous event! A group f designers got together for the first time to bond and to talk about trends, new ideas, projects and goals. The Swarovski team treated us like family and we all felt really good about our partnership with Swarovski through the CREATE YOUR STYLE division.

I personally feel honored by having one of the most luxurious brands in the world sponsoring my design projects and endorsing my creative vision.

As fars as the products, the new shapes of beads stones, pendants and more and more, and the new colors pleased a lot my personal aesthetic.

I am a huge fan of yellow and smoky shades, so the new "Crystal silver night" and "Sunflower" gave me plenty of inspirations.

Crystal silver night = Elizabeth Taylor, Cate Blanchet

Sunflower = Julia Roberts, Jenifer Lopez

For some reason I made a small board with names of world celebrities that those two new colors remind me of and I came up with those. It's not important if in real life those colors are not appealing to them, but it's exciting for my creative process that those colors takes me to that world of beauty, glamour and stardom that those ladies exudes when walking the red carpet. This is Swarovski on its roots.

Many of the new shapes are extremely cool but here are my favorites (among the sample I got it) : lol

The ethereal existence of a butterfly now translated into a incredible and deep stone...joining the family of pendants and beads.

It can't getter more Irish than this one...an universal symbol of luck, we Latins love it! Can't wait for bigger sizes so the cuts can be really noticed.