Tracking shifts in the business and culture of Latin America’s creative industries.

In this edition, I’m bringing you highlights from Latin American designers who presented at London Fashion Week, a fantastic magazine dedicated to Latin American arts and my take on the Erdem and Burberry shows.

I’m also especially excited about Gabriel Pinto’s first solo exhibition in South Africa. He’s so talented and I hope this gorgeous imagery from the salt plains of Pampatar gets shown elsewhere, too. As always, if you found this newsletter valuable in any way, feel free to share it.

Let’s dive in.

The Brazilian designer presented her signature body-hugging cuts and introduced a collaboration with Pull&Bear that landed in stores on show day.

Bravo to Brazilian designer Karoline Vitto for her presentation at London Fashion Week on Saturday

The first thing I thought as I saw these beautiful girls walking down the runway (and they weren’t just curvy, they were all sorts of sizes) was that we need to normalise different bodies. They all looked healthy, beautiful and, boy, can Vitto work a bias cut.

Of course, her mastery of inclusive sizing is what launched the Central Saint Martins graduate to stardom in the first place. It’s no wonder her designs, available in sizes UK 8–28 and featuring signature metal hardware and cutouts crafted to highlight rather than hide the body, earned her a spot as an LVMH Prize semi finalist in 2024.

Her mandatory sexy cutouts and draped dresses were all present, but she also expanded into denim and matching jacket and trouser sets. The collection was rendered in a restrained palette of white, blues, grey and black.

Vitto flew in Brazilian model Anna Bia, who opened the show, specifically for the occasion. Longtime friend, collaborator and original cast member Fernanda Liberti also appeared, alongside a roster of diversely sized girls.

When the Santa Caterina native debuted in 2023, she ignited a conversation around real female bodies rather than the size zero dominance of previous decades. Now, with drugs like Ozempic pushing extreme slimness back into the mainstream, that conversation seems to have died down.

Vogue Business reported in October that plus size representation made up just 0.9 per cent of spring summer 2026’s catwalk looks, and while London was categorised as the most size inclusive fashion city out of the “big four”, it seems it was mostly back to the old skeletal sizing.

This debate has been going on for at least 30 years, and I’ll probably keep bringing it up until something significantly changes.

Raquel de Carvalho

LONDON FASHION WEEK
Meanwhile, other shows on the London schedule I had the opportunity to see were Erdem and Burberry. Both really, really beautiful.

Erdem Moralıoğlu was celebrating 20 years since establishing his brand. His first collection was AW 2006, following his graduation from the Royal College of Art.

Not fond of the word “retrospective”, Moralıoğlu presented instead what he called “a mash-up of dialogue” between the muses and historical figures he has researched over the years. Among them were Margot Fonteyn, Debo, Duchess of Devonshire, Maria Callas, Madame Yevonde and Radclyffe Hall, among countless others, their looks and garments recontextualised and reimagined.

Backstage, after the show, he talked about “the idea of cutting something in half and pairing it with jeans, what happens to the proportions of something precious.” The notion of being “quite loose” is something he said he had been exploring while digging into the archives. He cited black-and-white tweeds shredded into fur-like textures to form one dress, while another was assembled entirely from yellow embroidery swatches.

Burberry is also celebrating a milestone: it turns 170 years. For Autumn Winter 2026, Daniel Lee, unlike the last two seasons of bucolic inspiration, looked to the urban heart of the brand: London. “We wanted to celebrate the breadth of its nightlife.”

He chose to focus on the house icon, the trench coat, as a way to channel “the reality of British winter, living in darkness and bad weather,” envisioning clothes suited to winter’s many engagements. “Seeing people dressed for glamorous nights out made me think about clothes that could start at work and carry you through to a premiere or a charity gala,” he said backstage, adding, “From the moment we conceived it, it began raining and never stopped. I work beneath a huge skylight, so I watched it pour down every day.”

Materials-wise, he placed special focus on reworking their iconic check, to “explore it in textures that we’d never seen before.” Perhaps this is what he meant by shearling cut raw at the edge of jackets; check intarsias; petrol-shiny checked trenches; or adding faille that ruffles on trench collars. “We wanted to celebrate silhouettes that felt more fluid and languid, using those textures to achieve that fluidity,” he added.

Of course, we can’t forget the Tower Bridge installation at the centre of 1 Old Billingsgate (now an events venue that was formerly London’s main fish market), which lit up towards the finale. After the show, he shared an anecdote from his student days as inspiration: “When I first moved to London I lived in Whitechapel. I would often feel quite homesick, so when I did I would walk down the river to Tower Bridge and the Tower of London and that would make me feel better. Because I was excited just to be here.”

Venezuelan artist and photographer Gabriel Pinto presented his first international solo exhibition Pueblo de Sal at the Investec Cape Town Art Fair over the weekend. The work is a contemplative photographic series exploring labour, memory and identity in the Pampatar Salt Flats, located on Margarita Island. This historic wetland is one of the most beautiful and surreal places in Venezuela, its waters known for their intense pink and reddish hues, the result of a high concentration of salt and microorganisms.

Pinto was represented by BETA Contemporary (Barcelona) in the Tomorrows/Today section of the fair curated by Dr. Mariella Franzoni, held at the Cape Town International Convention Centre from 20–22 February 2026.

Pinto is an incredible artist, I was lucky to see his images displayed at Photo London in May, where he won the 2025 Photo London x Nikon Emerging Photographer Award. Pinto’s work focuses on exploring identity and the cultural roots of his land, serving as a bridge between past and present, bridging ancestral codes and contemporaneity. It reflects on how communities inherit culture across generations, with Pinto describing youth as “the salt that preserves the identity of its people.” [Nataal, Beta Contemporary]

I came accross Creatura, an annual, bilingual (ESP/ENG) print magazine exploring contemporary Latin American art and culture, thanks to Victoria Maldonado, Assistant Director at the Juan Carlos Maldonado Collection in Miami. She praised its essays, photography, and how beautifully curated it is. I trust her word.

Published by none other than KD Presse, a 20-year-old publisher in the business of luxury and culture print, the magazine is “born between continents; it is a space where contemporary voices speak through images, stories, rhythms, and memories.” Beyond the print edition, they also offer exhibitions, collaborations and digital platforms. Interesting. More on this soon!

Latin America accounted for roughly 15–20% of global generative AI app downloads in the first half of 2025, making it the world’s third most active region, with Chile, Costa Rica, and Peru among the fastest adopters. According to the 2025 Latin American AI Index (ILIA), produced by Chile’s National Center for Artificial Intelligence with support from ECLAC, this surge in public interest continues to outpace government action, revealing a significant gap between widespread enthusiasm for AI and the slow development of the institutional capacity needed to support and harness it. [Teletica via DW]

The Work Behind the Carnival. “Trabalho de Carnaval,” is an exhibiton on view at Pinacoteca de São Paulo until 12 April, which foregrounds the often invisible labour that makes the celebration possible. Bringing together more than 200 works by 70 artists across generations and regions, curated by Ana Maria Maia and Renato Menezes. [Nordestesse]

(By the way, if you don’t know it, check Nordestesse, a Brazilian platform focused on highlighting entrepreneurs and creatives from the nine states of Northeast Brazil.)

THE FINAL DATA ON BAD BUNNY’S SUPER BOWL HALFTIME SHOW

Launchmetrics’ final figures show this year’s Super Bowl generated $1.9B in Media Impact Value (MIV), up 37% year on year, making it the most impactful edition to date. Bad Bunny drove the moment: 52% of all coverage focused on him, the first time a headliner generated more conversation than the event itself.

Mentions linked to Bad Bunny alone produced $942.4M in MIV, nearly $1B, about double the value of September’s New York Fashion Week and almost six times Rihanna’s halftime show impact.

Brands he wore also benefited, with Zara earning $19.9M in MIV, Adidas $7.7M and Audemars Piguet $2.3M.