Alexandre Herchcovitch, 30 Years Beyond Fashion

 

Through his unique, subversive, and impeccable work in terms of finishes and patterns, Alexandre Herchcovitch has become the most important name in the history of Brazilian fashion, having also achieved great relevance on the international scene. Over the course of thirty years, the designer has shown his collections in the fashion weeks of London, Paris, and New York, as well as, of course, the Brazilian fashion weeks of both São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro.

Born in 1971 in São Paulo, the son of second-generation Jewish immigrants began his career at an early age. His mother Regina Herchcovitch taught him how to sew, and he soon put his ideas into practice by creating clothes for her. In his late teens, he drew a skull, which, together with his signature, became his first logo. Inspired by drawings from anatomy books, it was also his first print, an icon of his production that is still used—and widely desired—nowadays.

In the early 1990s, the designer became part of São Paulo’s sparkling nightlife and soon grew closer to drag queens, transvestites, transsexuals, and all the multiplicity of characters that made up the electronic music scene of that period. Fascinated by the subversion of gender norms of those who became his friends, he started making BDSM-inspired clothes for Márcia Pantera, the drag queen who rewrote the performative parameters by challenging the possibilities of her own body. Márcia Pantera started wearing her BDSM-inspired clothes in performances that challenged the possibilities of her own body. It wouldn’t take long for Herchcovitch to approach DJ and then night host Johnny Luxo, for whom he also began to create some looks. His first fashion show was held at the Columbia nightclub, on the corner of Augusta and Estados Unidos streets, where Johnny Luxo walked in an outfit also sporting the BDSM aesthetic perpetuated in various collections throughout his career.

He started his Fashion studies at Faculdade Santa Marcelina in 1990. Called a ‘fashion Viking’ by some of his professors because of his challenging attitude, the long-colored hair, the beard, and his style proposals, his time at the institution was nothing short of a hurricane, culminating in 1993 with his graduation show.

Denying all the standards demanded by the institution, which was run by nuns, Herchcovitch presented a beautifully disconcerting show that opened with Márcia Pantera wearing horns, a long white T-shirt dress with a giant inverted cross hand-painted in black, and carrying a large rosary dripping red paint on the white fabric catwalk. A new universe was being created right there in that small auditorium, suddenly taking over Brazilian and then international fashion. From there, he went on catwalks from all over the world, and finally opened a store in Tokyo. He dressed Icelandic star Björk and American actress Scarlett Johansson, as well as top models such as Gisele Bündchen, Caroline Ribeiro, and Fernanda Tavares, fashion icons in the 1990s and 2000s.

Throughout his stellar career, Herchcovitch has never failed to cherish his family, his circle of friends, and his Jewish origin. In one way or another, the aesthetics of religious Jewish women from Central and Eastern Europe and the clothes of the Haredim (ultra-orthodox Jews) were mixed with BDSM jumpsuits, shoes with very high heels, latex clothes, deconstructed silk satin dresses, lingerie, Carmen Miranda-inspired frills, burkhas, always with one foot in the alternative communities that welcomed him when he was young: punks, goths, ravers, drag queens, sex workers, transvestites, and transsexuals. From this strong Jewish influence in dialog with various other perspectives and identities, Alexandre, who has never been a religious person, has occupied a unique place in fashion.

The exhibition celebrating his (more than) thirty-year career presents visitors with a panorama based on the Aramaic term bereshit, the first word written in the Torah, that means ‘in the beginning,’ and has its origins in the Aramaic term resh, or rosh in Hebrew, which stand for ‘head.’ In the beginning, in the head, a multiple universe is created and set in motion. Such is the concept behind this first exhibition by this designer who has set in motion a very personal universe and embraced his time with an eye towards the future.

Alexandre Herchcovitch, 30 Years Beyond Fashion is the translation of this multifaceted world created from notions of collectivity, subversion, and inclusion, in which fashion has been a tool for questioning gender standards and representativeness. With his creative force, he was able to mercilessly break down the prejudices and limits of an exclusive and excluding market, rebuilding a system from the bottom up from a comprehensive and disruptive perspective.

 

Maurício Ianês, 2024.

Continuing its mission of exhibiting Jewish artists from Brazil and abroad, the Museu Judaico de São Paulo presents the unprecedented exhibition Alexandre Herchcovitch, 30 Years Beyond Fashion, the first one to showcase the career of the greatest name in Brazilian fashion.

The presence of fashion in museums dates back to decades ago, as it gained recognition as a significant cultural expression. In the 19th century, art institutions occasionally started to include clothing in their exhibitions, mostly limited to historical pieces. At the beginning of the 20th century, however, European museums began to acquire collections and hold exhibitions dedicated exclusively to the subject.

Ever since, retrospectives of designers such as Yves Saint Laurent, Christian Dior, Vivienne Westwood, and Alexander McQueen have occupied the halls of prestigious museums around the world. Although the presence of fashion in these institutions is still a minority, the fundamental role it plays in understanding the social and political dynamics of a specific culture and period is increasingly visible.

By exploring thirty years of Herchcovitch’s production, we are transported through various facets and moments of Brazilian culture, ranging from the underground of the 1990s to modernist architecture and São Paulo’s LGBTQIA+ scene, among other interests of the artist, all intertwined with contemporary cosmopolitan references. Often, these references lay bare his Jewish identity, as in the winter 2012 collection, inspired by the garments of religious Jews, of which Herchcovitch reissued five pieces especially for this exhibition, which will integrate the Museum’s collection.

Alexandre Herchcovitch’s irreverent, inventive, and versatile production has been shown on the main national and international catwalks, being commercialized in dozens of countries throughout his career, and becoming known to different generations. Yet, his success is not merely the result of artistic creation.

In a certain occasion, Herchcovitch revealed that the lining of clothes was as important to him as the outside, because it is the lining that establishes contact with the skin of the person wearing it. Similarly, in fashion, what is behind the production is crucial to the end result. In his case, a combination of technical mastery, tireless collaborative work, and a generous dose of chutzpah, the Jewish daring.

Curated by Maurício Ianês in a tight-knit collaboration between Alexandre Herchcovitch and the Museu Judaico de São Paulo, we hope this exhibition to offer a thought-provoking insight into the vast production of an artist who has inevitably contributed not only to the imagination of fashion, but to that of Brazilian culture as a whole over the past three decades.

Felipe Arruda
Executive Director
Museu Judaico de São Paulo