My family arrived in Brazil from Italy in 1945 as part of the big immigration wave after the second world war. We stayed in Rio for a while before coming to São Paulo, where my parents, who owned a textile business, had some friends. They’d become millionaires through the food and real-estate industries here; I remember going to sleep on the first night in their magnificent big house. The most wonderful thing that struck me about the city was the green.
Costanza Pascolato at Ici Bistro, São Paulo © Gabo Morales
São Paulo was only a small town then; now around 22 million people live here. The Brazilian fashion industry is basically all here too. I mean, they make shoes in the south but São Paulo is the centre; or at least it has become so since I first started working in the ’70s as a fashion editor – writing for Claudia, a Brazilian fashion magazine, Folha de S.Paulo and then later for Vogue Brasil. Brazilian style is all about being sexy and showing off the body. We invented the itsy-bitsy bikini. Some of our fashion is quite tacky, to be honest.
Seared duck foie gras, fig and spice purée and tangerine at Ici Bistro © Gabo Morales
I’m often asked about my up-do. As I got older my face went down, so my hair went up
