January 27, 2013 |
We’ve just discovered an exceptionally fabby creature named Wonder Claudia – a button-nosed tranny down Rio way, with more than a passing resemblance to Marilyn. Which Marilyn, you ask. Well, good question. Somewhere between Boy George’s slightly scary, dread-headed mate and the original boop-boop-a-doop-ing icon, actually. No, she’s not one of those unusual characters we’ve oft found ourselves over-sharing with in the wee small hours in some sticky-floored nightclub. We happened upon her in the whirlwind tour that is Armand Limnander’s amazing new tome, Brazilian Style. We’ve not got far in, but this is an intense sort of expedition, and we’ve already concluded that this great beauty perfectly personifies the sun-soaked land – she’s a heady concoction of glamour and grit that we’re guzzling down in paper form. Though, in reality, we’re imagining this book more as some sort of freshly torn tropical fruit. Excuse the creative juices running down our chins, won’t you? In one of very few attempts to thoroughly describe the draw of Brazil’s music, architecture, fashion, cuisine and artistic movements, Mr Limnander has authored something wholly refreshing. Well, of course he has. As deputy editor of W magazine he naturally understands the great importance of the Brazilian market, as well as the more disreputable pleasures on offer, conceding in his intro that, while compiling his vibrant encyclopedia, he may have “just needed an excuse to keep going back for more caipirinhas on the beach”. Fair enough, really. Out now.
by Vincent Levy
