Famous fashion followers Demi Moore, Ashton Kutcher, Paris Hilton and Christina Aguilera were among those at Sao Paulo’s Fashion Week, which kicked off two Fridays ago with a run of shows in the country’s second city.

The week-long event was followed by Fashion Rio, which experienced one of its strongest seasons in years. Over two dozen designers showed their Winter 2011/12 collections to an international audience.

It seems Rio de Janeiro is moving away from bikinis and towards sophisticated sportswear and doing it with unexpected self-assurance.

Among the assortment of shows at Fashion Rio, there were more than a few that would fit right in on the runways of Sao Paulo – and, in some cases, New York or London.

Convincing trends on show are sure to resonate on the international runways in the coming months. Fashion Rio was all about, bold prints and strong fabric patterns, most notably from Marcia Queiroz, Alessa, Cantao and in the Pendleton-inspired guys-and-girls showing of British Colony.

Innovative application, summery designs, and warm, often layered autumn-winter pieces were key runway factors.

Designer Andrea Marques was noted as one of the standout shows of the week, showing a modern, chic and practical, collection combining 1990s all-American sportswear with contemporary Brazilian sensibility. Source: The Business of Fashion