BCFT RETURNS FOR LONDON CLIMATE ACTION WEEK WITH TWO MAJOR EXHIBITIONS EXPLORING THE RESILIENCE OF THE CAATINGA BIOME
The Brazilian dry forest responsible for 48% of the country's net carbon removal in 2025 takes centre stage in London through two exhibitions celebrating climate resilience, culture, biodiversity, and innovation.
Credit: Paraíba Meu Amor (2024-2026), Renato Imbroisi in partnership with PAP - Programa do Artesanato Paraibano and CRENÇA - Centro de Referência da Renda Renascença.
Caatinga: A Forest of Many Colours
showcased the legendary photographer Anna Mariani’s vital archival record of Brazil’s northeastern drylands.
Credits: PAISAGENS, IMPRESSÕES — O Semiárido Brasileiro Anna Mariani 191892; regiao de Riacho, outubro 90, BA.
Caatinga: Stitching Resilience
presented radical sustainable fashion, ancestral craftsmanship, and biomaterial innovations addressing global climate models.
Credits: Kant Rafael
24–28 June 2026
The Bomb Factory Art Foundation, London 206 Marylebone Rd, London NW1 6JQ
June 2026, during London Climate Action Week, Brazil Creating Fashion for Tomorrow (BCFT) returned to the capital to present a major dual-exhibition programme at The Bomb Factory Art Foundation. For its 2026 edition, BCFT brought together two distinct yet deeply interconnected exhibitions: Caatinga: Stitching Resilience, a showcase of avant-garde responsible fashion and pioneering biomaterial practices, alongside a curated selection of Anna Mariani's photographs (1935–2022): Caatinga, a Forest of Many Colours. Together, the exhibitions explored one of the most ecologically vital yet overlooked ecosystems and the communities that thrive within it.
The Caatinga, a semi-arid biome found exclusively in Brazil, lacks the lush greenery typically associated with tropical rainforests, yet its environmental impact is immense. Crucially, new scientific data reveals that in 2025, the Caatinga was responsible for an extraordinary 48 per cent of all gross carbon removal across Brazil. Forged by climate extremes and prolonged droughts, this unique landscape has given rise to sophisticated knowledge systems rooted in absolute resourcefulness, circularity, and environmental intelligence. In this logic of survival, waste does not exist: materials are systematically reused, repaired, and reimagined.
Hosted at The Bomb Factory Art Foundation, one of London's leading independent contemporary arts organisations, the dual programme positions northeastern Brazilian material culture as an urgent blueprint for global industries searching for regenerative models of production and consumption.
Credits: Photo 1: Amulet Bag - Seed of Memory: The Future Harvested in the Sertão (2025), Matrona | Photo 2: Corset Celestina - Winter 2026, Patú | Photo 3: Wooden Sunglasses - Summer 2026, Zumdoo | Photo 4: Ex-voto Suit - Winter 2026, Açude in partnership with Caxo Cria
The 2026 programme was divided into three principal components:
1. Caatinga: Stitching Resilience (Fashion, Sustainability and Innovation)
Curated by Camila Villas, Lilian Pacce and Marilia Biasi through three conceptual chapters - Tradition, Memory, and Territory - this exhibition features contemporary fashion designers, master artisans, and scientific researchers transforming regional raw scarcity into high-design statements.
Tradition examines the iconography of the vaqueiros (cowboys) and the Cangaço, a movement defined by British historian Eric Hobsbawm as a prime example of ‘social banditry’. It features the iconic leather gibão (armoured jacket) meticulously hand-crafted from goat hide and naturally tanned withnative angico bark by legendary master artisans such as Mestre Espedito Seleiro.
Memory celebrates the intricate, labour-intensive heritage of regional lace-making collectives (Renascença, Irlandesa, Boa Noite, among others). By translating hundreds of hours of manual craftsmanship into modern silhouettes, designers challenge the disposable nature of global fast fashion while securing fair, dignified wages to protect a vulnerable cultural legacy from generational decline.
Territory reveals radical biomaterial and ecological innovations where design operates as a direct collaborator with nature. Featured works utilise drought-resistant species, botanical pigments, and agricultural by-products—transforming raw, discarded elements into works of arresting beauty
Credits: Pinturas e Platibandas, 1987, Anna Mariani.I. Pindoba/Bahia/1983 | II. Bezerros/Pernambuco/1982 | III. Passa e Fica/Rio Grande do Norte/1985
2. Caatinga, a Forest of Many Colours, by Anna Mariani (Photography)
In a major highlight, BCFT presented the extraordinary visual archive of Brazilian photographer Anna Mariani. Documented over two decades between 1970 and 1990, Mariani’s geometric, colour portraits of the landscapes, domestic facades, and distinctive platibandas (decorative parapets) of the northeastern sertão remain one of the most important artistic records of the region. She has exhibited her work internationally, including a solo exhibition at the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris and several group exhibitions such as Colour in Context, at the Serpentine Gallery in London, and at the Forêt des Hommes, the Jardin des Plantes and the National Museum of Natural History (MNHN) in Paris.
3. Knowledge Day - June 26
This special program day, in partnership with Shape Innovate, brought together hands-on learning, critical dialogue, film, and community exchange around the themes of regenerative design, cultural heritage, and the future of fashion in the Caatinga. Beginning with a Natural Dyes Workshop, participants explored traditional dyeing techniques and material innovation rooted in local biodiversity. A series of panel discussions then examined regenerative futures, the collaboration between designers and artisans, and new approaches to building fashion systems that create lasting social and environmental impact. The day concluded with a screening of the documentary Anna Mariani - Photographic Notes, directed by Alberto Renault. Zaba Moreau, who is dedicated to promoting Anna Mariani’s photographic legacy, will take part in an open discussion reflecting on the film's themes, visual narratives, and cultural significance.
Free Admission
Brazil Creating Fashion for Tomorrow 2026 is proudly supported by Instituto Imbuzeiro, Instituto Arapyaú, The Embassy of Brazil in London, and ApexBrasil (Brazilian Trade and Investment Promotion Agency).
FEATURED DESIGNERS
Açude | Adriana Meira | Althair Santo | Antônio Rabelo | Catarina Mina | Elis Cardim | Espedito Seleiro | Flávia Aranha | Foz | Gustavo Silvestre
Guto Carvalhoneto | Instituto Renato Imbroisi | Marina Bitu | Matrona | Matulão | Melk Z-Da | Patu | Ronaldo Fraga | Sertão Encantado
Weider Silveiro | Zumdoo
MATERIAL INNOVATORS & RESEARCHERS
QI Química Inteligente (indigo dyeing) | Luciano Pinheiro (earthware dyeing) | Lia Coelho (goat cashmere research) | Nayane Araujo (biopolymer development) | Aiper (BioRed pigment technology).
Photos by Kant Rafael
ABOUT
BRAZIL CREATING
FASHION FOR TOMORROW
BCFT is an annual cultural and educational platform dedicated to showcasing Brazil's most forward-thinking contributions to sustainable fashion through exhibitions, public programmes and cross-sector collaborations. Bringing together fashion, climate action, ancestral knowledge, regenerative practices, material innovation and social impact, BCFT positions Brazil as a global reference for solutions rooted in biodiversity, circularity and cultural heritage.
BCFT is led by Camila Villas, Lilian Pacce and Marilia Biasi, bringing together expertise across sustainability, international development, design and cultural curation.
