For Brazil, a country synonymous with the ultimate bikini wax and renowned the world over for chest-baring Carnival celebrations and cheek-flaunting thongs, the latest swimwear trend at São Paolo Fashion Week is a little counterintuitive. Reports coming out of the festival, which ends today, say designers are asking their models to hit the runways (and their customers to hit the beaches) with more fabric on than usual. Even the brand Poko Pano, which literally translates into ‘bit of cloth’, played up the one-pieces, sundresses, and pajama bottoms of its Summer 2008 collection. This, from the label’s space on the Fashion Week website:

“Bikinis have structured cups and high-waist bottoms in well-behaved models – other cuts were less obedient.”

Since when are high-fashion bikinis marketed in terms of good behavior and obedience?

Observers of this unexpected development stood on the sideline without protest, seeming to approve:

‘The one-piece suit, relegated (in Brazil) for decades, is back in […]’ experts said of the new trend.

“Less bare skin ‘back in’?” responded men all over the world, we imagine. “Say it ain’t so, Adriana. Say it ain’t so.”

Vintage Image [Edwardian-Delights.com]
Modern Images [Poko Pano / Sao Paulo Fashion Week]
Paolo Robba for Poko Pano — Summer 2008 [Sao Paulo Fashion Week]
Ipanema girl to show less skin, more fabric, on Brazil beaches [MonstersAndCritics.com]