JOÃO MARASCHIN
Brazilian designer Joao Maraschin graduated from London College of Fashion with a Masters in Womenswear in 2020. His debut collection “Foreigner Traveller” was presented at the Positive Fashion Initiative exhibition organised by the British Fashion Council during LFW in February 2020. Sara Maino, Head of Vogue Talents, invited Maraschin to be part of the “A New Awareness” exhibition in September 2020 during MFW. Joao also undertook a three-month course in luxury and sustainability delivered by Kering and Centre for Sustainable Fashion at the University of Arts London. He won the Drapers Sustainability 2021 Graduate Award as well as is one of the Circular Fashion Summit 2021’s Honourees. In the same year, Joao was also selected for an Arts and Environmental Residency at Thread Senegal by the Joseph and Anni Albers Foundation. Maraschin then launched a capsule collection at Selfridges later that year and, in September 2022, a collaboration with Alexander McQueen which was available at selected retailers around the world. In 2023, Joao was the first Brazilian designer to be shortlisted for the LVMH Prize.
In London, Joao worked for Wales Bonner and JWAnderson before launching his eponymous brand. Through his namesake brand, Joao celebrates handcrafts such as embroidery, crochet and macramé through socially driven projects, repurposing dead-stock while championing responsible solutions.The brand has an ongoing relationship with Fashion Revolution and Fashion Open Studio in projects and exhibitions across the UK and Europe. Joao is also a Design Lecturer at Central Saint Martins and London College of Fashion which reinforces the education pillar in Joao’s practice. Previous to moving to London, Joao worked as a designer at Ronaldo Fraga for four collections, at Lacoste before that as well as in different knitwear labels in his home town, Caxias do Sul.
JOAO MARASCHIN is a brand focused on reinventing handmade craft by incorporating it in every product we create. Our customer is ethically and politically engaged, with an eye for contemporary design that values sustainability and craftsmanship. Our collaborative driven model is one our USPs and our innovation seeking approach to authentic traditional craftsmanship are what makes us different from other businesses. We create products with real stories without compromising our key values and ethics, taking into consideration everything and everyone that participates in our development process.
The brand ethos is rooted in sustainability, the material culture of a place and on building more respectful connections as well as working with new discoveries in raw materials, looking at circularity, waste repurposing, longevity and human centred design. The aesthetics are a hybrid of Brazilian tropical modernism with a European sensibility. Concepts are driven by social projects we engage with and thematic research is a visual critical response to everyday life. By putting sourcing at the centre of our design development, we make better decisions on working with more responsible materials coming from deadstock, repurposing industrial waste and creating space and enterprise for inherited craftsmanship.
We amplify artisans’ voices to be part of our decision-making process and embed their narratives in our surface design, paying them above wages and making sure we improve the livelihoods of the communities we rely on. We are invested in continuously give renewed value to artisans’ practices and create long-term positive change by offering financial security and mobility opportunities for marginalised communities in Brazil, Italy and the UK.
As a young entrepreneur, my guiding principles are to create respectful connections and long-term partnerships with my whole supply chain and find solutions for the climate crisis emergency by researching and implementing new innovative materials, product designed for longevity and treating craft as relic.
