André Lima

About the designer

André Luis Cardosos Lima is a Brazilian fashion designer.

Origin (family backround, birth)

He was born in Belém do Pará, the most important city of lush Amazon, in 1971. Since his childhood André Lima has become familiar to live next to an abundance of stimuli. He grew up in a big house dominated by strong women: his mother was a professor of mathematics and English, his grandmother and his three aunts were seamstress. His father was a merchant in Gurupá, a small city located on an island in the river Amazonas, which was two and a half days by boat, far away from Belém. There he was selling tissues. Sometimes, he took Andrew with him, to the stores, to order with him together the cuts they sold.

Job activities & experiences

In Belém, where André Lima lived most of the time the underground scene of the 1980s began and with that his career in fashion started up. In 1992 he arrived in Sao Paulo, where he presented his first men’s wear collection, in the alternative Mercado Mundo Mix. His experiences in street wear led him a job as creative director of one of the most important young brands in the country, the Cavalera. There he used his good humor to play with icons such as Chanel, Prada and Louis Vuitton, taking the “luxury for all”.

In 1999, André Lima was invited to join the House of Creators, a launch event for new designers. His debut in women’s wear fashion has its own little story: he collected fabrics sold by his father and created dresses for Maria Bethânia, a Brazilian singer, who was the inspiration for the designer.

Soon his creations won the attention of the media, and André Lima established himself at the fashion market. And so in 2001, he debuted at the most important fashion event in Latin America, the Sao Paoulo Fashion Week.

In 2007 André Lima expanded his collection and founded his diffusion line “Dia de André Lima”.

In 2008 Andre has developed a line of decoration in partnership with Firma Casa.