Born in rural countryside, Diego Vanassibara grew up in a green and quiet region in the deep south of Brazil synonymous for its agriculture and strong Italian and German influences. His mother comes from the usual stimulus of big cities, travels and libraries. The designer spent his childhood in contact with nature and trained own imagination to satisfy an insatiable hunger for creative stimulus.

After college, Diego decided to pursue a career in the creative industry where he trained to study architecture at university. Soon, however, he realised that he wanted combine both the structural and engineering sides of architecture with the free creative, exciting and fast pacing world of fashion. Footwear seemed to be where those two fields met.

Moving to London at 22 was the beginning of a new chapter. He graduated from Cordwainers, the shoemaking institute with deep traditions in the City of London Livery Companies and the history of footwear making in this city. He set up his eponymous label together with his partner and launched it in January 2013 at London Collections: Men, receiving positive acclaim form press and buyers alike.

He brings a completely new point of view to men’s footwear. A modern aesthetic encompasses the collection, reflecting his personal influences from early life, with a flair for the exotic, fantastical and architectural. Diego wants to provoke the curiosity of his customers and those who critique his work, and to challenge design conventions to offer something individual and desirable. As he puts it: “I find it thrilling to develop an innovative concept and make it happen; make it real for people to admire, wear and be admired. I wish to instigate desire, after all men have the right to dream too.”

The Brazilian designer, based in England for ten years, launches a new shoe collection in London Collections Men (LCM), London’s men’s fashion week, by raising a serious alert against the deforestation of the Amazon jungle, which not only threatens the balance of the global climate, but also the life of native cultures that depend on the rainforest for survival.

The protest comes to life in his art. Vanassibara created an installation, called The Crying Forest, together with model maker William Murray. It is made of sustainable Birch trees sourced from a Scottish charity, and insertions of hundreds of transparent acrylic spears. The idea is to represent a forest dramatically lacerated, with the acrylic forming the tears of the trees that are crying following the destruction of their forest. His collection of shoes, in turn, has been inspired by the art and the customs of the Native peoples of Brazil, whom often are ignored in their country for lack of public interest, discrimination and ignorance by many, despite being the true guardians of the forests and embody in their very existence the priceless living culture and history of Brazil.

With a poetic tone, using the languages of art and design, Vanassibara is about to showcase his message to the VIP’s of international media and fashion industry on schedule of this major event of men’s fashion calendar.

The opening reception will happen on the first day of LCM, on Friday 12th June, when the designer will host a reception with the whisky Haig Club™, partly owned by David Beckham, to celebrate the launch of Vanassibara’s Spring/Summer 2016 collection. The showcase is being sponsored by British Fashion Council’s Newgen Men programme, where Vanassibara is the first and only shoe designer to have received this coveted prize.

For additional information visit www.diegovanassibara.com