As Brazil's homecoming fashion hero, Alexandre Herchcovitch not only showed in Rio this week but will also take to the catwalk in Sao Paolo later in the month. It's easy to see and appreciate his popularity; having shown in New York several years, his style his attuned to American and European demands, and his inspirational palette is made up of worldwide influences. In Rio Fashion, an event focused on beach and summer clothes, Herchcovitch's A/W12 outing stood out through his use of denim and camo pattern. The lace underwear looked like swimwear from a distance, and a few surfing boards kept the local crowds happy. The rest of us appreciated raw denim fringes, monochrome camouflage and printed skulls. Coated denim, puffed up lace and purple hues pushed the collection forward, and this could easily have been one of his NYC shows.

Dazed Digital: What inspired the collection?
Alexandre Herchcovitch: We took inspration from iconic 80s pieces like underwear and camouflage.

DD: Any other specific influences?
Alexandre Herchcovitch: We looked at a few artists living in Manhattan and Brooklyn in the 80s, they used to mix their work clothing with more casual pieces. For that reason we showed denim with paint splatter on it...

DD: Any particular artists that you were thinking about?
Alexandre Herchcovitch: No we just saw a few faces, some of them we recognised and others were unknown to us.

DD: There's lots of soft underwear mixed with harsh camo... were you looking to fuse the two different feelings?
Alexandre Herchcovitch: Yeah but it's not a new idea, it's very hard to create something new today. So many people do similar stuff, it would be pretentious of me to claim it as new. But what is new to us is the new mixture of worlds and how we combine to the two together.

DD: What worlds are they?
Alexandre Herchcovitch: My long standing message is that fashion is like freedom, you can wear and mix whatever you want. That's when fashion is at its best, when it has no rules.

DD: Do you have a favourite piece in the collection?
Alexandre Herchcovitch: The first piece, the denim coat!