The house in Conde de Irajá has a red door and a wooden gate with the initials SR and VB. Before I even entered, I knew it was a place of work and love. VB stands for his wife, Vera Beatriz. SR was Sergio Rodrigues, a man deeply in love, who marked the immensity that I would later explore within doors and drawers. In my sweetest dreams, I would never have imagined getting this close and bringing the warm vastness of Sergio into my work.
I remember that, at 17, in my first job, I came across one of his chairs. With no solid references, I understood that there was a language in that piece that resonated with me. I didn´t understand modernism at the time, and I had no idea it would become the foundation for my future personal and professional tastes.
The music that shaped me was from that era, as was the Rio de Janeiro that I admired the most. Salvador, São Paulo, Brasília, Lina Bo Bardi, Niemeyer, Djanira, Vinicius de Moraes, Rubem Valentim, Jorge Amado, Pierre Verger, Burle Marx – all were coincidentally part of that same period in the 20 th century. Handred was born in 2012 but carries the atmosphere of that time. Over the years, I matured and built my work in parallel.
I realized that work isn´t confined to just one place. It expands into different territories and into my own home. In addition to books, I felt the need to engage with and breathe with my references, even if they were financially out of reach to me. So, with the money I earned in the first month of my first store in Ipanema, I bought my first Sergio chair. I began to understand that there was furniture that spoke the same language as the clothes I created. This furniture had a simplicity that was the most important form of sophistication. It was beautiful to design something with just one or two primary materials, and I learned what finishing meant.
I´ve always loved spacious, comfortable pieces where the body can dance, breathe, and sprawl out. Later, I discovered that Sergio Rodrigues spoke the same language when creating a chair. He added that if dogs or cats liked to sprawl out on a piece of furniture, then it was approved.
I never had the opportunity or the right age to meet him, but I ended up creating the silly habit of tracing a parallel path with him in different eras. We were both born and raised in Flamengo, both attended Colégio Santo Inácio in Botafogo, both loved paper and sketches, both were nostalgic and romantic, with a warm sense of humor. These early stores opened new doors for friendships as well as new opportunities.
Life followed its path, at times quite magically, and I ended up finding my way to Fernando and Renata. Fernando Mendes, his cousin, is an architect, designer, carpenter, and the president of the Sergio Rodrigues Institute. Renata, his wife, is the Executive Director of the Institute and of the atelier that produces Sergio´s handmade pieces. My luck was that Renata was already a Handred client and was familiar with the brand before I met her. And I, sufficiently boldly, proposed a meeting to present a project and the dream of a collection I´d love to create... Another point in my favor was that Fernando is primarily sensitive.
Almost two years later, here we are. One year just to brainstorm, sketch, plan, and present an outline of what I´d like to bring to them. Another entire year to contract, research, design, and develop this collection that´s so special to me. It´s impossible not
to celebrate the incredible fortune of the union of these two very artisanal ateliers. It was the weaving of a beautiful friendship, of which I´m as proud as I am of this project.
In the end, I´m very close to my idol, and he lives through these two, through this beautiful legacy and this Institute, with a living archive that´s capable of materializing so many ideas, clothes, inspirations, and dreams.
