Carolina Herrera will present its very first resort runway show Thursday night at a personal residence in Rio de Janeiro, with a view of Guanabara Bay and Christ the Redeemer.

The historic neighborhood of Santa Teresa, with its quaint winding streets and colonial-style mansions, is miles away from the Plaza Hotel ballroom in Latest York City where Wes Gordon has been showing the past two seasons. And the event represents a big milestone within the 42-year-old American fashion house’s journey.

The Puig-owned brand is joining luxury powerhouses Louis Vuitton, Chanel and Dior on the destination show map, treating 400 mostly Brazilian guests to 3 days of festivities within the South American fashion capital.

Herrera will have fun not only the ready-to-wear, however the fragrance side of the business as well, when the runway show opens up into an after party for the brand new Good Girl Blush Eau de Parfum.

Resort is Herrera’s biggest rtw sales season, said creative director Gordon during a preview, so it made sense so as to add a runway show for it. “Brazil is considered one of the most important Latin American markets for us, and it’s in the highest 10 globally,” he said of the style division. “But Carolina Herrera is the number-one brand in prestige fragrances in Latin America.”

In fact, there’s also a long-standing relationship with Latin America because founder Carolina Herrera was born in Caracas, Venezuela. This trip marks a return for the brand to Brazil; the designer and wonder director Carolina Adriana Herrera visited São Paulo for the launch of Good Girl Dot Drama in 2019.

After working for Herrera herself, Gordon took over in 2018. While he’s visiting Rio for the primary time for the show, as a designer he’s all the time been inspired by the allure of Brazil: “The colour, the sweetness, the enjoyment, the sensuality and optimism.…Those are all words we use to explain Herrera as well.”

Gordon landed in the town last week to forged the models, who’re all from Brazil, and do fittings. He’s also been seeing the sights, including the Museus Castro Maya, the local art gallery Carpintaria and the modernist landscape architecture by Roberto Burle Marx, who designed the residence in Gavea where the welcome dinner was held Wednesday night.

WWD got a preview of the gathering, which is cut much closer to the body, befitting Brazil’s body-conscious culture.

“We’re taking Herrera codes and giving them Rio energy,” Gordon said of incorporating bikini tops, sarong skirts, short shorts, crochet, raffia and oversize sun hats into the combo.

“There’s a give attention to lifestyle on this barely more casual collection,” he added, showing off a packable green polka-dot bikini top and matching billowy long skirt, sans crinoline. “Our customer can adapt this with a white shirt and gold jewelry; that’s how Mrs. Herrera would wear it.”

Gordon has taken several of his successful eveningwear silhouettes from the ballroom to the beach, trimming topiary-sized black-and-white tulle minidresses all the way down to size, and adding layers of black tulle to the front of a bodysuit, but leaving the back flat so the wearer can easily do the samba.

A Carnival-ready rainbow organza and tulle skirt is paired with a black crop top, and thread work orchids (the national flower of Brazil) are embroidered on tiny tweed suits for the ladies from Ipanema.

“All the pieces is simple but impactful,” he said, declaring a chartreuse green strapless column gown as sweet as a caipirinha, with an asymmetric cape layer floating on top.

In other news, Gordon is debuting three men’s looks on the runway.

“CH does menswear, but we’ve never done it. I’m not considering of it linearly, it was only a cool oversize shirt and jacket. And now we have them in a simple way shown on guys, but also they are pieces perfectly styled on women. Sometimes to get that great boxy shape, you’ve gotten to begin with a men’s pattern,” he explained of the oversize seersucker double-breasted blazer and self-belted shorts, faded oversize denim tunic and shorts looks which are really genderless.

“I wasn’t considering of it as a category or business expansion; to me it’s all the time concerning the product and piece. This was a chance to play, and to make more things.”

Family-owned Spanish company Puig’s fragrance and fashion business’ sales combined reached 2.67 billion euros in 2022, up 40 percent year-over-year. The conglomerate goals to achieve sales of 4.5 billion euros by 2025.

Whether Herrera may have a everlasting slot on the jet-setting resort runway calendar as a part of that goal stays to be seen.

“The business has been growing at a unbelievable rate, each internationally and domestically, in brick-and-mortar and online. The scale and scale of the brand has modified significantly,” said Gordon. “But for me going forward, I don’t need to get within the habit of doing it simply because we’ve done it before, where it becomes a checklist item. What’s vital is constant to consider latest opportunities for us as a brand to do global activations as our clientele becomes more international.”