*I don't come across many Favela Chic articles that are baldly and literally about chic in the favelas. That may be changing.
http://www.brazzil.com/component/content/article/167-december-2004/8904.html
(...)
"Rocinha—which means “little field” in Portuguese—sprawls along the northeastern fringe of São Conrado, a chic neighborhood of modern high-rises and million-dollar mansions.
"The favela swells with over a hundred thousand inhabitants and boasts the moniker “the city within the city.”
"Like most Rio de Janeiro favelas, Rocinha is dominated by drug traffickers who police the streets and invest some of the spoils of the drug trade in community projects. On Good Friday of this year, Rocinha was transformed into the very image of the crisis of civic order in Rio de Janeiro when a war between rival drug lords left dozens of people dead.
"In his stylishly torn jeans and designer shirt, Zé Luiz would look at home in a café in Soho. ...
(...)
"It is almost one o’clock and the class has all but disintegrated into pockets of conversations, as fashion magazines, or pictures of past runway shows circulate the periphery of the classroom. There is a window that stretches the distance of the western wall.
"On the left side of this window, the high-rises of São Conrado cut into the nebulous sky.
"Across the highway, on the right side of the window, Rocinha’s ruddy edifices are submerged in fog one minute, only to resurface the next. This scene is uncannily framed by concrete arches from the external structure of the building, creating the impression of a bridge, from one side of the highway to the other.
"I realize that possibly no where else in Brazil is the gap between the country’s haves and have-nots so palpable, so symbolically visible, as in this spot where I now stand.
"Here I recognize the intrinsic divide between the stigmatized, degraded world of the morro (hillside slum) and the glistening cachet of the fashion universe. Is it possible that in some space, at some point in time, these two worlds can actually converge? (((The guy's never heard of "television," I guess.)))
"Zé Luiz, who believes he has witnessed a marked improvement in the manner in which mainstream society interacts with the favela and vice-versa, thinks so...."
