palabras Rodrigo Salazar

It is really hard to distinguish yourself in the highly competitive T shirt business. Cassiano and Sujinho, the duo behind Nossa, have done just that with unique designs and an eye for the irreverent. They were the ones responsible for the "City of God" and the highly coveted "World Cup Mauraders" shirts. These two Brasileros are at the forefront of both fashion and music (they are responsible for bringing the baile funk movement to the States). Cassiano took some time to answer some questions for us.

How did you start the Nossa label?

Nossa was started a couple of years ago actually by accident. I had designed a couple of shirts just for the hell of it, people really liked them and a couple of stores saw them and put it orders, so from then it was just natural to make it a brand and expand the designs.

You guys are also DJs. Do designing and DJing influence each other?

Actually Sujinho is more on the music side. I DJ and also take care of the designing aspect. i dont think DJing and designing directly influence each other but they are tied in because we do use musical influences (especially the Brasilian part) in the clothing. They are also tied in on a branding aspect because we tie in the logo and brand name to events/parties and also on the CD releases.

What's the next step, after T shirts?

The next step which should happen in 08 is some Nossa outerwear like sweaters/sweatshirts/hoodies and a couple of basic accessories like caps.

What are your design inspirations? DJ inspirations?

Design inspirations are everywhere! its just life in general, everything from people you meet, stuff on tv, nature, soccer games, trips to Brazil, it can all be inspiring in some way ... the trick is turning it all into something that makes sense and fits in to the brand but that not too hard.

DJ inspiration has always been to make people dance like they do at the baile funk parties of Rio, you can see some on youtube to get an idea. It's insane!

Do Brazilians consider themselves Latinos? why or why not?

There's always a slight barrier present mostly because of the language difference. But asides from that, yes they definitely do consider themselves Latinos!