Leather and wool emerge as big winners on the catwalks at latest Sao Paulo fashion week

The tropically incompatible materials of leather and wool emerged as big winners during Thursday's fall-winter catwalks at Sao Paulo fashion week.

Veteran Rio de Janeiro-based designer Patricia Vieira served up easy, breezy leather garments, laser-cut so finely that the swingy cocktail dresses appeared to be made of lace.

The leather on display at Gloria Coelho, another veteran, though based in Sao Paulo, was heavier-duty. Patent leather leggings were paired with cropped biker jackets and flippy mermaid skirts worn with black bustier tops.

Wool was the fabric of choice at Fernanda Yamamoto, where cocoon coats and pencil skirts were served up in a patchwork of dense, gray and blue knits.

GIG Couture delivered similar shapes but in altogether sleeker, more sophisticated incarnations. Clashing prints, including an Art Deco-style Rorschach test print in egg yolk yellow and another covered in a mosaic of Islamic stars, were piled one on top of another to an elegantly chaotic effect