“Follow the sun.”
It’s a mantra for Katia Barros, co-founder of the joyfully colourful, Rio de Janeiro-based fashion label (and perennial Anthro favourite) known as FARM. “It means keeping the optimistic energy that helps us believe everything is going to be all right,” she tells us. “That life is good.” It’s a motto we embrace here at Anthropologie, too.
Katia, at once designer, entrepreneur, and creative director, has devoted her career to infusing FARM’s collections with both sophistication and fresh-squeezed delight. Since the brand’s early days – she first sold her styles at a small, open-air market in 1997 – Katia’s hometown has served as the muse for FARM’s designs. In her words: “It’s our Brazilian flavour, our charm, our beautiful frequency.”
Meet the Community:
Katia Barros
Co-Founder, FARM Rio
She is Carioca – a Portuguese word for natives of Rio de Janeiro. “It’s a city surrounded by beaches, and the beach really comes into our daily lives, not just during vacation time or on the weekend,” Katia says. It’s part of the day’s routine: You go to work, you go to school, but then you always go to the beach. It’s in the way Cariocas wear their hair, put makeup on, and yes, get dressed.
So in FARM, “the Carioca girl found a brand that translates her city’s atmosphere into colour, texture, fluidity, shapes, and prints,” says Katia. But since the brand's founding in 1997, these clothes, and what Katia calls the I-am-living-my-best-life spirit, have won hearts throughout Brazil and around the world.
Those 20-some years ago when Katia debuted FARM, she was the designer, driver, display artist, and salesperson. Though she ultimately earned a second bachelor’s degree in fashion, her background was in accounting, and she’d worked as an auditor for years.
She'd always had a knack for street style, but Katia's first real foray into fashion came from hands-on jobs in Rio’s chic boutiques. She learned how to work with customers’ unique style inclinations and body types, she says. “In a certain way, I was flirting with this whole universe.”
So in FARM, “the Carioca girl found a brand that translates her city’s atmosphere into colour, texture, fluidity, shapes, and prints,” says Katia. But since the brand's founding in 1997, these clothes, and what Katia calls the I-am-living-my-best-life spirit, have won hearts throughout Brazil and around the world.
Those 20-some years ago when Katia debuted FARM, she was the designer, driver, display artist, and salesperson. Though she ultimately earned a second bachelor’s degree in fashion, her background was in accounting, and she’d worked as an auditor for years.
She'd always had a knack for street style, but Katia's first real foray into fashion came from hands-on jobs in Rio’s chic boutiques. She learned how to work with customers’ unique style inclinations and body types, she says. “In a certain way, I was flirting with this whole universe.”
Katia wanted to celebrate the beauty of Rio with bright, breezy clothing – something no other brand seemed to be doing. So she got to work on FARM.
The name FARM is unmistakably Rio-born, too, inspired by a street along the storied Ipanema Beach called Farme de Amoedo. “It used to be a meeting point for cool young people in Rio,” Katia explains. “People used to say, ‘Let’s go to the beach at Farme,’ or ‘Let’s meet at Farme,” which made the name sound very local.” She dropped the E because in English, farm reminds her of “what is natural, where the growth process happens.”
And how things have grown. Today, FARM is Brazil’s biggest fashion label, hands down, and Katia leads a thriving team. She spends more time on strategy, planning, and training than rushing samples back and forth from the seamstress, these days. It’s officially a success story.
It wasn’t all smooth sailing, of course. Early on, with only a few stores and no strategic plan, Katia remembers once buying too many pieces for a certain collection – more than she could possibly sell nearby, since the looks were warm-weather and summer in Rio was nearly over.
The team’s creative solution: They searched for a vacation destination, which they found in Buzios, a resort town on a peninsula in Brazil’s South Atlantic. In less than four days, Katia rented and set up a pop-up shop where she sold every last dress, skirt, and blouse. It worked so well, she says, that FARM still runs an outpost in Buzios.
The name FARM is unmistakably Rio-born, too, inspired by a street along the storied Ipanema Beach called Farme de Amoedo. “It used to be a meeting point for cool young people in Rio,” Katia explains. “People used to say, ‘Let’s go to the beach at Farme,’ or ‘Let’s meet at Farme,” which made the name sound very local.” She dropped the E because in English, farm reminds her of “what is natural, where the growth process happens.”
And how things have grown. Today, FARM is Brazil’s biggest fashion label, hands down, and Katia leads a thriving team. She spends more time on strategy, planning, and training than rushing samples back and forth from the seamstress, these days. It’s officially a success story.
It wasn’t all smooth sailing, of course. Early on, with only a few stores and no strategic plan, Katia remembers once buying too many pieces for a certain collection – more than she could possibly sell nearby, since the looks were warm-weather and summer in Rio was nearly over.
The team’s creative solution: They searched for a vacation destination, which they found in Buzios, a resort town on a peninsula in Brazil’s South Atlantic. In less than four days, Katia rented and set up a pop-up shop where she sold every last dress, skirt, and blouse. It worked so well, she says, that FARM still runs an outpost in Buzios.
As she’s led FARM through its dramatic expansion, Katia also has nurtured a family – she’s mom to a teenage daughter and a one-year-old son. “I consider myself very maternal,” she says. And that shines through in her work. “Women have a creative way, an intuition, and a sensibility to solve problems,” she says. “My maternal and welcoming way with my team is very important to me, and taking care of my team is my most important role in the company now.”
This vibrant femininity is part of FARM’s aesthetic, too, with full skirts, abundant ruffles, and exquisitely detailed fabrics from head to toe.
“I want to inspire women through my sensitivity in seeing the world, my admiration for beauty, art, and culture, and my desire to share it with others,” says Katia. “I always say that our mission is more than selling clothes. The brand exists to move and inspire women to look their best.”
There’s a Portuguese word, borogodó, that means something like je ne sais quoi in French: it’s that irresistible, intoxicating, go-with-the-flow charisma that Cariocas embrace. It’s the name of Katia’s favourite FARM print (that, and anything with bananas, she tells us), and it also the key to what makes this brand so alluring. “Our truth goes into our sun-filled clothes,” says Katia.
It's true: Each piece is an invitation to daydream, and we can already feel the Rio glow.
This vibrant femininity is part of FARM’s aesthetic, too, with full skirts, abundant ruffles, and exquisitely detailed fabrics from head to toe.
“I want to inspire women through my sensitivity in seeing the world, my admiration for beauty, art, and culture, and my desire to share it with others,” says Katia. “I always say that our mission is more than selling clothes. The brand exists to move and inspire women to look their best.”
There’s a Portuguese word, borogodó, that means something like je ne sais quoi in French: it’s that irresistible, intoxicating, go-with-the-flow charisma that Cariocas embrace. It’s the name of Katia’s favourite FARM print (that, and anything with bananas, she tells us), and it also the key to what makes this brand so alluring. “Our truth goes into our sun-filled clothes,” says Katia.
It's true: Each piece is an invitation to daydream, and we can already feel the Rio glow.