All things considered, it was probably not a spectacle that legendary architect Oscar Niemeyer expected to take place at his Ciccillo Matarazzo Pavilion in São Paulo's central park. The American actor Ashton Kutcher took to the runway, with Victoria's Secret model Alessandra Ambrosio at his side, to promote the new collection from Brazilian fashion label Colcci.

Much of Brazil's fashion elite regard importing celebrities as an unnecessary ploy to draw attention to the label and the larger event, São Paulo Fashion Week (SPFW). Now it in its 15th year (and held biannually, in the summer and winter), SPFW does not really need much in the way of gimmicks to attract the world's gaze. It is now the fifth-largest event of the kind – after Paris, Milan, London and New York – and Latin America's largest country has the advantage both of Brazil's powerful sex-and- sunshine brand and an economy that is surging forward.

As South America enjoys its best moment in a generation, fashion weeks from Buenos Aires to Lima and Medellin are propelling efforts to boost the fashion trade. The region already has good local materials and a long tradition of textiles manufacturing – and like other emerging markets in Russia, China and India, it is growing quickly while the economies of North America and Europe sputter to a halt. But more so than the rest of the BRIC crowd, South America has a reputation for glamour and style, even if it does sit alongside images of poverty and revolution. Now that the infrastructure is in place, finding a way to position themselves internationally alongside the old powers is a pressing design and marketing challenge.

Evilásio Miranda, chief executive of the Brazilian Association of Fashion Designers, says June's SPFW went very well. “We had a huge and meaningful group of retailers coming from the US, our primary market. We saw important retailers come, some for the second or third time. And the buyers don't come back if things don't work.” The event, which sees more than 30 designers put on shows over six days, is the biggest fashion week in Latin America and is impressively well-funded and organised, often more so than many European events.

It is trailed closely by Fashion Rio – and as you might expect, both are strong on swimwear, and on bright, bold, carefree designs.

Indeed, the industry is serious business for Brazil, whose textile and clothing sector exported goods worth $1.4bn in 2010 – a 20% increase on the previous year – mostly to Argentina and the US. Though this pales in comparison with, say, Brazil's massive commodity trade with Asia, these days a presence as a global sartorial player is often almost as important as brute economic or political force. What would happen to Italy's place in the 21st- century league of nations if Prada, Dior and the rest of its culture industry disappeared?

“We're not concentrating on conquering the world, but rather on building a system that is competitively globally and that produces global brands,” says Miranda. “The 'designed in Brazil' factor is key, so that these anchor brands carry others along in the wake of their own success.”

The Brazilian designer who's probably been most successful at overcoming haughty European glares is Alexandre Herchcovitch, whose designs can be spotted on Europe's runways. Then there is the 21-year-old whizzkid Pedro Lourenço, son of designers Reinaldo Lourenço and Glória Coelho, who had already been turning heads in Paris – earning a nod there recently from the omnipresent Lady Gaga – before he presented his resort collection last month. For this, he wore his Brazilian-ness almost literally on his sleeve, slapping big prints of tropical birds and trees onto white and blue dresses, to international plaudits.

For local, underground flavour, the São Paulo fashion set are firmly behind Neon, aptly dubbed “Bauhaus Tropicalismo” recently by the local press, and Amapô, an agressively colourful brand whose recent youth campaign is titled “Amapô, for lovers”.

But even with all the street cred in the world, the Brazilian fashion industry faces some structural obstacles to being a major sales force on the international market at the moment. Because of the strong economy and expensive currency, the Brazilian real, local fashion is stuck in an awkward place between ultra-high-end brands and cost-competitive emerging-market countries.

“Designers in Brazil are doing unique things,” says Jorge Grimberg, a specialist with the trend forecasting service Stylesight, based in São Paulo – but they aren't less expensive than more established European brands, such as Prada or Balenciaga, and no Brazilian company, no matter how hard they try, could produce as cheaply as India or China. “We need to improve the quality of the processes so we can get better pricing,” says Grimberg.

Though there are logisitical issues – Herchcovitch recently complained about the difficulty of getting small amounts of certain fabrics in the country – two much bigger challenges for Brazil are posed by the strength of the currency and the cost of labour in the country, both the result of Brazil's economic successes. Since the onset of the financial crisis in 2008, loose monetary policy in the US and Europe, contrasted with high interest and growth rates in Brazil, have led to a flood of capital inflows, pushing up the value of the real. It's now one of the world's most overvalued currencies, and São Paulo is one of the world's most expensive cities. With the currency so high, selling high value-added goods abroad is a tough prospect.

As Brazil prepares for its 31st edition of SPFW, short of holding their breath for an interest rate hike in the US and a big boost in competitive advantage, there's really only one other option: crack the glass ceiling that would allow consumers to pay just as much for an avante-garde Brazilian piece as say, one from Céline. Stylistically, São Paulo Fashion Week is visibly not yet on par with the major European events, but its organisers believe the tides of history are on their side.

COLOMBIANS SAY NO TO DRUGS AND YES TO SEX

By Alice Pfeiffer

In Colombia's second city, Medellin, fashion week started out in a quiet showroom in 1990. Today the annual event, known as Colombiamoda – which this year kicked off on 25 July – comprises nearly 30 runway shows, along with specialised showrooms ranging from textiles to footwear and jewellery. At least 9,000 visitors are expected.

As the nation establishes itself as a textile producer and creative hub, Colombiamoda also highlights a desire to shake off the image of Pablo Escobar. Medellin, once home to one of the biggest drug cartels in history, is fighting to redefine the Colombian identity by creating idols, honouring ancient artisanal practices... and being fearlessly sexy.

While many young fashion weeks tend to ship in established foreign designers to add cachet to the event (Cacharel in Tunis, for example, or Doo-Ri in Seoul), Colombiamoda insists on celebrating its own designers.

Every fashion week kicks off with a local star name, and last year Esteban Cortázar, former creative director of Ungaro, opened the show with a line for supermarket chain Exito. "I want to design for people here, not for people who can afford to go shopping in Paris," he said afterwards.

This year, the week kicked off with Olga Piedrahita, an ex- ballet dancer whose work is highly influenced by stage and dance costumes, and who has worked with Oscar de la Renta. "Colombia wants its own celebrities, and to be proud of its own people," says Catalina Zuluaga, a Colombian stylist who works between Paris and Medellin.

The clothes reflect a conscious, flirtatious femininity: sexy, not exactly minimalist, a little Lolita at times (Pepa Pomba), or a tad more boho (Beatriz Camacho); or colourful and cartoon-like (Agatha Ruiz de la Prada). Bikini design, a leading market, is led by Agua Bendita, which is showing at Colombiamoda. The brand was started in 2003 and is sold in 45 countries. It made a name for itself for its embellished, highly accessorised bikinis, often paired with belts and cowboy boots.

Colombiamoda is an increasingly profitable affair, generating $75.9m last year – up 14.4% on 2009 – with 25% of sales going to Mexico, 23% to the US and 12% to Ecuador. The items most in demand were swimming suits and casual garments. The event is also becoming more international: last year, 1,465 foreign buyers and visitors attended (a rise of 4.5% on 2009) and there were 7,421 domestic attendees (up 8%).

Perhaps the most distinctive aspect of Colombian fashion is its enthusiastic collaboration with indigenous communities, celebrating and introducing ancient trades into contemporary collections. Designers frequently work with the Wayuu tribe, best know for their colourful hand-woven 'mochila' bags. In 2010, American socialite Lauren Santo Domingo even asked designers worldwide, ranging from Philip Lim to Proenza Schouler, to create their own mochila purse.

Similarly, Caña Flecha – an old-school straw-braiding technique developed by the Zenú tribe – is used to make the classical Vueltiao berets. Designer Olga Piedrahita often makes stylised, oversized ones.

"This is most positive aspect of Colombian fashion," says Jaime Rubiano, a Colombian fashion photographer. "We appreciate and modernise things that have existed for centuries."

A NEW-LOOK PERU

Fashion ambition is not just limited to big hitters like Brazil, or established players such as Argentina. In humble Lima, the local design community threw together its first fashion week earlier this year.

Though this kind of scene is new to the country – one cannot even get a degree in fashion design yet in Peru – the push makes perfect sense. Peru has long made a sizeable business of exporting basic materials for the global clothing industry, most notably high-quality cotton and baby alpaca. The challenge is to participate in the design side as well.

For that, it doesn't hurt that the area now called Peru was one of the cradles of indigenous American civilisation and has cultural traditions of dressing people up in patterned knitwear going back thousands of years.

"Our biggest advantages are our pre-Columbian geometrics and our materials," says Sumy Kujon. In her case, she mixes these with her Asian inspiration and heritage (Peru is home to a large East Asian immigrant community) to come up with clothing she sells, albeit in small quantities, around the world.

If after just one event, Peruvian fashion is not likely the conquer the halls of Paris and Milan, it took a welcome first step towards boosting local designers and the shops that compete with global brands for Lima's own consumers.

Many of these do their shopping at the Falabella retail outlet, which showed a line called Basement, nominally attributed to Kate Moss, to be sold in town.

To drum up publicity, Lima Fashion Week brought in Spanish designer Custo Barcelona, who showed a collection and made an appearance at a party for the local Vogue, the kind of soirée that can be just as important for developing cachet for the budding industry as the dresses on the models themselves.