Fernanda Montenegro and Gilberto Gil save almost R$50,000 on ABL uniforms

Recently sworn in and symbols of “a new time” at the ancient Academia Brasileira de Letras, Fernanda Montenegro and Gilberto Gil have already arrived at Casa de Machado de Assis breaking with an old pattern. They chose not to order their uniforms from the official tailor of the ABL, Diógenes Cardoso, who since 2005 has been making the costumes for the new immortals. With coffee branches embroidered in gold thread on olive-green cambric, the fetish garment costs BRL 80,000 in the hands of Diógenes, and there is no one to haggle. It is part of the many rites to accept the price without squeaking.

Montenegro officially joined the Academy on March 25, and Gil last Friday (April 8). Both wore outfits made by award-winning costume designer from Niteroi, Marcelo Pies, 59 years old. With operas, plays, films and shows by MPB stars on his resume, Pies, in addition to the prestige, the friendship with the new immortals and the representation built into the casting of a person “of the arts” in the place of a professional couturier, also offered the singer and actress something important: price.

His uniform follows all the standards that the Academy imposes (there is no room for inventions), and it cost R$30,000 to the artists’ pockets – until it was time to pay the bill, they broke protocol. Despite the Mayor of Rio, Eduardo Paes, publicly declaring that he would have “the greatest pleasure” in paying for the costume for the two of them, nothing was done. “It makes no sense to encumber public power in a time of pandemic”, they claimed. Regarding the price charged, Diogenes has a theory that would explain, at least in part, the almost three times lower price charged by Pies. “My uniform has gold threads. I don’t know about his uniform”, he insinuates, taking advantage of the cue to inform him that “Paulo Niemeyer will receive his tomorrow”.

The costume designer who dressed Fernanda Montenegro and Gilberto Gil in ABL is not exactly an outsider in the academic world. In 2018, he sewed the uniform with which her husband, the poet and essayist Antonio Cicero, attended the inauguration ceremony of Chair 27, succeeding Eduardo Portella. Potential candidates for new positions have already sought him out, interested in wearing one of his outfits, but Pies has no interest in investing in this niche. “I made it for people close to me and for my friends,” he says. “The tailor indicated by the Academy is Diógenes and he does a great job”, he contemporizes.