After years of working in the fashion industry separately and together, brothers Mauricio and Roger Padilha launched MAO Public Relations. In its first decade, MAO has successfully introduced new talent to the fashion industry as well as conceptualizing and producing runway shows for various top Fashion Designers.
Now in its 13th year, MAO Public Relations is enjoying a reputation as one of the hardest working Fashion PR Agencies in the Industry. In addition to Public Relations in 2010, the Padilha brothers wrote The Stephen Sprouse Book which was published by Rizzoli and continues to be one of tha best selling fashion monographs.
Mauricio Padilha
Q1. What was the first record you bought and what effect did it have on you?
Mauricio Padilha : Hmmmm...jeeze I think the first record I bought was when I was like 8 and it was the sound track to Disney's Peter Pan ...but if we are talking REAL music then I can remember buying Blondie's The Tide is High (from the band's fifth album, Autoamerican), I loved the cover and thought Debbie looked Amazing!!!! But then I took it home and heard it and most of it was reggae ...and I hate reggae so I was very pissed. The first album I can remember that I bought and loved every song was the soundtrack to Saturday Night Fever, I played it sooooo much over and over again and there was some crazy disco song that talked about Aladdins lamp and the first words were OPEN SESAME!!! I loved it..hahaha
Q2. What's your favorite 80's moment ‘fashion moment’?
MP: Madonna on the wedding cake on MTV...that changed everything for me and that was the official start of what we think of as the 80's and the MTV generation now!
Q3. Please tell us about your Stephen Sprouse book. How did it come together and how long was the project?
MP: Same as Roger's answers but what I can tell you is that Stephen's aesthetic really pulled together everything that Roger and I loved, the Day-Glo colors, Edie Sedgwick, Andy Warhol, Teri Toye, Outer Space, the 60's, the 80's and the FUTURE...it was like we were all separated at birth...and I believe we were destined to do this book from day one!
Q4. Give us a really off the wall anecdote/story. Something that not many people will know about-could be about anything related to your work.
MP: In my line of work what I have learned is that you never ever ever know where someone is going to end up, todays intern in the fashion closet at Interview Mag can end up the Fashion Director of Vogue one day sooooooooo be nice to everyone and always keep the doors open. And in my personal life I have taken this to heart as well, life is very very very short and Ive learned to " try " and be nice to everyone I come into contact with and have fun every day that I'm alive !!!
Q5. What does the rapid information exchange via the Internet mean to the fashion publicity business?
MP: I never thought the internet would affect the fashion industry the way it has...now a days everything is sooooo FAST! By the time something is photographed and uploaded 5 minutes afterwards it can be seen by soomeone all the way on the other side of the world...before the internet, things would take a lot slower and I think designers had more time to grow and establish what they were about, now there isnt much time for development of talent...its the strongest survive !
Roger Padilha
Q1. What was the first record you bought and what effect did it have on you?
Roger Padilha: The first record I ever bought was Grease soundtrack immediately after seeing the movie when I was 6. My mother brought us to Korvettes ( a now defunct Sears type of store)...Im not sure I was that into the music but I loved how Olivia Newton John looked in her black spandax leggings and red candies. The first record I bought that changed my life was Kissing to be Clever by Culture Club. Aside from the incredible music, Boy George offered an alternative to the Shaun Cassidy/Peter Frampton/Frank Zappa, etc look of male Rock stars that I really coulnd't relate to. I truly believe that Boy George was my generation's version of David Bowie (for the generation prior to mine). he really paved a road musically and stylistically for me.
Q2. What's your favorite 80's moment ‘fashion moment’?
RP:Debbie Harry!! The way she played with all sorts of iconic media imagery such as Marilyn Monroe, Betty Boop, punk rock, etc highly influenced me and i feel has truly influenced the world.
Q3. Please tell us about your Stephen Sprouse book. How did it come together and how long was the project?
RP: When I say that it was 25 years in the making, Im not joking. Mauricio and I first saw Stephen's work on a news clip on TV when I was 12 and he was 16 and we were immediately hooked. We spent every penny we had from summer jobs, allowances, even stealing our parents credit cards to buy his clothes. He was a real catayst for both of us to get interested in the fashion industry. When he passed, we were disappointed to see how he was featured in the media and felt that the obituaries really didnt do any justice to his work. At the time, Mauricio and I were publishing our own magazine called MAO MAG and we did a huge tribute to him in it. Somehow, the magazine got into the hands of Stephen's mother who wrote us saying how much she enjoyed it and how on point it was. One thing led to another and suddenly we were responsible for our icon's legacy! That book is one of the htings I am most proud of and for it to have become the success it did was just icing on the cake.
Q4. Give us a really off the wall anecdote/story. Something that not many people will know about-could be about anything related to your work.
RP: Our entire existance is off the wall! What Ive learned to expect in my line of work is to not expect anything!!!
Q5. What does the rapid information exchange via the Internet mean to the fashion publicity business?
RP: It has really changed the landscape of our industry. We are able to get things out to the public so much quicker than before. A pro to this is that we are able to get information directly to the consumer instead of having to go through the media and let them decide which of our clients are worthy to publish. The con to all this is that with so much information out there, a designer unfortunately seems to have a much shorter life span than before.
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