Brazil leads the way at Sao Paulo Fashion Week

Sao Paulo Fashion Week is widely regarded as the "fifth" fashion week, after New York, Paris, Milan and London, and it's an event where the issue of non-white models has been tackled head-on.

Organisers at the show have had to ensure at least one in 10 models are of indigenous or African descent to reflect the make-up of Brazilian society, after an inquiry found a disproportionate number of models on the catwalk were white, including Gisele Bundchen, Brazil's leading model.

The Brazilian designer Lino Villaventura is among those to use non-white models this year, the second that the quota regime has been in place, as he showed a collection boasting bold stripes and vibrant colours.

The Brazilian fashion market is worth £34bn, and despite the global economic slowdown in Brazil the luxury sector expanded 11.5 per cent last year with a further 17 per cent forecast for this year. Black Brazilians have seen their income rise by 40 per cent in the last decade, double the rate of the white population.