Of all places on this planet, I met Braima Sori Ba on Bali. This Brazilian fashion designer raised in Portugal moved over to Hamburg, Germany to study and open his own small successful 60s-70s fashion empire. Listening to his stories about his shop and his love for material, I asked him to quickly slip into some of his outfits and give me a little catwalk at his house on Bali, send me some more images from his shop in Hamburg and quickly answer my questions. Here are they are! A little ode to funk…

Written by Uleshka

Braima, your shop BSB is on Marktstr. 28 since 1987 – which pretty much turned into the location in Hamburg right now. What do you sell mostly and where do you produce your clothes?

I sell a lot of suits, hats and shoes. Many people actually come to my shop to buy a tailor made suit. We probably offer the cheapest tailor made suits in town besides – you pay for something really unique you can’t really get anywhere else – at least not in this style, new and in your right size!

small fashion show for PingMag in Braima’s garden in Bali

I love this shirt together with those sexy men’s shoes!

Marry me in white!

Caramel suit with flowers. Delicious!

I put a lot of emphasis on materials and love the old style suits and combinations of the 60s and 70s. Production is mainly done in Bali where I spend 3 months each year, material shopping is done in Bangkok, Shanghai and Vietnam and the other 3 months of the year are actually spent in Hamburg – preferably in summer (laughs).

different hat variations

BSB style close up

Where do you get your design and style ideas from, then?

I guess I know a lot about this time – the 50s, 60s and 70s. I love funk music, play contra bass in a jazz band and am currently planning to set up a small bar in Bali where I will DJ again: old funk. Most places on Bali along the beach either play horrible reggae or terrible hip-hop, so I am pretty confident that people will feel comfortable to find a bar that has a little more style to it and plays good music.

My clothes are inspired and influenced by the 60s and 70s of course, but I design my own collections, create new combinations out of old and new. I work a lot with colours.

a fancy golden suit in the BSB shopping window in Hamburg

love for material – a huge variety of shirts to choose from

You have quite a big colorful range of clothes at your shop, women’s fashion, too… but overall I just like the fact that you revive this fashion with new materials and altered cuts. Those designs simply have more soul it seems…

Some shoes to go with your suit? Here are some slick and simple men’s shoes in all colors.

not sure why the left boot is on the right, but I still like them!

also a big range of women’s outfits available…

again men’s shoes available in various colors to match your tie

Braima is a very “handmade” and analog person (So – no website! Sorry!) but if you have any questions feel free to write him an email (braima66@yahoo.de) or just visit his shop in case you spend some time in Hamburg.