Discuss: in a city as complex and creative as São Paulo, wearing an ‘I ♥ SP’ T-shirt is only justifiable if you are: a) under 18; or b) you received it as a present, and are wearing it as a courtesy to the gift-giver. Don’t get us wrong: we ♥ São Paulo. Obviously we do. So we were very happy to stumble across a range of T-shirts at Vista São Paulo, made by Flavio Dantas, which step beyond tourist clichés to pay homage, beautifully, to São Paulo’s unique cityscape.

Dantas’s imaginatively conceived T-shirts place iconic SP city scenes on tees of various cuts – not just in baggy men’s sizes, or the shrunken babydoll fit – to alluring effect, with an architectural eye for the shapes of the landmarks they portray. ‘I wanted to do São Paulo on fashion pieces, not souvenirs,’ Dantas explains.

In all, there are 12 different designs, one of which depicts the city’s famous geometric, black-and-white pavement mosaics, realistically rendered complete with all the grime of an authentic city street. Designs include garments inspired by the Oscar Niemeyer monument Memorial da América Latina, the baroque styling of the 1911 Municipal Theatre.

The best seller is the iconic Edifício Copan T-shirt (see at top), which comes in four different styles. One of the most interesting, a women’s tunic-style tee, also depicts the lesser-known back view of the building, which is, cleverly enough, printed on the back of the garment. The experience of purchasing this tee in particular is verging on the meta: the store, open for just five months, is located in the gallery shops on the first floor of the Edifício Copan itself. 

CHANGE OF ADDRESS: Vista São Paulo has closed its store in the Copan, but the products can still be bought at Como Assim?! fair in Praça Benedito Calixto 158, Pinheiros (3081 0641, feiracomoassim.com.br) and Mercado Pop, Rua Teodoro Sampaio 1041, Pinheiros. Find more information on the Vista São Paulo Facebook page