Last week, I had the pleasure of attending Sao Paulo Fashion Week for the first time. Despite still being in its infancy, it is definitely a legitimate event that deserves recognition for many reasons; but I did notice some marked differences between SPFW and NYFW, which I’m much more familiar with. Some examples: everything takes place in one venue; people dress a bit more casually; the runways are all full of swimwear; in many cases, it seemed more organized and regimented; and it was heavily sponsored.

No one’s seen more sides of the fashion industry than models. While we may only see some of them at the big fashion weeks or in ad campaigns, many of them, especially up-and-comers, spend much of the year traveling all over the world to fashion weeks you may not have even known existed. Thus, they have a unique perspective on the whole thing.

We were in Sao Paulo with M.A.C. and spent a lot of time backstage. While we weren’t watching already-gorgeous models being made even more gorgeous by M.A.C. makeup artists, we tried to talk to a few of the ones who spoke English, mostly because we love hearing models talk, but also because we wanted to hear their take on Sao Paulo Fashion Week and how it compares to New York. We chatted briefly with three lovely girls–Lida Fox, Lais Ribeiro and Aline Weber–each of whom were some of SPFW’s most prominent faces, but also have plenty of experience in the other fashion capitals.

Click through to find out who they are, why you should know about them, and their thoughts on SPFW.

Photos: FFW