AT THE OTHER’S FASHION: FASHION, URBAN SPACES AND ALTERITY RELATIONS
IN THE EARLY 20TH CENTURY
À moda do outro: moda, espaços urbanos e relações de alteridade no início do século XX
Mariana Braga (PUC-SP| COS| CPS / CNPq)1
[email protected]
Abstract: This paper seeks to explore the topological changes that occurred in the city of Rio de Janeiro in the
early 20th century and its close links with fashion by the speeches of the magazine Fon-Fon!, using an
discursive semiotics approach. To do so, are addressed socio-historical-cultural issues that delimit the context
speeches analyzed. Such analyses are part of a Masters research, which is developed and made explicit in
the course of work.
Keywords: history of fashion; urbanity; social semiotics.
Resumo: O presente trabalho procura explorar as mudanças topológicas ocorridas na cidade do Rio de
Janeiro no início do século XX e suas relações estreitas com a moda pelos discursos da revista Fon-Fon!,
utilizando uma abordagem sociossemiótica. Para isso, são abordadas questões sócio-histórico-culturais que
delimitam o intertexto desses discursos analisados. Tais análises fazem parte de uma pesquisa de mestrado
que é desenvolvida e explicitada no decorrer do trabalho.
Palavras-chave: história da moda; urbanidade; sociossemiótica.
Introduction
In a recently released book about the stories of fashion in Brazil, Luis André do Prado and João Braga
(2011), stress that "the fashion made in Brazil"2 is still settling. In order to be recognized internationally, need
to build a "solid identity for the sector in the country, and this project also comes from the mirror of history."
According to the authors, being a country of colonial origin, the culture and habits, which include fashion, were
copied and imitated, especially from international metropolises.
This type of development leave traces for a long time, and identify these "others" becomes of extreme
importance when one considers that a subject can only build his identity from others. I.e., what gives shape to
my own identity, of the "me" is not only the self-definition, but also "the manner in which, transitively, I goal the
otherness of the “other”. On that way, “[...] the emergence of the feeling of 'identity' seems to pass necessarily
by brokering an 'otherness' to be built." (LANDOWSKI, 2012, p. 4) Thus, the roles of diversities were
paramount in the establishment of modes and fashions in Brazil, in the comings and goings between the
"other" and the "me".
Mariana Braga is a master’s student in Communication and Semiotics at PUC-SP, guided by Prof. Dr. Ana Claudia de Oliveira and
has a scholarship from CNPq. Graduated in Fashion Design at Universidade Estadual de Londrina (UEL). Participates in the Atelier,
Fashion, Body and Consume, coordinated by Dr. Kathia Castilho, and integrates the Centro de Pesquisas Sociossemióticas (CPS)
coordinated by Prof. Dr. Ana Claudia de Oliveira.
2 The author makes freely all the quotes translations in this article.
1
In this scenario, the social semiotics and discursive analyses (GREIMAS, 1976, 2011; LANDOWSKI
1992, 1997, 2012; OLIVEIRA 2002, 2004, 2014; FIORIN 1994, 1997, 2013) allow us a better understanding of
the phenomena placed, from the analysis of magazines, which are specified below. This masters research that
is developed, search to respond how the otherness, that we can map in the illustrated magazines of the 20th
century, perform drivers roles that comes to define the various traits of Brazilian fashion, way beyond the
clothing fashion. Aims to identify who are these "other", map the translation processes of lifestyle and
consumption from these to Brazilians, by means of illustrated magazines of the twentieth century – Fon-Fon!,
Cruzeiro e Manchete –, which are a corpus of the use of fashion. In addition, we reach to analyze how these
processes, linked to socio-cultural-historical aspects, assist in the construction of an identity of views, and
fashions in Brazil, the construction of the taste for Brazilian consumption in the course of the 20th century.
For better understanding the context out of which emerge the speeches and positions of the figures of
alterity, also for better understanding of the object we will need to analyze the intertextuality. The
intertextuality, to Calabrese (2004, p. 162), is "the set of repertories assumed by the reader and referred
almost always in an explicitly way in the text", and this set of information that the reader already owns, are
related to stories previously developed by other cultures. These, act as "the inter-text of a work" and refer to
other texts built previously, in order to expose both the consistency of the work, as the production of "effects of
local or global aesthetic sense." Thus, we begin the placement of the inter-text.
An historical resume: Colonizers and Colonized
Resuming the distant April 21 of 1500, the fleet of Pedro Álvares Cabral landed the Bahian
coast, [...], it is curious to note that the first exchanges between Portuguese and indigenous,
on the afternoon of the day 23, already engaged garment. (PRADO and BRAGA, 2011, p.
20)
The excerpt above elucidates the fashion and clothing as important adjuvants in social, economic and
political contexts, in the construction and development of Western societies. Clothing was always important as
a means of colonizing and to westernize the discovered countries of America; cover the "shame" of the natives
they encountered was paramount so they could dominate and catechize. The natives, mainly in the period of
colonization, were configured in open societies, or "hot societies", able to incorporate features of otherness
with whom they had contact. While the "discoverers" that departed from Renaissance Europe in which
societies of their countries – considering their respective differences – if configured "cold" and closed, having
as main objective to dominate and expand their territories.
According to Gruzinski (2001, p. 95), westernization "assumed various forms, often contradictory [...].
Once in America, some endeavored to build replicas of the society they had left behind". Such replicas would
not be copies themselves, but processes that could be called abrasileiramentos3. For example, the
architectonic constructions would not be exact replicas, because it would be built with other materials, in
another land, under other temperatures and in a different time of sun exposure; these are materials translating
processes by which passed all these figurative means both materials as immaterial, to achieve the ideal
"construction" of a nation outside of Europe.
In this context, the natives went on to replay habits and outfits, incorporating techniques and improving
the products to the context in which it fit. The concept of reproduction for Europeans left margins to different
interpretations, the invention when copying was not permitted for the natives, although "by essence,
[reproduction of products configure as] the demonstration of the superiority of the winners" (Idem, 2001, p. 95).
The impact of the colonization forced the societies that were already in the continent to adapt to the fragments
and to decode them, and thus for Gruzinski (Ibidem, p. 95), "from juxtaposing the data and prints collected of
both occasional and random way, form ensembles ever closed in themselves". This heterogeneous context
ends up stimulating the capacity of these societies, including Brazilians, to adapt and rearrange on different
situations and different meetings. "Hot" societies like those of Latin America, according to Pinheiro (2009, p.
19), are mostly configured as cultures that are "able to embed the metonymic aggregates from the most
diverse languages and codes".
Second resume: historical introduction to the historical-social context of 1910
The humankind has a nature prominently social: their behavior and personality, their way of
thinking and feeling their needs — including to decorate themselves –, start to be
explainable when we perceive them susceptible to real or imaginary existence of other
individuals. [...] Communication, language and speech will be understood as social practices
that are born and organize themselves culturally and respond to characteristics inherent to
the social and historic, economic and cultural contexts, intrinsically related to the human
being and the history of humankind that proceeds continuously through diversified
structures [...]. (CASTILHO; MARTINS, 2005, p. 39)4
From the above-mentioned quote, and understanding that communication and discourse are inherent
in the context of social practices that fall, we left for the contextualization of the first decade that is studied, the
decade of 1910. Marking the first decade of the 20th century, the end of monarchy and the recent
establishment of the first Republic is characterized by a long period of political uncertainty and, consequently,
This term cannot be translated, refers to the process of transforming products to a more Brazilian way.
Translated from the original: “O ser humano possui uma natureza proeminentemente social: seu comportamento, sua
personalidade, seu modo de pensar e de sentir suas necessidades – inclusive a de decorar-se – começam a ser explicáveis quando
o percebemos suscetível à existência real ou imaginária de outros indivíduos. [...] A comunicação, a linguagem e o discurso serão
entendidos como práticas sociais que nascem e se organizam culturalmente e respondem a características inerentes aos contextos
sociohistórico, econômico e cultural, intrinsecamente relacionados ao ser humano e à História da humanidade que se processa
continuamente por meio de estruturas diversificadas [...]”. (CASTILHO; MARTINS, 2005, p.39)
3
4
social. The various groups vying for power were divergent in their intentions and conceptions of how to
organize the new Republic (FAUSTO, 2002). According to Boris Fausto, the new Constitution sought to ensure
rights to Brazilians and foreigners residing in the country "to freedom, to individual security, and to property"
(Ibidem, p. 42).
The first Republic is known commonly as the Republic of coronels, "who were mostly farmers, with a
local base of power" (Ibidem, p. 149). On this close relationship between private economic power and public
sector, this early century became also known as the era of the "coffee and milk", a term that expresses the
relationship between coffee production in São Paulo and the milk production in Minas Gerais, and therefore,
commanded the Brazilian political scene. The provinces (today, corresponding to what is meant by States)
obtained the right to ask loans abroad to increase and improve production, from 1909 to 1912, the price of
coffee was exalted and accelerated production, using the labor of immigrants who landed in droves in Brazilian
ports.
Mass immigration was one of the most important modifiers of the socioeconomic scenario of Brazil,
and, composed this mass approximately 3.8 million Europeans and Asians – between 1887 and 1930 – who
came in search of better job opportunities. The States, especially the State of São Paulo, concentrated most of
these immigrants, due also to the facilities offered by the Government as tickets and accommodation. Among
these, the main ethnicity who supplied work force to coffee production was Italian. Along with the Italians,
Portuguese and Spanish made up the majority of immigrants who came to Brazil (Idem, 2002). The Eastern
European immigration was stimulated seeking work force to replace the labor of blacks and former slaves, and
with a "simultaneous purpose, [for] the 'bleaching' of the population" (PRADO and BRAGA, 2011, p. 48). This
denotes, therefore, the search for the "Europeanization" of the resident population in Brazil; fact that joins the
other identification searches with the "culture considered more civilized."
Despite harsh living conditions to which they were subjected, sometimes almost into slavery
conditions, immigrants could have some social mobility – unlike the ex-slaves – and became big farmers
and/or traders, since the Brazil were predominantly agricultural until mid-1930. Not only in coffee plantations
that these immigrants took their livelihood, many of them with experience in the textile industry, started working
with the manufacture or marketing of clothing, in particular, in the city of São Paulo, concentrating in the
neighborhood of Bom Retiro.
Such facts led to a productive and industrial growth in Brazil, more concentrated in the regions of Rio
de Janeiro and São Paulo, but also included other major cities in the North and Northeast, as Recife, Manaus
and Salvador. The production and disposal of coffee led to improvements of the economic power, the logistics
and infrastructure, including the construction of several railways that drained the product to ports. In this way,
other producers and industries have taken advantage of the opportunity, which led to productive growth for
other areas of the country. Among these industries, the production of rubber was increased by the demand for
the production of tires for cars and bikes, plus for shoes, some accessories and utensils.
In those times, many foreign companies took the opportunity to install its companies in Brazil, being
controllers, for example, of the supply of electricity in much of the country; of banks, of insurance and shipping
companies. Foreigners dominated the market of services, while the productive market got debt with external
loans and no resource really stayed in the country. In this scenario, the country benefited from the
infrastructure provided by all those producers and service providers. (Idem, 2002)
About the Fon-Fon! magazine
With the beneficial processes to the infrastructure in major cities of the country, emerged some spaces
in the public sphere for which the bourgeoisie could discuss issues covering civil society as a whole, for their
visions and expectations, which demanded other means for exposing such visions. In this scenario, the press
has been the "first mediator instantiates" of the population to discussion from and at public spaces. Already in
the early years of the Royal Press5 emerged the first magazines in Brazil, such periodicals quickly were
adopted in the everyday life of Brazilians literati. Unlike newspapers, the variety of reports and the use of
humor and curiosities of everyday life approached the magazines from the public-reader, since it "had
interpretive information and engaging for the reader." (RIBEIRO; SANTANA, 2011, s/n)
In the midst of modernization of the country, or rather, the "country compulsory insertion in Belle
Époque" (SEVCENKO, 1999, p. 25), the magazine Fon-Fon!, a magazine for the home, it was a magazine
literary and illustrated. Fon-Fon! was a media communication vehicle that emerged in April 1907 – eighteen
years after the proclamation of the Republic – as a symbol of progress, a "new noise for the middle-class
culture" in Brazil (NARRES, 2007, p. 14). Its name, an onomatopoeia that figure the sound made by the car
horn, heralded the arrival of the 20th century with all its technological innovation, industrialization, and the
increasing speed of the new cars. According to Mira (2013, p. 14), the first illustrated magazines in Brazil had
their “origins in the illustrated magazines or magazines of 19th-century varieties of European inspiration,
particularly French". It was a Frenchman, called Plancher, who brought the lithography technology for Brazil,
which allowed the playback of images.
According to Ribeiro and Santana, the magazine was "dealing with all that was modern, urban and of
everyday life" (Ibidem, s/n), providing a setting that was building the simulacrum of modernity, which was
The Royal Press (Imprensa Régia) was established with the arrival of the Portuguese Court at Rio de Janeiro, and it was the official
government press in Brazil. Available at: < https://historiaimprensabrasil.wordpress.com/2015/03/03/a-imprensa-no-brasil/>
Accessed in: 03/21/2015
5
present for their values put into circulation. Thus, Fon-Fon! "emerged under the longings of the carioca high
society to have a vehicle of communication" of quality, since it sought for the magazine graphic innovations
(Idem, 2011, s/n). It is important to note that much of his audience was restricted to the literati, composed
mainly by high society.
Considering that at the turn of the 19th century to the 20th century, 84% of the resident population in
Brazil was illiterate, it can be concluded that the public reader of Fon-Fon! in Brazil still was relatively small and
select. For Mira, "reading was only part of the habits of tiny educated and rich elite, whose children were
educated by tutors and concluded their studies in Europe" (Ibidem, p. 18); in this scenario, the female
audience was even smaller, because illiteracy among women was still considered a virtue. Magazines such as
Fon-Fon! sought to supply the demands for information from a select audience, addressing issues such as
"concern with morality, references to discussions of worldly time or the intrigues of the ministerial offices, in
short, these magazines indicate everything that you should know to be a part of the 'good society" (SEGUIN
DES HONS, 1986, p. 27).
Considered as usufruct of the Brazilian press, magazines such as Fon-Fon! become trend, and as
dictatorships begin new models of behavior in all areas of everyday life (NARRES, 2007, p. 100).
Entertainment, fashion, humor, recreation, among others, become deeply attached to the habit of the Brazilian
bourgeois class. This new way of doing press in Brazil, was approaching the French modes, and with the socalled "anecdotes illustrated", introduced the caricature as narrative in Brazil. (MARTINS, 2008)
Despite their base of publication resident in Rio de Janeiro, its distribution encompassed São Paulo,
Paris and London, in addition to many other cities and capitals of Brazil, which enhanced considerably the
audience to which it was intended (MIRA, 2013, p. 17). For Narres (Ibidem, p. 100), this exchange between
the countries is because much of the "intelligence" of the time was located in the Southeast region in Brazil,
and in the cultural axis London-Paris. Fon-Fon! was a magazine that passed from generation to generation,
and remained in vogue, from groups within groups of editors and owners, until its end in 1958.
Social transformations, transformations in space
Following the path trodden by the golden times of the coffee, the mighty were seeking ways to identify
more and more with the major world powers, like the United States, but mainly to France. In this way, for
Sevcenko (1999), they sought – in addition to the creation of new printed media and imposing new modes –
the "regeneration" of the city of Rio de Janeiro, recently defined as the federal district of Brazil.
According to the author (Ibidem, p.30), “the expression 'regeneration' was by itself illuminating the
spirit that presided over this movement of the destruction of the old city, to complement the dissolution of the
old imperial society, and assembly of a new urban structure. Also, the "intensive penetration of foreign capital"
activated "business cadenza and the oscillation of fortunes", which encouraged the frenetic social, economic
and political changes that gave trends to the pace of life of Brazilians, especially in the federal capital (Ibidem,
p. 27).
The dictionary6 defines regeneration as:
1. Renaissance of who received grace by baptism or penance; 2. Second life, second birth,
redevelopment; 3. Moral or spiritual recovery, amendment of life; training or production, at
second instance, than were partially or totally destroyed; reconstruction; restoration. [...]
Through these definitions we can better understand the reason for the use of that word: searched for
the reproduction of the ways of life of cities and countries they considered "civilized", as a sort of second life,
rebirth; as well as seeking the replacement of the manners, customs, architecture, literature, among many
other aspects considered backward or that they referred to the former Brazilian society. Restored spaces,
buildings and streets to make fitted to the taste of the "new Brazil"; through new rules of society or, sometimes,
new laws sought to reform the concepts of morality, the habits, clothing, trying to replace the place and
seeking to reproduce everything you learned in the "foreigner".
From the perspective of semiotics of Greimas, regeneration of spaces is a kind of treatment in an
attempt to "cure" of the "myths" of the source and destination of the city, trying to hide the past and disguise
their likely future (Greimas, 1976). We clarify what is meant here by space, with Greimas and Courtés:
The term is used in semiotics space with different meanings, whose common denominator
would be considered a built object [...]. The construction of the object-space can be
examined from the point of view of geometry [...], Psychophysiological point of view [...], or
sociocultural point of view (as the cultural organization of nature: example, the space built).7
(Idem, 2011, p. 177)
On that view, especially with regard to the space by sociocultural point of view, public space was
transformed and the bourgeois society sought new standards to adapt to this new space, and for that, followed
some "steps" to reach new status and ensure the end of the old Imperial society. Sought to deny some
elements of popular culture and location, and to this end, condemned customs and habits of the "old"
company; as well, it was implemented a "strict policy of expulsion of the popular groups of the central area of
Dicionário Online Houaiss Beta. Available at: < http://houaiss.uol.com.br>. Accessed in: 28.Jul.2014. Translated from the original:
“1. Renascimento de quem recebeu a graça pelo batismo ou peça penitência; 2. Segunda vida, segundo nascimento, revificação,
refortalecimento; 3. Recuperação moral ou espiritual, emenda de vida; formação ou produção, em segunda instancia, do que estava
parcial ou totalmente destruído; reconstrução; restauração. [...]”
7 Translated from the original: O termo espaço é utilizado em semiótica com acepções diferentes, cujo denominador comum seria o
ser considerado um objeto construído [...]. A construção do objeto-espaço pode ser examinada do ponto de vista geométrico [...],
do ponto de vista psicofisiológico [...], ou do ponto de vista sociocultural (como a organização cultural da natureza: exemplo, o
espaço construído). (GREIMAS and COURTÉS, 2011, p. 117)
6
the city, which will be virtually isolated to enjoy exclusive bourgeois layers". Thereby, they sought to identify
themselves with the cosmopolitanism of Parisian life (SEVCENKO, 1999, p. 30).
Thus, according to the author (Ibidem, p. 29), Brazil could offer the world an image of credibility and
eventually conquer a part of "affluence, comfort and prosperity that remained in the world [considered]
civilized". To monitor such progress, alignment to the standards and to the rhythm of the European economy
was essential to achieve these goals, and so – for Sevcenko (Ibidem, p. 29)-, "the image of progress – version
practice of equivalent concept of civilization – becomes the collective obsession of the new bourgeoisie".
Therefore, it was necessary to restructure the city, wires it, remove the dirt from the city center, they
took black people – former slaves – also the homeless from the city's most important sites to reform it, so that
only the clean and organized could be visible in the "wonderful town". (RAGO, 2014) The country and, above
all, Rio de Janeiro needed to modernize to keep up with the beat of "progress" of the great capitals of the
world. And in this quest, there have been numerous reforms in the public spaces of the downtown city, were
they created grand boulevards, electrical wiring have been installed throughout the area, and such changes, or
rather, the "Municipal Improvements" were reported by Fon-Fon!, as shown below:
Figure 1: This picture occupies a whole page of the magazine Fon-Fon! (6/25/1910 – No 26 – p. 24), and that should be read
horizontally. Contains the following title and description: "Municipal upgrades – the new pavement at Francisco Xavier Street,
started and completed in the administration of Dr. Sezedello Corrêz.". In the image above you can see the new tram rails, the
electrical wiring and a clean and clearly organized street after passing through the process of "regeneration".
The chroniclers of the time – according to Sevcenko (Ibidem) – called "regeneration" the changes that
have occurred in the city of Rio de Janeiro at the time. Yet for Sevcenko, was "the 'regeneration' of the city,
and by extension, the country." A new class, fairly conservative and who seeks a "urban decor to the height of
your whoop-ass" (Ibidem, p. 30). So, was this new decor that Fon-Fon! sought to spell out constantly in his
publications in the year 1910.
All transformations, or, regeneration of space – to Greimas –, linked to social practices organized into
programs of making, can be read as significant, or better, re-significant. It is as if these transformations could
be defined "at the same time as registration of society in space and how to read this society through space",
respectively, significant spatial and cultural significance (Idem, 1976, p. 118). Thereby, Fon-Fon! as an
enunciator of narratives that it incorporated, has a vital role as a builder of the simulacrum of "new Brazilian
society". New avenues, new streets, new buildings, etc., to rewrite a city on its spatial signifiers for the
Brazilian capital; while the society sought to regenerate in other aspects to fit these new spaces.
From these analyses here demonstrated and from the rest that were made in the development of the
dissertation, we have a scenario in which Fon-Fon! seeks a mediation role as informant of subjects-readers, a
making-know to readers the news of the "new" country, in other words, the semblance of what it is to be
Brazilian in this "new" Brazil, but, of course, whereas in these cases, some social groups are composed of
subjects "a little more" subjects than others. (LANDOWSKI, 2012, p. 32)
Considering as Landowski (Ibidem, p. 32), that these informational processes, such as those studied
here magazine, "have the effect of introducing the subject, transformed into social actors, all manner of
disparity [...] roles and relative positions that inter-define individuals or groups and differentiate them from each
other". In this context, the role of the magazine that is studied as an establisher of speech that place the
diversities and disparities between the subjects and objects built and installed in space, topological changes
implement social change in conjunction with the value of the Brazilian bourgeoisie. Aimed to install Europe in
Brazil – especially France.
According to Rosane Feijão:
The reform, which ran from a joint effort of ministerial and municipal authorities, had as the
main articulator Mayor Pereira Passos. The French training of Pereira Passos and his deep
knowledge of the Parisian reforms of the decade 1870 were decisive in the ways taken on
reform in Rio.8 (Idem, 2011, p. 22)
Thus, it is possible to identify that in these processes, there was the attempt to assimilate these
others, and, at the same time, according to the speech we reviewed, sought to exclude those who would be
their fellow man, that were configured as the identity, the Brazilians themselves. In the speeches, we find
traces of identification with what would be the otherness – considered, in this case, as identity – and traces of
Translated from the original: “A reforma, que decorreu de um esforço conjunto de autoridades ministeriais e municipais, teve como
principal articulador o prefeito Pereira Passos. A formação francesa de Pereira Passos e seu profundo conhecimento das reformas
parisienses da década de 1870 foram decisivos nos partidos tomados na reforma no Rio.” (FEIJÃO, 2011, p. 22)
8
non-identification/exclusion with what would be considered identity – thus, considered otherness. Having these
values set, leave, then, for relations of these values with the fashions trends and its changes during the
analysis of the covers.
The transformed spaces and fashion
Given the context, we set off for an analysis of the cover of the magazine studied and their narratives,
which will allow the understanding of what takes place in the present study. The covers are analyzed as a
speech and are structured by the basic values, organized by narratives in which the subjects are constructed
and placed as actors and in search of valued objects, which ultimately are figured and themed on the
discursive level of enunciation. Is in the discursive level that lays "the concreteness e of the oppositions of the
fundamental structures, subjects, objects and values presented in the narrative structures in a concrete
semantic coating" (CASTILLO and MARTINS, 2005, p. 74). Magazines such as Fon-Fon! are an important
support and creates the simulacrum of the reader, scheduled recipient of these speeches. This kind of support
incorporates speeches about fashions and ways and seek, in the narrative level, handle a "make a persuasive
subject on other(s) subject(s) to produce a certain make this manipulated subject" (OLIVEIRA, 2002, p. 129).
That one, as the subject that the speech reaches, and this, as recipient of this do handler that, normally, in the
meantime, it can be for seduction and temptation.
The texts on the covers are related to other text around and establish dialogues with these, so the
intertextuality brings texts and narratives that, as we mentioned, refer to other texts built previously, in order to
expose both the consistency of the work, as the production of "effects of local or global aesthetic sense."
(CALABRESE, 2004, p. 162) Thus, the covers are related to their context and inter-text already mentioned
related specifically to fashions and manners.
To Rosane Feijão:
The phenomenon of fashion has always been connected with the development of cities. [...]
In the 19th century, the rise of cities coincides with a new phase of worship of appearances,
during which a larger portion of the population becomes part of those who consume the
news constantly created by industrial society. (Idem, 2011, p. 21)9
With the new Brazilian "civilized" cities, emerged a "new financial philosophy, born with the Republic
[who] claimed the reshuffle of social habits and personal care" (SEVCENKO, 1999, p. 28), which included the
modes of dressing up. The "new sumptuous scenery and grandiloquent demanded new costumes", and thus,
Translated to the original O fenômeno da moda sempre esteve ligado ao desenvolvimento das cidades. [...] No século XIX, o
surgimento das metrópoles coincide com uma nova fase de culto das aparências, durante a qual uma parcela maior da população
passa a fazer parte daqueles que consomem as novidades incessantemente criadas pela sociedade industrial. (Idem, 2011, p. 21)
9
frock coats and black top hats that symbolized the austerity required at the imperial society, were replaced by
lighter outfits, like cashmere jackets and straw hats.
Beyond the men's costumes, women's clothing were imported, primarily from France and arrived by
ships, along with the furniture, news about plays and most successful books on behavior, leisure, the
aesthetics and even diseases, anyway, everything to be consumable by a highly urbanized society and
thirsting for models and prestige" (Ibidem, p. 36). This was the Brazilian Belle Epoque, paradoxical; seeking
the "progress" of the nation with the urban improvement, elimination of diseases and the 'beautification' of the
city, but at the same time, retained the desire to be foreigners, living abroad.
Such imported goods arriving to ports determined standards to be followed, and these were almost as
laws dictated and it had some “fiscals” of moral and good ways. Such was the effort of those measures, which
was actually created a law project that required the most distinguished men to use jacket and shoes in the
central region of the capital, the fulfillment of this law came even arresting a citizen for walking around without
a collar (Ibidem, p. 33).
Fashionable standards were so important and extreme that according to Sevcenko:
[...] their beneficiaries, headed by journalists, seek to organize themselves to ensure their
maintenance, require its extension to all the more distant and more recondite points of the
city and prevent backsliding. In this sense stands out the pioneering spirit of Luis Edmundo,
ahead of their League Against the Ugly, as early as 1908, and Coelho Neto, leading the
League of Aesthetics Defense in 1915. (Ibid., p. 33)10
In this scenario, the clothing production in Brazil was restricted to pieces like manteaux, robes de
chambre and some accessories – basic women's clothing. With the exception of underwear and bad, bath and
beyond, most of the clothing was commissioned in the tailors or purchased in large stores that count on
prompt delivery of imported clothing. In Rio de Janeiro, houses like the Notre Dame de Paris, A Brazileira, O
Barateiro, Casa Colombo, Casa Raunier and Parc Royal; in Sao Paulo, houses like the Casa Allemã and
Mappin Stores, undertook the sale of imported clothes, fabrics and trims – considering that the fabrics
produced in Brazil were still of low quality. Many of these houses had their own workshops to reproduce the
models of European clothing and offer them to its customers. (PRADO and BRAGA, 2011, p. 50)
Small productions that were installed in Brazil, at the inception of the textile production in the country,
aided by the experience of some immigrants in the area, began to produce some fabrics and a few pieces of
clothing and accessories from the late 19th century. Settled in some cities as in Petropolis in Rio de Janeiro, in
Translated from the original: “[...] os seus beneficiários, encabeçados pelos jornalistas, procuram organizar-se para garantir a sua
manutenção, exigir a sua extensão a todos os pontos mais distantes e mais recônditos da cidade e impedir retrocessos. Nesse
sentido destaca-se o pioneirismo de Luis Edmundo, à frente de sua Liga Contra o Feio, já em 1908, e Coelho Netto, liderando a
Liga de Defesa Estética em 1915” (SEVCENKO, 1999, p. 33)
10
Blumenau in Santa Catarina, in the city of São Paulo, among others. Such confections grew and increased
production only after the first Great War – from 1914 to 1919 – when "there was the need for replacement of
imported fabric" (Idem, 2011, p. 54). In the interior, peddlers and vendors made the trade hired by those
shops, and most of them were immigrants – among these, Lebanese, Syrians, Arabs, Turks and Jews – who
traveled through the cities carrying goods to consumers, those goods that often had been ordered through
catalogues published by the stores and putting them in magazines such as Fon-Fon!.
Continuing with Prado and Braga:
During the Belle Epoque, many vogues were released in Europe, and Brazil tried to copy
them to the extent possible. Applied, in the decorative arts, the arts and architecture, the art
nouveau style, consecrated in the Universal exhibition of Paris of 1900, which proposed a
return to nature with the adoption of the stylization of organic forms, which clearly influenced
the wearing manners for women. (Ibidem, p. 59)11
Thus, the silhouette of women became even more curvaceous, following the curves of arabesques
from the art nouveau12 – accompanying the processes of industrialization and technology development –, in
which aesthetic movement:
The first source of inspiration of the artists’ nature, winding and asymmetric lines from
flowers and animals. The movement of the line assumes the foreground of the work,
dictating the outlines of the shapes and the meaning of construction. The swirls and curves,
complemented by cold tones, invade the illustrations, the fashion world, the facades and
interiors [...]. (Definition of Art Nouveau by Enciclopédia Itaú Cultural)
Corsets were more obliged, and now, from breast height to the women’s crotch, enhancing breasts
and hips – adorned by laces, bows and ruffles – compressing the waist. The skirts were not very large, which
did not allow great freedom of movement. For the new and large Brazilian cities, and to get around the busy
Translated from the original: “Durante a Belle Epoque, muitas vogas foram lançadas na Europa, e o Brasil tentou copiá-las na
medida do possível. Vigorava, nas artes decorativas, nas artes aplicadas e na arquitetura, o estilo art noveau, consagrado na
Exposição Universal de Paris de 1900, que propunha um retorno à natureza com a adoção da estilização de formas orgânicas, o
que evidentemente influenciou a moda de vestir feminina.” (PRADO and BRAGA, 2011, p. 59)
12 According to the Enciclopédia Itaú Cultural, the definition of art nouveau: "artistic style that develops between 1890 and the first
World War (1914-1918) in Europe and the United States, spreading to the rest of the world, and that matters more closely to the
applied arts: architecture, decorative arts, design, graphic arts, and other furnishings. The term has its origin in the Parisian Gallery
L'art Nouveau, opened in 1895 by the art dealer and collector Siegfried Bing. The project of redecoration of the house of Bing by
modern architects and designers is presented at the Universal exhibition of Paris of 1900, Art Nouveau Bing, giving visibility and
international recognition to the movement. The designation modern style, widely used in France, reflects the English roots of new
ornamental style. [...] The art nouveau dialogue more decisively with industrial production in series. The new materials of the modern
world are widely used (iron, glass and cement), so how are valued logic and rationality of the sciences and engineering. Accordingly,
the style follows closely the traces of industrialization and the strengthening of the bourgeoisie" (Freely translated by the author).
Available at: <http://enciclopedia.itaucultural.org.br/termo909/Art-Nouveau->. Accessed in: 24 Sep. 2014. Translated from the
original: A fonte de inspiração primeira dos artistas é a natureza, as linhas sinuosas e assimétricas das flores e animais. O
movimento da linha assume o primeiro plano dos trabalhos, ditando os contornos das formas e o sentido da construção. Os
arabescos e as curvas, complementados pelos tons frios, invadem as ilustrações, o mundo da moda, as fachadas e os interiores
[...].
11
avenues, women needed a bit more simplicity – what does not necessarily imply the improvement of your
comfort.
In the image below, the cover of the magazine Fon-Fon! of March 26 of 1910, let’s do an analysis:
Figure 2: In this cover, we came across a scene that does
not seem very unusual, given the social and historical
context in which it operates – content plan. In the plan of
expression, there is a woman alone at a table in what looks
in a confectionery – or cafeteria – and does her request to
the waiter, which shows very helpful to the woman. The
scene is put over the title of the magazine and so is placed
as an act that takes place in the magazine itself, as a space
in which are given the everyday scenes in there they are
depicted. The typography of the title, fluid and dynamic,
refers to the typography used with art nouveau aesthetics
in engravings, which reiterates the aesthetic of the mainly
female costumes – best explained below. It is therefore a
process of intertextuality that is stated on the cover, other
texts are entered for this text and thus interact dialogicaly,
as, for example, the enunciator and the enunciatary embed
the aesthetic movement originating from other cultures. In
this narrative, the actors of speech cannot look directly –
we, recipients of utterance –, but the enunciatary are
placed in the scene being placed as observers of this
staging of actors into the enunciation.
Fon-Fon! Magazine: 3/26/1910 – n. 13. Available in: http://hemerotecadigital.bn.br/fon-fonseman%C3%A1rio-alegre-pol%C3%ADtico-cr%C3%ADtico-e-esfusiante/259063
Such scenario, according to Landowski, "makes us look the simulacrum that it builds and [...] makes
us contemplate them ". That is, to generate this simulacrum, the destinador whem enunciates, introduces
semantic traits and invests on the objects "in junction relation to the subject [of enunciation] and guarantee this
semiotic existence" (Idem, 2012, p. 129).
Therefore, it is generated a simulacrum of the new citizen at the new towns. At the scene, the waiter is
the only with a costume figured in black color, which denotes the changes mentioned earlier, few were citizens
of class that still put in black, except on special occasions that demanded austerity. The woman alone that
makes your request, hold in one hand her fan and another her parasol, essential accessories for the ladies in
those days, they had both colors and materials specific to each class and social status, and in this case, the
umbrellas protected the skin of ladies and young ladies who should keep the skin white and to reiterate their
social status by not having to work exposed to the sun; she seems to wear a shirtwaist, a kind of coat over the
skirt with front buttoning, which were usually made with imported linen or twill – woven cooler for the tropical
climate – and was one of the pieces that symbolized "the modern woman's wardrobe and practice". (FOGG,
2013, p. 204)
In the women's costumes, sleeves and hats denote Oriental references; due to territorial expansion of
European countries on Asian countries, to the clothing were incorporated aesthetic oriental garment strokes,
as from China, Japan, Micronesia and India – but such strokes were not only in clothing, the aesthetic and
artist movement of the art noveau if constituted of many Oriental references. Thus, the shape of the hat,
feathers added to it, as well as the sleeves wide at the ends and with lace applications – to leave the jacket a
little fresher for the reality of Brazilian summer – denote the Oriental aesthetic references, in vogue in
European fashion, mainly French, with designers like Paul Poiret.
Conclusions
The present study sought to clarify a part of studies, which are held at the master thesis. More
specifically, sought to address the close links between transformations and settings of urban spaces and
fashion trough a social semiotics approach.
In the course of the descriptions and analyses, we found very present the values of assimilation and
exclusion, approved both in terms of the expression plan as in the content plan, of a dominant social group
with "a kind of idealized self-image" and that tends to "define negatively otherness of those that it does not
recognize as being their own" (LANDOWSKI, 2012, p. 33). Identification simulacrum are constructed for some
foreigners and, at the same time, simulacrum of non-identifying, or exclusion, of those Brazilians who do not
have addressed to socially or aesthetically accepted. Recalling the values mentioned above, public vs. private,
that configure the game of interests by appropriation of the downtown city and expulsion of the "excluded",
approved the values of assimilation vs. exclusion from Landowski (Ibidem), on which we have a typology of
values set to present subjects in the speech of Fon-Fon!. Therefore, we have seen that in 1910, is clear the
direct assimilation with the habits and customs of the French, which extend to the urban space. Such
assimilation goes through denial of his peers and acceptance of their divergent, characteristics, which, if
analyzed, can be delimited to the present day, after all, is of utmost importance to understand how those
processes were given so they built what we see on stage today.
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Revista Fon-Fon!. Rio de Janeiro: 25 jun 1910, n.26. Disponível em < http://hemerotecadigital.bn.br/fon-fonseman%C3%A1rio-alegre-pol%C3%ADtico-cr%C3%ADtico-e-esfusiante/259063 >. Acesso em 23 mai 2014.