Nas tramas do "Brasil profundo" : os sertões na moda brasileira

Abstract

It discusses the representations of the northeastern backlands in Brazilian fashion since its invention during the 1960s, until the contemporary times in which this work is written. Taking as its initial trigger, the collection Artesanato expression of a people by Ceará designer Edilberto Sousa, the dissertation turns to problematizing the uses, appropriations and formations of meaning that designers used to represent the backlands of the Brazilian Northeast in their fashion productions. Through these representations, a visual predominance of signs – read here as – stereotyped to construct an aesthetic for the “confines” of Brazil was identified”. This aesthetic visuality was and is strongly anchored in the universe of cangaço and cangaceiros, highlighting symbols such as cacti and bandit hats in the design of the pieces, reflected in: prints, cuts, inspirations. To create this historiographical fabric, a wardrobe of sources was searched, from newspaper sources in virtual format, from press vehicles such as Manchete, O Cruzeiro, Vogue, Marie Claire magazines, to fashion photographs. Based on the understandings of authors such as Roger Chartier, Daniela Calanca and Durval Muniz de Albuquerque Júnior, which allowed a broad and complex dialogue with areas beyond the closets of History, such as Semiotics and Sociology, the work assumes its historical character, based on methods specific to historical knowledge; inserted in a field of Cultural History, as it deals with uses, representations and appropriations, the work branches out its seams, being linked to the History of Fashion and the History of Sertões. Thus, in light of the investigations carried out, it was possible to understand the sertões dispersed in the fabric of Brazilian fashion, between major events, paraded on the catwalks such as São Paulo Fashion Week, as well as between department stores and brands; thus problematizing which backlands wanted to represent and parade in Brazilian fashion. Through research, it is even possible, provisionally, to assume that the representations of the backlands in national fashion were marked by the universe of cangaço, with arid, dry airs, which no longer contemplate the contemporary backlands of the Northeast, but which serve as a subsidy to represent the northeastern interiors.