As Indústrias e comércios pioneiros de “roupas feitas” no Brasil

século XIX e primeiras décadas do século XX

Abstract

The history of the “ready to wear” industry in Brazil is still lacking in more in-depth research. Researchers of economic history are, in general, mostly focused on the textile industry. In addition, there are few sources that make it possible to clarify dates, characteristics and regions of relevance of the enterprises, especially in the pioneer phase. The available ones indicate that garments started to be manufactured in series, in our country, by artisanal manufactures (proto-industries), since the first half of the 19th century, although restricted to work clothes; in the Brazilian case, aimed at slaves, uniforms, white clothes (or underwear) and men's clothing. It is also noted that the clothing and accessories market, as well as fabrics, was supplied by foreign products until the mid-twentieth century. The manufacture of clothes industrially gained greater momentum, among us, from the turn of the 19th to the 20th century, reaching expression after the First World War, usually based on copies of foreign pieces, in the case of clothes aimed at the upper and middle classes, who wanted to dress in European fashion. Mechanized serial manufacturing gradually lowered the final cost of garment to the consumer throughout the 20th century, creating the sensation of a democratization of clothing that, however, remained differentiated to each social stratum both by the quality of the materials used and by the aesthetics and by the brand (or griffe); in this case, for the symbolic value of fashion.