São Paulo – The Brazilian textile industry would not be the same without the Arabs who began settling in Brazil in the late 19th century. Their influence ranges from the travelling salesmen’s role as conveyors of innovations to the turbans that the baianas, women who are the ultimate symbol of the state, wear as they cook acarajé (fried balls made of bean and shrimp) on the streets of the state capital Salvador. Such were the conclusions drawn by journalist Luís André Prado and professor and researcher João Braga, authors of the book História da Moda no Brasil – Das Influências às Autorreferências (History of Fashion in Brazil – From Influences to Self-References). The work, published by Editora Pyxis, was released last June.
In their work, Prado and Braga highlight the role of merchants based on 25th of March Street, which thrived as Arab immigrants arrived in São Paulo, as fosterers of the clothing trade. According to the duo, in 1901 the area comprised over 500 shops owned by foreigners who had come mainly from Lebanon and Syria. Among them were the first wholesalers of fabric, as well as the haberdashers who used to supply the travelling salesmen and until this day are the joy of those who work amidst threads and needles.
“The Arab heritage of popularizing fashion items, new fabrics and materials was very important to the growth of the textile industry in Brazil,” says Braga. According to information culled from História da Moda no Brasil (History of Fashion in Brazil), a book dating from 1920, a survey made in São Paulo ascertained that out of 91 Syrian and Lebanesee industrial facilities in the city, 65 were for clothing and 12 were textile mills.
In the baiana‘s tray
From the travelling salesmen to the trays filled with delicacies that taste like Bahia, Prado explains that the presence of Arabs in Brazilian garments even includes afro tradition. “The blacks who came to the country were mostly from the Arab Africa,” he says. “That is where the baiana’s turban comes from,” he says.
As a current highlight, the journalist mentions, among other names, the designer Fause Haten as a talent of Arab origin.
Immigrant entrepreneurs aside, Prado and Braga’s book is replenished with backstage stories of fashion in Brazil, featuring talents who were also great characters. One example is the designer Dener Pamplona, from the state of Pará, who made his name in São Paulo, where he became a more-than-declared rival to another household name in design: Clodovil Hernandes. “Dener was undoubtedly one of the first to stand out in Brazil,” says Braga. “One of the most emblematic, by the way,” he claims.
Among Dener’s famous stories, Prado’s favourite was the time when the designer gave his opinion on a dress worn by Maria Thereza Goulart, wife of the then-president João Goulart. “When Maria Thereza had to go into exile in Uruguay because her husband, the then-president João Goulart, had been overthrown by the military coupe of March 31st, 1964, Dener said: ‘But she (Maria Thereza) cannot go into exile wearing a turquoise-blue tailleur! My God, that garment is not appropriate for the occasion!’ Isn’t that great?,” says the journalist, who is the keeper of these and many other passages about the growth and consolidation of fashion in Brazil.
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
