Do you know what the typical costume from Brazil? Before knowing it, it is convenient to know that nations are a modern creation and in their construction different aspects of the life and culture of the people who live within their territories are important: the language or languages, architecture, customs and typical clothing or clothing, For example.
We can talk about a country and several typical clothes according to the region, social class or ethnic group in the case that it is a multi-ethnic country. The world is a varied place and many countries are small worlds unto themselves. In South America, for example, there is Brazil, a true giant. What is the most typical Brazilian clothing?
Brazil
Brazil is a huge country that occupies a good part of the South American territory and whose surface is covered in a large portion by one of the most fascinating and richest jungles in the world, the Amazon.
Brazil es land of indigenous people and it was not until the XNUMXth century that Europeans arrived, The Portuguese. Thanks to the Treaty of Tordesillas, the lands passed to the Kingdom of Portugal and the two million indigenous people estimated at that time inhabited Brazil, began to be colonized. There were several ethnic groups that would eventually mix with the Portuguese, so that new racial mixtures would arise with the arrival of black slaves from Africa.
Each native people had their customs, their history, their language, and from those usual syncretisms that occurred in America, the Brazilian customs of today would be born, and of course, the different typical Brazilian clothing that one can observe throughout the country.
Typical Brazilian dress
The typical costumes have their roots in Europe because the Indians did not walk in skirts or pants. The colonial era here lasted more than 300 years so the Portuguese and European imprint on the clothes in general was very strong. The indigenous people who for some reason were integrated into colonial society, and the blacks, would adapt the uses and customs of their European masters when dressing.
The typical costume of Brazil changes according to the area of the country and we can make a quick and arbitrary subdivision that serves to give a sample of this variety, without being exhaustive: Salvador de Bahía, Rio de Janeiro, Amazonas, Pernambuco and Paraíba and Rio great south. In the latter case we have a typical Brazilian costume that is repeated in some neighboring countries such as Uruguay and Argentina: clothing country man, panties and white shirts.
The panties are nothing more than wide, loose pants, which were used and still do by country men, as they are comfortable to ride. To the panties are added the shirts, the ponchos, leather boots with spurs and straw hats. The pants are held up by a leather or wool ribbon, perhaps with an ornament.
If of the typical Brazilian dress of Pernambuco and Paraíba, two states of Brazil, they are colorful costumes that are usually seen at festivals and patron saint festivities: long dresses for them, with marked waist and wide sleeves, turtleneck jacket and boots, it might be a dress with a flower print and colors, which add lace and ruffles and decorated hats.
If of the men, they wear narrow pants, shirt with tie (the shirt may have plaid), scarf, knee-length jacket with three buttons, straw hat and boots. Isn't it hot for so many heavy clothes? Yes, but let's remember that the origins of these festivals are not in America but in Europe and the seasons always go against each other.
One of the typical clothes of Brazil that one can identify faster is that of the women of San Salvador de Bahia, the Bahianas. They profess a syncretistic religion called camdomblé and they dress with long wide skirts, hand-embroidered blouses and ornaments such as necklaces and huge earrings. Actually this religion is professed in various parts of Brazil and clothing can vary a bit from side to side but basically this is the common denominator.
It is a type of clothing for daily use that for religious festivals takes more prominence and then changes the simple and practical cotton for chintz, lace or muslin. With a lot of white, yes, there is little color. A girdle is added to the height of the chest that acts as a bodice or bra and a turban, the view of the coast, which is nothing more than a cloth held tightly. The chief or the woman of the highest hierarchy within the temple, is distinguished from the rest because she wears a coat or robe over the dress and a larger and more striking turban.
And what about the typical Rio clothing? Exists? Yes, more or less. Are samba dancers' clothing a typical Brazilian costume? In the sense that it is identified as Brazilian clothing, it may be. In another, more anthropological, I have my doubts. But well, that a samba dancer has a small, colorful bikini.
As in the Carnival floats the costumes are evaluated, these bikinis come to life with stones, feathers and glitters. Nothing one sees on the street, of course. But the carnivals in Rio are festivities as popular as the candomblé festivities in Bahia.
Finally, if we go to Amazon We can talk about the typical clothing of the indigenous people but we would have to make some differences between tribes and it would be cumbersome. The original inhabitants of the Amazon area were practically naked until the arrival of the Europeans and when they began to dress they did so following the pattern of comfort and not the fashion of Europeans.
There is a whole world of ornaments, bracelets, bangles, things for the hair, which distinguish one tribe from another, and also in religious festivals are observed certain costumes made from branches, tree bark, or natural fibers that acquire color with vegetable inks. Guided by practicality, many of the typical costumes cover the genitals and the most vulnerable parts of the human body.
Of course these are not the only typical costumes from Brazil. If you do not see a beauty pageant to see who is the most beautiful woman in Brazil, you will realize that the country is huge and that when it comes to parading in typical costumes there are many more. But as a sample, a button is worth and this list is ours.
What Brazilian outfit do you wear?