Fashion, consumption and gender in the court of D. Pedro II (Rio de Janeiro, 1840-1889)

Abstract

The growth of the industrial production of goods in the XIX is accompanied by a radical transformation in the other end of the economy, that of consumption. The increasing social relevance of commodities is the result of changes in the way of production, but it is also a consequence of the daily exercise of social life. In this process, there is a redefinition of the social role of the woman, who starts to exercise a considerable part of the task of choosing what she and the family should consume every day. This redefinition also depended on the insertion of national spaces into international capitalism. In Brazil and especially in the court of Rio de Janeiro the nineteenth century meant for women of the economic elite to buy goods imported essentially from Europe. In this paper, I analyze the consumption of clothes and objects related to fashion in Rio de Janeiro.