Self-reference and external reference in ‘A Moda’

Illustrated magazines with fashion content made it possible to disseminate costumes, patterns, fashion editorials, and descriptions of garments on a large scale by reproducing, translating, and adapting visual and textual material for readers in various locations. This also fuelled the spread of the idea of fashion as the cultural product of a city – Paris. The same garment could be reproduced in different countries, with varying degrees of fidelity to the engravings and instructions provided in the print, with national or imported fabrics and adaptations to the local climate, to the specific measurements of the body that would wear it, and according to the expertise, creativity, and taste of the dressmaker or customer. The print runs of the periodicals kept pace with the growing number of readers who aspired to the same external signs of prosperity and well-being, guided by French cultural authority, thus forming a thriving global audience for fashion consumption. The fashion press emerged against this backdrop.1 Ana Cláudia Suriani da Silva, ‘The Role of the Press in the Incorporation of Brazil into the Paris Fashion System’, in Books and Periodicals in Brazil 1867–1930: A Transatlantic Perspective, A.C.S. da Silva and S. G. Vasconcelos (eds) ([2014] London: Routledge, 2020), pp. 148–162; ‘Fashion, Cultural Transfers and History of the Book’, in The Cultural Revolution of the 19th Century: Theatre, the Book-Trade, and Reading in the Transatlantic World, A.C.S. da Silva and M. Abreu (eds) ([2016] London: Bloomsbury, 2020), pp. 139–165. As Daniel Roche writes:

Rua do Ouvidor became a microcosm of Paris; it reproduced its fashion system, perpetuating it and confirming its dominance, even though it had to simplify it and adapt it to the peculiarities of the local society and the tropical climate due to all sorts of limitations faced by the new nation. Fashion was a trickle-down process, driven by the principle of ostentation and imitation. However, as Gilda de Mello e Souza observes, nineteenth-century society did not erect insurmountable barriers, not even between the bourgeoisie and the nobility. In the nineteenth century, the possibility of communication between groups replaced the old rigidity; or, rather, the relatively rigid social structure was replaced by constant mobility. Fashion played a crucial role in bringing the classes closer together. According to Souza, fashion is one of the most powerful instruments of integration and performs an important levelling-up function by allowing the individual to blend in with the group and disappear into a larger whole that gives them support and security. And, since the prevailing fashions are (or at least were, for much of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries) mostly those of the ruling class, the groups closest to them are, at every moment, identifying with those immediately above them by imitating their clothes.3 Gilda de Mello Souza, O espírito das roupas: a moda no século XIX (São Paulo: Companhia das Letras, 1987), p. 130.

The ‘A moda’ column was a case of fashion in the mainstream press, more specifically in a daily newspaper, without illustrations,4 According to Nahete Silva, ‘the illustrations became more frequent’ in O País from 1910 (Nahete de Alcântara Silva Tamba, ‘Júlia Lopes de Almeida e sua trajectória de consagração em o país’ (unpublished doctoral thesis, Federal University of Paraíba, 2015), p. 109). with more diverse content and aimed at a very heterogeneous readership. The women’s sections competed for space with the whirlwind of international and domestic news transmitted by telegraph, larger reviews and articles, and the frenetic commercial developments in the city, demonstrated by the proliferation of private and commercial adverts, which were responsible for highly variable number of pages in each issue. In the absence of the attractive costumes of illustrated magazines, the fixed title and space allowed readers to easily identify Ecila Worms’ irregular contribution in the sea of texts spread across the newspaper’s eight narrow columns.

The content and structure of the ‘A moda’ chronicles and the longevity of the column can be understood in the light of Niklas Luhmann’s theory of self-referential systems.5 Luhmann, The Reality of Mass Media. According to Luhmann, social systems, including mass media, are self-replicating and self-sustaining entities that use communication as their main mode of reproduction. The concept of autopoiesis emphasises that communications only exist as such in relation to other communications. Their elements are produced and reproduced by a network of communications and gain status as meaningful interactions through their contextual relationships.6 Niklas Luhmann, ‘The Autopoiesis of Social Systems’, in Sociocybernetic Paradoxes: Observation, Control and Evolution of Self-steering Systems, F. Geyer and J van der Zouwen (eds) (London: Sage, 1986), p. 174.

‘A moda’ therefore emerged from an inherent quality of the print media in producing and reproducing content through a network of interactions between periodicals and books, that cannot exist independently outside this network. More specifically, the column emerged from the interdependence of two types of periodicals, the daily newspaper and the illustrated magazine. As Ecila Worms writes in the third chronicle of the series:

In this quote, the chronicler emphasises the importance of readers not substituting the illustrated fashion magazine (or journal, the predominant term in the nineteenth century) with her column in the daily newspaper. While the fashion magazine provides images of distinctive models, Ecila Worms’ columns, even if devoid of illustrations, play a valuable role by offering analyses, comments, and specific guidance on the trends of the moment. The message conveyed, therefore, is that both sources are essential and complement each other, above all because the columnist selects from a repertoire of possibilities that she considers most relevant to her readers.

This process of selecting costumes to describe and comment on in her column is done as the writer flicks through the magazines:

Almeida read and consulted various periodicals to write her column, including A Estação (mentioned five times), Echo de Paris (Paris, 1884–1938, twice), Le Figaro (Paris, 1826, three times), La Revue du Bien (Paris: 1902–07, once), Le Coquet. Journal de modes spécial pour couturières (Paris, 1867–?, three times), Salon de la Mode (??, four times), and A Moda Elegante (?? once).9 For a complete list of the periodicals mentioned in ‘A moda’, see the index of names in Júlia de Lopes Almeida (pseudonym Ecila Worms), A moda (1892–1901), pp. 369–370. ‘My God! There are so many fashion journals piled up on my desk! The truth is that I only leaf through them when I have to talk about them’, wrote Ecila Worms on 16 March 1892.10 Júlia Lopes de Almeida, ‘A moda’ [O País, 2–3 Jan. 1896, p. 2] in Júlia de Lopes Almeida (pseudonym Ecila Worms), A moda (1892–1901), p. 164. Obviously her favourite was A Estação, to which, as mentioned above, the writer also contributed:

When the columnist opens a fashion magazine to produce a new text for O País, she comes across different representations of clothes. The first is a visual representation, by means of fashion plates, called image-clothing. The second representation involves captions, which provide short, technical descriptions of the same garment, using words and thus transforming the real garment into the written clothing.12 Barthes, The Fashion System. It is also worth mentioning a third representation, even if Almeida fails to refer to it in ‘A moda’. These are the patterns, which deconstruct the garment into a two-dimensional paper model using a variety of linear and non-linear symbols, such as triangles to represent buttons. These symbols help calculate the exact amount of fabric needed and provide a guide in cutting and assembling each piece to recreate the finished garment.

For example, in the chronicle of 28 December 1892, Ecila Worms comments:

This is the image-clothing of two ladies published in A Estação on 15 December 1892 (Figure 3.1), from which Almeida selects the one standing on the right. The corresponding written clothing is caption number 83 (Figure 3.2), which explains that this is the front of the dress and refers to the corresponding patterns and drawings. These two forms, written clothing and image-clothing, which essentially refer to the same garment either real or imagined by the illustrator or designer, nevertheless have different structures due to their composition. Image-clothing depends on visual elements such as shapes, lines, colours, and spatial relationships, whereas written clothing relies on words and follows syntactic patterns. The former is a plastic structure, while the latter is verbal.14 Barthes, The Fashion System.

The transposition of the written clothing and image-clothing from A Estação to O País involves a selection and contextualisation process. On the one hand, the columnist focuses on one element of the illustration, noting that in the last issue of the magazine, among many elegant outfits, there was a petticoat with a short bodice. On the other hand, it places the selected model in the context of the other illustrations in the same issue of A Estação, which depict dresses of different styles, to explain through an example how fashion is volatile and trends can change quickly.

In a humorous and conversational tone, ‘rien ne soulage comme la rhetorique’ (‘nothing relieves like rhetoric’), she writes, quoting George Sand, on 15 June 1899,15 Júlia Lopes de Almeida, ‘A moda’ [O País, 15 Jun. 1899, p. 1] in Júlia de Lopes Almeida (pseudonym Ecila Worms), A moda (1892–1901), p. 299. The quote from George Sand is from ‘Lettres d’un Voyageur. – VI. – Souvenirs de jeunesse, un Mot sur Lélia, Prière d’une matinée de printemps’, Revue des Deux Mondes, 6 (1836), pp. 513–550, <https://fr.wikisource.org/wiki/Lettres_d%E2%80%99un_voyageur_(RDDM)/06> [accessed 29 Dec. 2023]. and based on illustrations selected from magazines, the chronicler presents a wide range of clothes, mainly for women, but also for men, often responding to reader requests. Among the accessories and garments are burial clothes, wedding clothes, underwear, children’s wear, church clothing, white clothing, bathing costumes, carnival costumes, black dresses, bridal trousseaus, overcoats, the vogue of balloon skirts and giving hearts as Christmas presents in Paris, baby collars, scarves, hats, jewellery, fans, artificial beauty marks, and buttons. Ecila also writes about dress colours, the versatility of Parisians in combining different garments, and table etiquette, for example. The vocabulary used by the chronicler opens up new linguistic fields related to sportswear, different types of fabrics and styles of skirts, garments, and hairstyles, highlighting in italics the Gallicisms and Anglicisms she introduces into Brazilian journalism and the Portuguese language, many of which have now been incorporated into the Portuguese dictionary, such as atelier, bond, bouquet, parquet, cachemire, chalet, club, reporters, and toilette.

In the column of 25 January 1901, for example, she talks about the importance of the work of fashion designers who adapt European winter costumes to the Brazilian climate. It highlights how these professionals manage to create styles, combining elements from the opposite seasons to meet the needs of Brazilian consumers, who demanded brighter colours and lighter fabrics, in contrast to the sombre colours and heavy fabrics of the imported prints.

The mediation of cultural norms and values through communication is a fundamental element of the principle of reproduction from Luhmann’s autopoiesis. The absence of visual content in O País and the profusion of illustrated fashion magazines circulating in Rio de Janeiro created a unique space, within the newspaper and in the mainstream press, for Almeida’s textual and interpretative expression of fashion. Almeida was aware that fashion played a significant role in constructing and perpetuating gender identity. She saw fashion as a pool of meaning, a vehicle for promoting gender roles and norms. In her chronicles, she explored how clothing is a mechanism that reveals information about individual behaviour, according to gender norms, social roles, and expectations. Aware of the mechanisms and dynamics of the production of cultural goods, she therefore played a crucial role as a cultural mediator, reflecting on the phenomena, activities, and practices that pervaded the world of fashion. Her chronicles recognised fashion as a forceful symbolic medium used by the power structures to shape the individual body, and understood it not only as an aesthetic phenomenon, but also as a technique of the body, highlighting how clothing choices influence people’s identity and the way their bodies are perceived and experienced in domestic or public spaces. She contributed to understanding how fashion both reflects and transforms socio-cultural norms of gender behaviour, defining and reproducing the boundaries that outline the feminine and the masculine. Her column became part of the communications ecosystem, contributing to the reproduction and expansion of the discourse on fashion in Brazilian periodicals and, therefore, to the inclusion of Rio de Janeiro in the Paris fashion system.

Almeida engages with the European fashion press in order to select and contextualise its content for her readers, adapting it to the context of urban life, the day-to-day of her readers in Rio de Janeiro. Her point of departure is the self-reference, but her main interest resides in the world outside the periodicals, which she brings into her column about clothing. In one of her articles, she uses the form of a letter to describe a toy shop. In others, she writes a history of fashion, describes the interior of a bourgeois house in Rio de Janeiro and comments on the habit of packing suitcases. In several she talks about parties, balls, and exhibitions, and often about charity work and the state of the streets of Rio de Janeiro. She also deals with controversial issues and sensational current affairs, such as a crime in São Paulo, domestic violence, child labour, the treatment of dogs on the streets, the role of women in politics, the desire of some women to enter the convent, the proposed provision of nurseries for the children of maids, the relationship between women and their employees, the female labour market, the habit of some talented women to defy stereotypes by making themselves more masculine, exemplified by the use of walking sticks. In these she reveals both a more conservative and classist stance, especially in relation to women’s appearance and domestic work, and one that was quite consistent with the feminist agenda of the time, which demanded, above all, women’s right to education.17 Irene Vaquinhas, ‘Senhoras e mulheres’ na sociedade portuguesa do século XIX (Lisbon: Colibri, 2000). Ecila Worms also introduces books, advocates reading Brazilian authors, and shares her travel experiences, such as to the island of Paquetá, in Rio de Janeiro.

In this respect, the causes, tastes, and habits of the ‘A moda’ chronicler anticipate many characteristics of the writing of ‘Dois dedos de prosa’, which Almeida would launch on 29 April 1907. Without wishing to exhaust the parallels between ‘A moda’ and ‘Dois dedos de prosa’, one should bear in mind that Ecila Worms and Almeida share an adoration for Rio de Janeiro and a very optimistic vision for Brazil, despite constantly pointing out the city’s infrastructure and public health problems, not to mention the former’s Eurocentrism when it comes to fashion:

The writer’s place of work plays a very important role in the writing of the ‘A moda’ chronicles. Almeida’s office at Salão Verde in Santa Teresa becomes a personal refuge, ‘a room of her own’,19 Virginia Woolf, A Room of One’s Own and Three Guineas ([1929] London: Penguin Classics, 2019). where she observes both the domestic environment, such as her garden, and the public space, such as the neighbourhood and the view from her window, the streets and the social and commercial establishments in the city. This interaction between the domestic and public spheres had a profound influence on her journalism, allowing her writing to be nourished by letters and printed material, above all the fashion magazines, found on her desk, as well as by her daily experiences in the city.

These two axes of self-reference and external reference bestow on the chronicle a binary structure. The chronicle dated 6 July 1895 serves as a good example of this structure. Ecila Worms begins with an anecdote about an artist friend and her customer’s outfit for a photography shoot, and then goes on to criticise the excessive luxury of a dress for receiving intimate visitors reproduced in an illustration in a Parisian fashion journal, which, writes Ecila Worms, is not in keeping with the wardrobe of Brazilian women. She then comments wryly on the latest fashion of leather lace and pékiné dresses. And finally she moves on to the written clothing, that is, items of clothing and accessories selected from French magazines: the fabrics, the return of old fashions of adorning dresses with pearls, glass, and beads, and the hats.20 Júlia Lopes de Almeida, ‘A moda’ [O País, 6 Jul. 1895, p. 2] in Júlia de Lopes Almeida (pseudonym Ecila Worms), A moda (1892–1901), pp. 139–141. The chronicler even confesses that the outside world competes with the activity of writing and consulting fashion magazines: ‘I interrupted these lines to watch a procession pass by my window’.21 Júlia Lopes de Almeida, ‘A moda’ [O País, 6 Jul. 1895, p. 1] in Júlia de Lopes Almeida (pseudonym Ecila Worms), A moda (1892–1901), p. 139.

She opens another chronicle with a description of the view from her window:

Drawing inspiration from Luhmann’s theory of mass media systems, ‘A moda’, published in a widely circulated newspaper, not only reflects reality (ie, the outside world), but also constructs it through news, advertising, and entertainment.24 Luhmann, The Reality of Mass Media. This is achieved through a selection process, resulting in a produced reality that can be legitimised when we understand how it is created and consumed. We are interested here not in how this fashion column distorts reality, but how it constructs it. ‘A moda’ created its own version of reality for the readers of O País, and that is the reality of the media. The second reality refers therefore to the way in which the media operates internally, observing and processing reality for itself and for others, which constitutes a duplication of reality in the communication system. The media can differentiate between self-reference and external references, such as contexts and environments. Important themes in the media build memories, creating a second reality that influences other communications, and establishes connections with other social systems.

It seems to me that Almeida was aware of the distinction between the reality of the newspaper and the outside world, and of the unfitness of a column strictly about women’s clothing for the daily press. According to Luhmann, the criteria for selecting information for dissemination, such as news or reports, in the context of the mass media include the importance of surprise, conflict, quantity, local relevance, and normative violations in order to capture attention, evoke common concern and indignation, ultimately shaping social norms through media representation. This selection process aims to make the information understandable to a wide audience.25 Luhmann, The Reality of Mass Media, pp. 29–30. News stories that challenged gender roles, especially those involving conflicts related to appearance and normative violations, may align more closely with these criteria. However, what to wear, although an important aspect of everyday life and culture, does not always align so closely with these criteria because, especially in the nineteenth century, fashion was cyclical in nature26 Agnes Brooks Young, Recurring Cycles of Fashion (1760–1937) (New York: Harper & Row, 1937). and its presence in the mass media was intended to reinforce gender roles and mould social norms.

However, the word ‘novelty’ (novidade), is used forty-three times by Ecila Worms in her column, sometimes to introduce a cliffhanger at the end of the chronicle: ‘I’m expecting a letter from Paris soon, and it will be full of novelties for my readers!’27 Júlia Lopes de Almeida, ‘A moda’ [O País, 28 Dec. 1892, p. 1] in Júlia de Lopes Almeida (pseudonym Ecila Worms), A moda (1892–1901), p. 69. In several instances, and in keeping with the column’s purpose, the word is associated with presenting a new trend of the current European season. Here are a few illustrative examples, which are from texts that, until very recently, were largely unknown to contemporary readers:

In the chronicle of 21 March 1893, Ecila Worms deals with a novelty that violates the binary distinction between women and men as regards appearance:

In other texts, she touches on the ambiguity inherent to fashion due to its cyclical nature:

In the chronicle published in the 2–3 January 1896 edition, Ecila protests about the trend of wearing white clothes in Paris:

And on 30 December 1894, she was surprised by the abolition of the waistcoat and perplexed by the new Parisian hairstyles:

It is noticeable in this chronicle that she introduces a note of scepticism by mentioning that she does not fully believe the interview published in the journal and by using a dramatic tone to address the growing threat of voluminous hairstyles. This exaggerated and humorous tone suggests her disbelief in the capacity of the press to truthfully represent reality, in other words, she is referring to the media’s second reality, as well as an objection through the excesses of fashion.