Conclusion

The last text of the ‘A moda’ series seems to be a satire on the way the media creates a reality for itself. Ecila Worms shares with the readers her fantasy of creating a decorative wire table runner covered in natural flowers to embellish her dining table. After devising the project, she went to Casa Flora for advice on its feasibility. The shop owner praises the idea, but is sceptical about its practical implementation. Nevertheless, she leaves her drawing behind and departs, feeling disappointed. A few weeks later, she was surprised by an unexpected visit from the blacksmith who brought her the table rail in question, crafted in wire. However, instead of the expected beauty, she is faced with a bony, naked and outrageous structure. She laments that implementing the idea was more difficult than she had imagined. She muses on how easy it is to idealise beautiful things, as opposed to the difficulty of turning them into reality. The chronicler decides to cover the table rail with flowers to disguise its undesirable appearance. At first, she looks for jasmine and ferns, but only finds ivy and silvina. Finally, she opts to combine this sombre foliage with roses and daisies, although the result is not entirely enchanting. Despite her disappointment, Ecila persists and finally manages to create an attractive composition with the flowers. To a degree, this journey serves as a little moral lesson: about the advantages of pursuing small domestic projects, the pleasure of creating something with your own hands, and the satisfaction of overcoming challenges. However, her work, the wire and flower ornament that decorates Ecila Worms’ table runner, perhaps represents the way in which her column and the illustrated fashion magazines construct an illusion of reality that does not correspond to what Brazilian women of all classes and ages wore during the Belle Époque.