The Social Media Impact On The Evolution Of Brazilian Street Style

As the name says, Street Style is a fashion trend that didn’t come from the studios, but from the streets. It is the so-called “real” fashion, an aesthetic movement that originated from the style of urban centers. 

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

Some people believe that this style emerged by the end of World War II, when people started to dress casually to adapt to sparse resources and high prices. However, according to journalist and master in social communication Nínive Girardi, Street Style only became global in this century. 

“This movement was strengthened by the 1960s onwards due to the process of democratization of fashion and the development of prêt-à-porter when new designers began to seek inspiration from the streets and counterculture for their collections”, explains. “But it was only in the 2000s, with the arrival of websites and blogs, that street style became the major vector of trends in the fashion world.”

Anyone slightly connected to the fashion world on social media has probably heard of Street Style, since it has been trending everywhere online. “The Internet and social networks have made it possible to spread street style at a speed never seen before”, Nínive states. The specialist adds that the phenomenon of street style blogs placed the style at the center of the fashion world, but, as new networks emerged, street style was shaped by the dynamic of those platforms. 

STREET STYLE AND SOCIAL MEDIA IN BRAZIL

“In a media ecosystem marked by networking and free access to information, we find diverse manifestations of fashion, multiple forms of expression, and different ways of appropriating clothing. In a country rich in diversity like Brazil, street fashion also reflects this plurality”, explains Nínive. 

Lots of Brazilians have joined this trend online, manifesting the country’s roots and establishing a national identity, including the suburb’s style. The ‘mandrake’ style, for example, is the go-to style of many people from the favelas of São Paulo. It can also be categorized as street style since it carries codes linked to a community and regional culture.

Nevertheless, Nínive explains that the influence of social media can be a watershed in the cultural context of this kind of fashion because people outside of this reality start to reproduce it. “What happens is that, due to the logic of going viral, especially on TikTok, these styles burst the bubble and start to be reproduced en masse, they are appropriated by new groups and lose their relationship with the original context in which they were created”.

Something similar happens when it comes to the influence of foreign countries. “In Brazil, street style has many aspects that express regional brands and national identity. However, it cannot be denied that North American trends also have a strong impact on the construction of styles, especially with the influence of social networks and the rise of a global culture of content creators on Instagram and TikTok”, she explains. In these circumstances, fashion loses regional differences, and styles become increasingly similar. 

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The article above was edited by Beatriz Oliveira.

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