We, the others: construction of the exotic and consumption of brazilian fashion in France
Abstract
This article discusses the consumption of Brazilian products - especially fashion and clothing - in France as a way of consuming the exotic. Drawing on ten months of fieldwork in France, I engage data collected there with my experience from previous research carried out in Brazil. Firstly, this article discusses exoticism, a topic that invariably broaches a debate about identity and alterity. Then, some particularities of "consuming the other" in French discourses about Brazilian products are analyzed. Finally, I conclude that the construction of Brazilian fashion as exoticism is simultaneously situated in the French imaginary about the Brazilian other and in the very Brazilian production of garment fashion.
