Chita!

Brazil boats its own unique textile that symbolises the country’s exuberant personality in print.

Cotton has been important in Brazil for centuries but during the period that the country was colonised and governed from Portugal, most cloth was imported. This was expensive and so, threatened by rising cotton agriculture, the government banned its production in the 18th Century. That did not stop local people from producing cotton and making cloth, mainly amongst rural workers and enslaved communities. This played right into the propaganda that the best (and therefore most expensive) cloth came from overseas, a view that was often promoted by the colonising power as a way of ensuring the status quo. It was only in the 1920s with the advent of Brazilian Modernism that the view began to change as the search for an authentic Brazilian identity began.

Read more of the history of the fascinating chita here and for those who want even more detail, take a look at this link.

_{Header image: Post of Brazil, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons}