Moda da Bahia: An Analysis of Contemporary Vendor Dress in Salvador

This article discusses the history related to the “traditional” Baianan dress worn by women in contemporary tourist areas of Salvador, Bahia, Brazil. Examining fugitive slave advertisements, travel diaries and images from the nineteenth century, it becomes clear that the dress of twenty-first century vendors in tourist areas of Salvador maintains a close visual and personal connection to the dress of female slaves. Goffman’s theory of personal front and Sansi’s theories on cultural appropriation in Afro-Brazilian traditions serve as the framework to assess characteristics of the twenty-first-century dress of acarajé vendors and shop girls in Salvador that are based on nineteenth-century female slave clothing, addressing components of cultural authentication in terms of a shift from slave imagery to one of pride in heritage and African culture (and commercial gain).