São Paulo’s popular fashion main streets: the private sector’s role in the origin and consolidation of Vinte e Cinco de Março and José Paulino streets

Abstract

This article explores the social history of the two most important popular fashion streets in São Paulo: Vinte e Cinco de Março and José Paulino. By tracing the trajectories of foreign
families fixed on these streets, it discusses how private initiatives of immigrants looking for financial
stability through the opening of their own business relates to the creation of the space occupied by them. In both cases, the transformation of commercial and productive capital (fabric, clothes, and sewing supplies of the fashion industry) into real estate capital (building construction) was the main driving force of the verticalization processes. The families here portrayed are social agents whose initiatives, combined with the demands arising from the metropolization process and historic and geographic factors of São Paulo, resulted in economic prosperity. The manufacturing and sales of clothes, fabrics, and sewing supplies transformed Vinte e Cinco de Março and José Paulino into important references in the city, state, country, and Latin America. Through bibliographic, documentary, and oral sources, this study sought to investigate and discuss the convergences and particularities of the two territories, addressing processes that date from the last decade of the 19th century to the present day – a period in which allotments and street layouts were shaped, most buildings were constructed, and new foreign communities arrived to the places.