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Nova Friburgo and Brazil’s intimate-apparel industry

Long-Line Underwire Bra in sand (beige), front view, worn by an AI-generated modeli

In June 2024, a federal law gave a mountain town in the state of Rio de Janeiro an unusual title: Capital Nacional da Moda Íntima, the national capital of intimate apparel. The town is Nova Friburgo. The title did not create an industry; it recognized one that had been there for a long time. It is also a good way into a part of the Brazilian economy that few shoppers outside the country know much about.

A town founded by Swiss settlers

Nova Friburgo sits in the mountains of Rio de Janeiro state, about 136 kilometers (roughly 85 miles) from the state capital. It was planned in 1818 as a settlement, and between 1819 and 1820 about 265 Swiss families arrived. They named it after Fribourg, the home of most of them. German families followed in 1824.

Textiles became central to the local economy around 1910, when German industrialists founded large textile factories there, with machinery imported from Germany. Today the town’s main economic activities still include lingerie, alongside textiles, apparel, metalworking, horticulture and goat farming. Its population was 189,939 in 2022.

The law and the numbers behind it

The title comes from Lei 14.883, signed on June 11, 2024, after the bill passed both houses of Brazil’s Congress. The Senate’s education committee approved it in May 2024, and both chambers’ news agencies reported the same figures in support:

  • about 114 million pieces produced in the town each year;
  • about 20,000 jobs in the municipality, 10,000 direct and 10,000 indirect, according to the local clothing-industry union;
  • 160 shops selling lingerie, sportswear, beachwear and sleepwear.

The two reports date the production figure differently, one to 2017 data from the Brazilian textile industry association and the other to 2019, so read 114 million as an order of magnitude rather than a current count.

Nova Friburgo also hosts Fevest, an annual trade fair that the Chamber of Deputies’ news agency describes as the largest lingerie fair in Latin America. The Senate’s report adds that the town’s apparel cluster accounts for a large part of the state’s and the country’s lingerie production.

One hub among several

Nova Friburgo has the federal title, but it is not the only center. Sebrae Santa Catarina, the state branch of Brazil’s small-business support service, calls the town of Ilhota “the Santa Catarina capital of intimate apparel”.

Its figures for the country as a whole, drawn from the textile industry association ABIT, are large: Brazil produces about 1.5 billion pieces of intimate apparel a year, in a market worth about R$ 3.6 billion a year.

The wider industry

Intimate apparel is one segment of a much bigger textile and clothing industry. ABIT reported in January 2025 that the sector comprises 25,300 companies with more than five employees and 1.3 million direct jobs, with revenue of R$ 203.9 billion in 2023 and an estimated R$ 215 billion in 2024. Production in the textile segment grew 4 percent between January and November 2024, and apparel grew 3.8 percent. ABIT describes the Brazilian textile and clothing industry as the fifth largest in the world.

Why it matters to a shopper

Brazil is not a newcomer to making underwear and shaping garments. It has a domestic industry large enough to need its own trade fairs, regional hubs and, now, a federal title for one of its towns. When you buy a garment made in Brazil, that is the industry it comes from.

Bellcorpus garments are Brazilian-made too, though this article is about the industry rather than about us, and none of the figures above describes our own production. Our pieces are made in Brazil and sized the Brazilian way, by height and weight, which the fit guide explains. To see one up close, start with the Long-Line Underwire Bra, or browse everything in the shop.

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