Learn about Carnival Back Pieces: Feathered Accessories in the Samba World

In the Brazilian Carnival Costume world, many are the components that make up a Carnival costume. For show samba dancers and famous celebrities, Carnival designers often use a very important accessory, which creates a marvelous visual effect: The “costeiros” , feathered back-pieces, or “esplendores” , as they are called in Portuguese. This feathered accessory, In English, can also be referred to as a carnival “shoulder adornment”. On this carnival post, we will explain how and in what context these attractive carnival costume accessories are used.



Carnival costumes are always associated with glamour, exuberance, and luxury. With the “costeiros” or back-pieces it could not be different. Traditionally, costeiros started to be used on main carnival parade celebrities or “high-lights” members of a samba-school during the Rio carnival. ( In Portuguese these flash celebrities are called “destaques”.) Later, the “esplendores” or back-pieces became part of “common” revelers´ costumes, as samba-schools parades became richer, especially in terms of plumes and feathers. Entire carnival parade wings today have costumes with some kind of “shoulder adornment” or “esplendores”, with different kind of materials being used.




What eventually became a “trademark” for both Carnival Queens and samba show-girls was the heavy feathered type of “costeiros” / back-pieces. Actually, many of the Brazilian Carnival celebrities “compete” each year during the carnival parade to see who will present a fancier and eye-catching costume. The majority of the most stunning costumes in Brazil indeed have built-in “costeiros” or “back-pieces”, since it is the single piece in Carnival Queen costume that holds the greatest number of feathers. Costeiros feathers are normally made of 4 (four) kind: pheasant ( Lady Amherst Feathers) , Turkey feathers , goose, and peacock feathers ( less commonly used ).




Some Brazilian-Rio Carnival Queen back-pieces may have up to 1500 feathers and are also decorated with other artistic elements, like Swarovski crystals to enhance even more the overall look. Many of the feathers could be painted too. Some of these full costumes may cost from US$ 5.000 up to US$ 15.000,00 and could take 2 or 3 months to be totally crafted (including design/ style modifications). The individual costeiros evidently cost less ( from US$ 500,00 all the way to US$ 2.000,00).



A second type of Carnival reveler/ samba character which is notorious for using feathered costeiros or back-pieces are samba show girls. These type of passistas normally make use of feathered headdresses and costeiros in order to create a “volume” within a stage performance. Many Carnival show girls aside from the feathered costeiros may also use feathered arm bracelets. These are attached in different parts of the arm, but should allow movements for the freedom of the samba dance routines.



Finally, sizes of feathered carnival costeiros / back-pieces and carnival bracelets can vary substantially, which obviously influences in a direct manner it´s cost, as well as production time-frame. Their designs also vary tremendously: Some are very vertical, others have large wings, other may have more of a “horizontal twist”, while other have long tails, and the list goes on…



On this post, we are presenting a few examples of Brazilian Carnival costeiros and phases of the production of a Carnival back-piece: The initial design, the crafting/ adjustments phase, and the final result.

Below, we see three other examples of Brazilian Back Pieces being used in different occasions.