HUIPILES AND REBOZOS OF MEXICO

AND MORE

I have been collecting ethnic garments from Oaxaca since my first trip there over 30 years ago. The textile traditions of Oaxaca and other parts of Mexico are not as well known as that of Guatemala, but they are very strong. The many regions of Oaxaca and Chiapas each have their own textile designs. Fabrics tend to be lighter than in the Guatemalan highlands because it is warmer in Oaxaca. Since the opening of the Textile Museum in the city of Oaxaca a few years ago, textiles have made a huge, resurgence. There are textiles available that I had never seen before in the city. When looking for textiles, I look for fine hand-craftsmanship. Weaving should be tight, gauze should be “locked” with leno weave, embroidery should have small stitches so it doesn’t pull easily. I also prefer cotton to synthetics, although some embroidered fabrics use rayon yarn for more shine in the design.

There are some traditional Mexican rebozos shown here as well. They are tightly woven and have a very high thread count. The designs incorporate beautiful stripes of warp ikat, a technique where the yarns are literally tie-dyed before being put on the loom. The yarn must be threaded on the loom with great precision to keep them in the proper positions in the design. Once these complex rebozos, or shawls, are woven, the warp (lengthwise) threads remaining are tied into amazing knotted designs. To produce one of these works of art requires a highly skilled dyer, a highly skilled weaver, and a highly skilled knotter! They have been prized in Mexican culture, inspired Sandra Cisnero’s novel Caramelo, and are well-represented in Frida Kahlo’s clothing collection at the Frida Kahlo Museum in Mexico City. Tenancingo is famous for it’s rebozos, but they are also created by skilled artisans in a few other places in Mexico. They are lightweight cotton and make and elegant throw on a cool evening!

The Chiapas pieces shown here are machine embroidered by hand and they are one of a kind.  The machine embroidery, like in Guatemala, is done on a old treadle machine with zig zag stitch. The sewer moves the fabric back and forth on the machine to create the design. Such sewing machine embroidery takes a lot of skill and is also done in contemporary textile art by contemporary textile artists.  The technique is totally different from computer-generated mass-produced machine embroidery.