I'm not sure where or even if this technically fits in the global challenge but I thought I'd share some pics of myself dressed in traditional Mayan traje (traje sort of means 'outfit' or 'costume') from Nahuala, in the highlandsw of Guatemala, where I do volunteer work helping to teach basic midwifery skills to traditional Mayan birth attendants (aka midwives or comadronas). For the graduation ceremony, all of us extraneros (foreigners) wear the traditional traje. I actually purchased mine and it lives in my trunk. For a while I had the blouse hanging on my wall as art. I have a lot of other Guatemalan textiles and one day plan to turn a whole wall into a sort of textile gallery.
The traje consists of 3 main items: the huipile, which is a blouse hand-woven on backstrap looms over weeks or even months--this is the main part of the traje and each village has its own unique colours and designs that they use for their huipiles--the faja or woven belt, and the corte, which is a tube of fabric that is folded around the waist and held in place by the faja. Here is some info:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huipil
http://www.anthro.fsu.edu/wove.....uipil.html
http://www.rutahsa.com/traje.html
http://www.flickr.com/search/g....._searched=
This blog has some lovely photos of Mayan women:
http://www.antiguadailyphoto.com
And here is me in my traje from Nahuala!:
http://unfashioned.wordpress.c.....guatemala/
Nahuala has a unique custom of purposely using red or purple threads that will bleed their colour onto the white fabric background. In the past, silk thread was much more expensive than cotton, but silk bled its colour. This led to colour bleeding being a sign of status. Now, even though synthetic threads are common and silk is rarely used, this colour bleed has become a hallmark of huipiles from Nahuala. My huipile has a double-headed eagle woven into it, which is sort of the mascot of Nahuala, as well as a lot of small birds, and the geometric shapes are ojos de dios, or "eyes of god".
I didn't make it to Guatemala this year but hope to go back to volunteer this spring. I miss it so much it hurts. I can't even begin to describe how powerful, beautiful, moving, and humbling the Mayan women of Guatemala are. Their style is about resistance, pride, and heritage as well as radiant, riotous, unadulterated beauty and colour. Killer to the max.
