Indigenous style

March 14, 2012
In the course of our Mexican travels, it has not been unusual to see women dressed in a traditional fashion. Usually this would feature embroidered blouses and full skirts, often finished off with a shawl, variously called a serape or rebozo.  Older women may wear dark shades, but bright colours are common among all ages.

Angahuan is a small, rather isolated Purepecha village and we had heard that the women wore distinctive clothing.  The form their fashions took was a surprise; it was quite different from what we had seen previously.  


For me,the most striking part of the costume was the skirts.  They were full, below the knee, usually pleated and made from fabric which was often bright and shiny, like taffeta.  Over the skirt was an apron. Sometimes this looked utilitarian but frequently it was lacy or gauzy, perhaps what we would call a pinafore. With the skirt they wore a blouse (possibly pleated or in a floral pattern) and always a shawl. The shawl may be used as a head covering, especially on cold mornings, and often there will be a baby tucked inside.  Girls seemed to take on the shawl in their young teens.  The women's hair was braided and tied at the ends and sometimes also near the start of the braid.

This is the tail end of a very long line of women leading to an office (government?  health?) in the village. 

Good view here of the narrow pleats and also the hair braids.

I had an ethical dilemma in my desire to capture photos of the clothing.  Ordinarily I would not take someone's picture without asking permission.  When we spend time in a town we naturally come into contact with residents in the markets and on the streets.  It is a simple matter to ask by words or gestures if we may take a photo.  In this case we were driving through the town with no real interaction with the people.  I thought it would be terribly rude to stick the camera out the window and snap away.  So . . . not a lot of pictures.

A market in the plaza sold all the fancy fabrics for skirts and aprons.

Later in the afternoon we drove through a mountain village where all the rebozos were the same beautiful blue.