Fashion and Ritual in Colonial Latin America” – WWD

Go back 300 years to colonial Latin America and textiles are beautiful, fashions are often synonymous with clothing, and they were worn not only by means but also by class and race.

The exhibit titled “Painted Fabric: Fashion and Order in Colonial Latin America,” which opened August 14 at the Blanton Museum of Art in Austin, Texas, is an event that surrounds its visitors.

Through costumes, textiles, paintings and sculptures, this trip is an opportunity to revisit and revise the narrative of 1700s Latin American travel (the last full century of Spanish colonialism in the region, ending more than 300 years later in the 1820s). Colonial rule, and to understand the meaning of textiles and clothes in life and religion in the period. Indigenous groups, enslaved Africans, Spanish colonialists, and their mixed-race descendants are intertwined in one way or another, and it is impossible to tell the fashion story of the region through the lens of Spain alone.

“Fashion offered agency to all social sectors, regardless of race and class, and although Spanish authorities tried to limit certain clothing to specific social sectors, fashion was very fluid as it is today,” he said. Rosario I. Granados, Marilyn Thoma associate curator of Spanish American art for the Blanton Museum, says. “You can wear things to be seen in the ways you want to understand, and that’s what happened in the colonial era. And I think it’s important because maybe it’s a similar conversation about how fashion allows you to travel from different periods. [could help us] Start talking about race. Just as gender is so fluid, why don’t we accept that the color of your skin says something about you but doesn’t limit you to who you should be?

The exhibition is presented in five sections, “Making Cloth,” “Dressing Social Status,” “Dressing the Sacred,” “Sacredness of Cloth,” and “Ceremonial Clothing.” The pieces were cut from Mexico, Peru, Bolivia, Guatemala, Venezuela and the American Southwest.

Ignoring the conflict of highlighting the social injustices that remain at the core of many of the colonial regimes everywhere, Granados, in the exhibition’s accompanying catalog, finds ways to use fashion to “trick the system and turn it to their advantage” by those living under Spanish rule – and by bending those rules with dress.

Citing historian Tamara Walker, Granados said that enslaved Africans were able to find their own agency through the streets of Lima, “significantly in the civility of the Spaniards,” who elevated the status of their masters. “Dressing the Social Status” section of the exhibition shows the ways in which indigenous groups and people of mixed race in other parts of Latin America use fashion to navigate life.

“In this way, fashion shows how colonialism and agency are practiced in everyday life,” writes Granados, “providing a greater understanding of the social bonds that underlie the importance of sovereignty.”

In order for the authorities to maintain social and economic control, laws mandated certain races to wear specific clothing.

In the year A 1582 law in Mexico City stipulated that non-native women could not wear indigenous clothing, such as skirts. group And cueitla wrap dress (could have exempted them from certain taxes, the protected natives were not liable to other exemptions).

Perhaps it’s full-circle with today, where artistic and traditionally made clothing is widely praised (if not trendy), while indigenous clothing was a status symbol during the colonial period (which Granados admits could be considered a cultural standard during the colonial period).

Non-native common women were expected to dress in the Spanish style; nice (skirt), shirt, a Shawl (Shawl) and a Tapas (under skirt). Black women usually covered their head and upper body Tapas. Larger women may have a corset attached to the front of their dress, nodding to the influence of French fashion. Native male “adventurers” wore straw hats, and nobles wore felt hats. And the difference continued.

“Each team had to wear something special to stand out,” says Granados. “The Spanish crown was very worried about how people were mixed, because it was impossible to pay taxes properly, and there was a problem of distinguishing which box each belonged to. [group of] People were like today and like always. And I think that’s a big difference in understanding how this colonization in the Americas works differently than America or India or any other colonial area.

Some of these dress variations can be seen in Complex Pictures shown at the exhibition. Intended to represent, according to Granados, “an idealized version of what colonial society was like,” these paintings depict people of different ethnicities and different fashions, engaged in various activities related to their class or group. doing nothing, an employee engaged in business). A series of similar pieces from Peru are on display in the U.S. for the first time at the Blanton.

As these different nationalities continue to mingle, and especially with the commercial center of Mexico City, the region’s textiles – visitors to the exhibition can see, including a collection of silk swatches sent with official reports from Mexico. King of Spain – take on new features and characteristics.

“Traditional Hook For example, woolen tunics made in Peru for the Incas began to be made of cotton with silk embroidery. of huipiles Made of cotton, they began to work with silk. Also, the colors were different. The silk is dyed with cochineal dye from local insects [a red-hued insect], for instance. So there was a constant influence between them,” Granados explained. “At the event, we will present a portrait of a native. caciqueor leader, that wears groupis a very traditional women’s dress and is embroidered with an eagle… [Spanish] The royal symbol, therefore, was a constant influence.

Again there is an often contested line between cultural influence and acceptance. But this exhibition isn’t about digging into that controversy, it’s about teaching awareness.

What Granados wants visitors to take away from the exhibition is a deeper understanding of the various influences on fashion and dress during the colonial period, which was by no means limited to colonialists. She wants the industry to better understand the local contribution of indigenous people to fashion and textiles, which remains a thriving industry today – not just something to be noticed when a European luxury designer suits up for the runway.

“These textile traditions were constantly changing, but they were very much alive in colonial times as they are today,” she said. “[The exhibit] He brings the discussion back to the colonial experience in Latin America.

It’s about visibility, and adding to the fashion canon what has long been left in favor of Eurocentric narratives.

Among the curator’s favorite pieces? female as well as (dress) made of camel (a member of the camel family) fiber and cotton late 16th century Shawl Since the end of the 18th century. Of the latter, Granados says, “It was not an everyday item but it had images [Mexico City] And I think that’s how special it is ShawlAnd other people doing that, they were used as objects to show the pride of Mexico City as a center of many influences, and you can see the embroidered figures showing European and indigenous fashions.

The “Painted Fabric” exhibit runs from August 14 to January 8, 2023 at the Blanton. The accompanying coffee table book, with deeper context for those who want to dig in, is available for pre-order through the university. Texas press and will be released according to the exhibition. On October 21, an adjacent symposium (enlarged), “Textiles of the Spanish Americas,” brings together scholars from the United States and England to continue the exploration of the societal role played by textiles in colonial Latin America.

“I hope it’s the beginning of a bigger, more meaningful conversation,” Granados said.