Traditional Mexican Clothing

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Traditional Mexican Clothing

The rich variety of Mexican textiles includes huipiles, jorongos, frayed garments, zarapes, sombreros and colorful blouses.

This country’s traditional clothing displays a variety of colorful designs, cloth and fabrics which make them eye-catching.

Mexico’s textile tradition is so rich that each region shows different designs and colors, allowing for each area to have their own styles, colors and traditional garments.

For instance, in Aguascalientes, a state in central Mexico, there’s frayed garments; dresses and blouses embroidered with a technique that consists of threading and fraying, which gives this style its name. The art of this technique found in the most antique traditional stores on Nieto street, in Aguascalientes, which display these beautiful and traditional frayed embroideries and make them available to the public.

Heading south, in Chiapas or Oaxaca we can find incredibly colorful dresses and blouses, with high-quality embroidery intertwining threads that give the fabric a vibrant appearance. These traditional garments include Tehuana costumes and classic blouses which tourists consider must-haves.

Oaxacan women generally wear black silk shawls wrapped around their heads as they use cotton fabric to design each lively pattern by hand.

In the coastal state of Veracruz, we can find the famous traje jarocho. Women wear all white: a long embroidered skirt, white embroidered blouse, a red or black apron over the skirt and the classic fan. Men wear white pants and shirts, a red handkerchief around their necks and a white hat.

Purépechas in Michoacán wear a traditional red skirt called “sabanilla”. This is a kind of rectangular canvas made out of hand-woven wool.

The charro costume, from Guadalajara, is also a tradition: men wear this suit, which has three different variations: work attire, dressy-casual and formal attire.

The sombrero accompanying the charro costume can either be made of smooth felt, threaded hair, palm, with or without spots; the Pachuco shirt is white or a different plain color with a military-style collar. The jacket is smooth and made of fabric, chamois or cashmere, with or without ornaments which are frets, three to six buttons on each sleeve and a brooch on the chest, which are made of bone, chamois or silver. The trousers, belt, tie, and shoes all with different function, style and a role within the charro costume.

Mexico is a place filled with traditions, and that includes clothing: the typical garments, regions, styles and proficient hands of textile artisans make these pieces a way of life and a tradition that’s visually attractive and that has even been successfully taken to fashion shows worldwide.