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Since ancient times, Maya women have worn a wide, rectangular blouse known as a huipíl over a wrap-around skirt. This mid-20th century one comes from the famous market town of Chichicastenango.A three-part huipíl such as this would have been worn on…

This brocaded cloth features a supernatural pelican-man. Still bright after over five hundred years, scarlet highlights the standing figure’s face and the many little pelicans that sit on his arms and emerge magically from/as his body. The two…

The modern and contemporary women of the north coast and offshore islands of Panamá, the Guna (previously Cuna or Kuna), incorporated the European scissors and machine-made cloth in the 19th century to make a remarkable new “traditional” blouse. It…

Writing—recording information in a format that others at the time and later can decipher—was accomplished by the Inka Empire of South America using thousands of knotted string devices known as khipu. In the Carlos collection there are two other…

A writing device—fulfilling the communicative purpose of recording and transmitting knowledge among trained individuals over time—the Inka khipu can take a number of forms (a mono- and polychrome example). In the ways that a handwritten poem and a…

It may seem odd that the distinctively Inka mode of writing in knotted threads would survive the Spanish invasion and colonization. Indeed, in 1581 the khipu was officially outlawed, although its use went underground and has not completely…

The textile artists of the ancient Andes, such as the Chancay of the central coast, invented nearly every known fiber-working technique, including the unique embroidered openwork seen at left and right. While it may resemble lace, it is first loosely…

Unlike today’s synthetic dyes that can produce any color— whether dark, light, or even florescent—in pre-Industrial times certain hues and values (colors and their relative darkness) were more difficult to attain than others. Using natural indigo…

A tiny Guna girl wore this blouse with its vivid front and back dulemola panels of orange and blue. The geometric patterns and two colors make these dulemolaguna traditional, the type called “grandmother” to show it is an older idea (versus those…

This contemporary dulemola features multiple small pieces of cloth sandwiched between the black top cloth and the orange base one, maximizing the number of colors of the twenty-eight spiral patterns. They are subtly subdivided by the clever way the…