hand woven, hand made, embroidered, bow ties.
Guatemalan volcano pattern
Three sizes for 15″, 16″ and 17″ neck
elastic finishing
Thankyou Roger for photography and Jon Werber for modelling
Monthly Archives: October 2013
GLITCH
Sometimes, nothing works in Guatemala. Internet, water, movies, electricity. The corruption artwork that emerges can be quite beautiful. I whopped some images of bad technology into some textile fashion prints.
QUE ONDA VOS
Hanne De Wyngaert is kicking goals with her new label, QUE ONDA VOS. I went to the Guatemalan launch party a few months ago, and I have no doubt the new collection of rugs, bags and scarves will be a huge success. Not only is the collection aesthetically beautiful, but are socially conscious. Hanne has designed this collection working with Guatemalan women’s groups and artisans, ensuring fair trade conditions. Can’t wait to see this label succeed. Great design + Fair trade? always a winner in my books
A thought about fashion trends
The way women dress here, is a lot different to back home. Every village has a unique hand woven traje, so you can instantly recognise where a woman is from based on what she is wearing. While initially women were forced to wear different woven dresses, by the Spanish to exercise power, and to keep the people groups separate, today they are worn with great pride.
Today I was speaking with one of the local women I know, about the difference between fashion here and back home. In Guatemala, it is only every 100 years, when the women will come together with new ideas and decide what will be ‘THE traje’ that all the women will wear. There are slight variations within these 100 years, as every woman will spend years hand weaving her intricate Traje, beginning when she is about 16, growing into a woman.
I come from a culture where the fashion changes every six months, where fashion from the street influences the big leading brands, and the big brands influence the fashion on the street (think Punk era with Vivian Westwood as a classic example), and everything is documented in style blogs and magazines.
Here that idea of fast fashion is totally flipped on its head. Just imagine owning an outfit, you wear nearly every day, that you spent 2 years working on.
Imagine how that would reduce the amount of textile waste we create in the world… which is a pretty stinking issue we have right now.
What is also super interesting about the culture here, is that they choose how they want to look as a group, as a small group of women, they have power to decide on what colours, motifs, thickness they prefer. Amazing. We may think that we have so much choice in the west, but how much are we subliminally influenced by advertising in the way we like to dress (not that that is a bad thing), and of course the way we dress and our trends is influenced by the changing ideals, beliefs and mindsets of the people… but in such a traditional culture, where women are down trodden, how the women express themselves through fashion is actually quite powerful, and powerful in that beautifully gentle female way.
Even the way they all dress conservatively, actually is quite powerful, and a stark contrast to butt-cheek shorts back home (power to you if you can pull them off).. it is a culture where women will be pursued despite amount of leg shown, it takes the focus off all the physical parts that together form you, and presents you as a whole person. (I won’t go into the flip side of the machismo culture here though)
Fashion thought of the day. Something to think about as we get dressed in the morning, and something to think about as we purchase clothes.
Above, a traditionally dressed girl greets people at the door of McDonnalds
Below, a traditionally dressed woman buys a 5Q soft serve cone at McDonnalds.
Interesting juxtoposition between the ‘fast’ culture from the west, and the slow way of life in Guatemala
natural dye experiments
There I met with Socorro, 65 and still weaving and teaching her art to support her friends, and Chai-ya, a girl my age, who I quickly became friends with. Chai-ya and I spent three days hanging out in the dying shed, just chatting while we waited for the warps to absorb the natural tints. The process is so relaxing and beautiful, and the best part about going in not expecting an results, is that it allows play, and that freedom and joy can produce some really good work.
My understanding of weave and how to use traditional processes just expanded two fold, and I can’t wait to take these experiments into new products… and to maybee duck back and experiment some more, learning from the mistakes I made from the batch.
Every day, I took this beautiful lancha from one side of the lake to the other, and made sure I made my way back before the sun sank. You can’t help but smile when each day you are greeted with lush mountains, and the walk to work is a little old paved path, all the locals quietly greeting you under the Guatemalan sun.
Vanushka, the gypsy who died of a broken heart
With Day of The Dead fast approaching, Dia los Muertos, housemate Jon and I took an adventure to the local cemetery to take it all in.
Through the gates and down the row of the brightly coloured graves, past the wreaths of flowers, lies Vanushka, the gypsy who died of a broken heart.
As the guatemalan folklore historia goes, in the early 1900s Vanushka and her family moved from Hungary to Guatemala, and traveled around preforming as a circus. When the gypsy family arrived in Xela, on the opening night of their circus, Vanushka caught the eye of the son of a rich Guatemalan family. After the performance, the son stayed back and spoke to Vanushka, it was love at first sight. Every night the son returned to watch Vanushka perform every night, and stayed back to talk to her. At the end of the week their parents had found out they had fallen in love. Coming from a rich family, the last thing the parents wanted to see was their son marry a gypsy. The next day the family sent the son away to Spain to study for four years, to forget about his love for Vanushka.
The young lovers were distraught, but there was nothing they could do, and eyes full of tears said good bye.
Nothing could console Vanushka, she wept for weeks and grew weak and pale. The doctors visited her, but nothing could cure the young gypsy of her illness.
Meanwhile in Spain the son heard of Vanushka’s failing health, and boarded a boat to return to his love.
But it was too late, while he was on his way to Xela, Vanushka died of a broken heart. In memory of the love of his life, he built a tomb of the young gypsy, and layed flowers on her grave every day, without fail, every day of his life, apart from the day she died. He never married, his heart forever for Vanushka.
When he too passed away, and their souls reunited, Vanushka started granting requests. To this very day, if you write your name and the person you love, on the body of Vanushka, she will bring you both together. If you bring her flowers like her lover, she will grant your request faster.
my film
natural dye, macrame plant holders
This week I journeyed to a pueblo to explore natural dying. It has been a while since I have had time to be experimental with my work, so it was a really beautiful experience. I will write more about it when my film is developed. For now here is the results for a new product I have been working on with the local women. We twisted each of the 64 chords ourselves, for hours on the porch in the sun, and then I experimented with an ombre look with natural dye. I have been interested in creating pot plant holders for a while, happy with the result! More versions to come in the future
Photos, by Roger
and big thanks to every one I roped in to twist and knot! Omparo, Auralia, Christie, Faith, Kain, Jose, Karlita x
Teaching everyone how to macramé!
Photos by Christie
BICOLAGE
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