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| self portrait with thorn necklace by Frida Kahlo 1940 |
Frida Kahlo expressed her love of country by wearing national costume. This blog post is about the Mexican huipil.
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| huipil 1964 Oaxaca, triqui culture cotton and wool tabby, broocade |
Huipil : Mexican tunic
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| huipil 1964 detail |
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| huipil 1950 Oaxaca |
Huipils are simple garments made with rectangles that have been woven on a loom worn by the weaver.
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| backstrap loom |
The photos of textiles in this post were taken at the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto in November 2015.
That exhibit is on until May 2016.
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| detail of complex pictorial weaving - supplementary thread brocade |
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| huipil 1945-1950 very rare Oaxaca Zapotec culture. weft-wrap open work |
All the textiles in this post were in glass museum cases which explains the quality of these photos.
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| detail of weft-wrap openwork. the openings are created by wrapping the horizontal threads around the vertical ones |
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| three huipils |
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| huipil with supplementary thread |
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| detail - is this embroidery or weaving? |
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| blouse 1964 |
Blouses have now replaced
the huipil in most communities in Mexico.
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| the indigo is running stitch, the red is "whirl pool" pattern done with sewing machine |
After the Spaniards arrived, heavily embroidered blouses were preferred. They are made from factory produced cloth.
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| self portrait with monkeys by Frida Kahlo 1940 |
These portraits of
Frida are of her wearing blouses.
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| self portrait with small monkey Frida Kahlo 1945 |
