Ethnicity and Changes in Clothing Styles

While some Mayan people refuse to give up their traditional style of clothing, they are not averse to incorporating some Western elements into that clothing tradition. For example, in some villages women's huipils and men's pants have taken on the more tailored look common in Western clothing while maintaining their traditional style, particularly in weaving and embroidery.

Changes in clothing styles tend to take place slowly, with a small addition here or a change in cut there.

This man's shirt from Todos Santos Cuchumatan, Guatemala, shows the influence of Western style in its chest pocket and machine stitching. Also, it is worn with pants largely of Western design; the pants are fitted rather than loose and have a waistband and beltloops, features absent in the older styles of pants.

In many ways, though, this outfit remains true to the traditional clothing styles for this Mayan community.

The fabric of the shirt is woven on a backstrap loom, the cuffs and collar are heavily brocaded, and like most traditional shirts, it has no buttons.
This type of influence can work the other way as well. Some Mayan people will wear Western styles of clothing, but will embellish them with embroidery of traditional designs and motifs. In areas where women work outside the home and have less time to engage in the time-consuming process of weaving huipils or where they cannot afford to buy expensive huipils, this blending of Western clothing and traditional designs is popular.

This blouse from Chamula, a Tzotzil town in Chiapas, Mexico, is a great example of this blending of Western and native designs.

The fabric for this huipil is commercially woven, as is the fabric tape decorating the blouse's bodice. And unlike many huipils, this blouse has functional buttons at the neck. In these ways, it is a very Western style blouse.

On the other hand, like most traditional huipils, this blouse is decorated on the bodice, especially its neckline and sleeves. While more traditional huipils would feature elaborate brocade on the bodice, this huipil features embroidery and fabric tape. And even though this blouse is somewhat tailored, it maintains the overall loose fit of a huipil.