Everything you need to know about huipil

Browsing our website, you probably see the word “huipiles” more than once and wonder what it is. I hasten to explain...

Huipil is nothing more than a traditional, hand-embroidered blouse, worn by Mayan women in Mexico and Guatemala.

The word "huipil" itself comes from the Nauthual language (one of the Mayan languages) and literally means "my clothes".

It takes up to a month to weave one blouse and sometimes mother and daughter work on one. Therefore, often the huipil is the most expensive thing a family has. The cost of one blouse is about several thousand quetzals (several hundred dollars). A huge amount of fiber is used to create one huipile, which makes them very stiff and heavy, thus serving for years. It's impossible to tear them apart. For the production of our shoes or handbags, we use recycled huipiles, by selling us old blouses, women can afford new ones :) Huipiles are made using a special loom, which, according to the Mayans, can only be used by women, and this is because work The loom is based on a special movement of the hips, the swaying, which is said to be associated with childbirth. That's why you'll never see a man at this loom. When traveling around Guatemala, it is easy to see that different patterns prevail in different parts of Guatemala. This is due to the fact that during the Spanish invasion, the conquistadors wanted to distinguish the different ethnic groups from each other, so they forced them to create different clothing patterns in each tribe. The patterns are related to the technique of weaving and the dominant motif. However, the number of huipils of one pattern is unlimited. In addition to the fact that the huipil symbolizes where each woman comes from, it also reflects social status, religion, marital status and interests. The huipili tradition is passed down from generation to generation, every little girl learns to weave from an early age. And I admit that it is impossible not to fall in love with these beautiful colorful patterns. This partly also inspires and motivates us to act - the richness of colors, patterns and continuation of tradition.