Yucatán

(www.yucatan.gob.mx, 2010)
TRADITIONAL ATTIRE
The tailoring of a “terno”, the traditional formal attire of indigenous women (locally known as “mestizas”), is a process involving about 6 months ofpainstaking hand-made embroidering to achieve the garment’s magical combination of colors. Such skilled work makes of each terno a true masterpiece.
|[pic]|


The term “terno” comes from the fact that these dresses consist of three pieces. The first one, known as “jubon”, is a wide, flat, richly embroidered squareflounce that is attached to the neckline of the second piece, the hipil. The latter is a white, knee-high square dress, with embroideries and a lace-trimmed hemline. The third part, called “fustan”, is along, straight waist-slip, which is worn under the hipil and is also embroidered and lace-trimmed. All the embroideries are done using a technique known as cross-stitch.
A terno is complemented by aspecial kind of Mexican shawl, known as a “rebozo de Santa Maria”, after the village where they are made. The color of the rebozo is chosen to match that of the terno’s embroideries.

|[pic]|


Yucatecan embroideries date from pre-Hispanic times, as proven by the discovery of pieces of embroidered garments at thebottom of Chichen-Itza’s sacred well. These embroideries were made using the “chuy cab” or satin-stitch technique. Other Mayan embroidery techniques still used to this day are the cross-stitch or“xocbil chuy” and a kind of openwork known as “xmanikte”. Among the most popular stitches are the filling stitch, shadow stitch, Renaissance stitch, lattice stitch and openwork. These techniques areusually passed from mother to daughters within households.
The men’s shirt known as “guayabera” is a development of the one-piece shirts made of rough cotton fabric worn by Cuban and Mayan peasants. ...