Throughout Ecuador, there are particular styles of indigenous clothing that are unique to the different areas.
The style we’ve become most familiar with is that of the Otavalo area, because that’s where we live and probably half of the women here are indigenous and therefore wear the indigenous clothing. Also, because Edith, our Spanish teacher, dressed me up in some of her typical clothing.
The different styles of indigenous clothing in Ecuador suit the various climates, and as the weather here is fairly temperate, the clothing is fairly lightweight.
The typical clothing for indigenous women in the
Otavalo area is a lightweight white embroidered blouse with frilly sleeves,
sometimes with a plain square shawl (fachalina in Quichua) worn either
around the shoulders or over one shoulder and under the other arm.
Then a long 2-layered “skirt” or anacos (not like any skirt known to the western world) made up of separate 2 pieces of fabric, with the darker layer on the outside and the lighter-coloured one on the inside, with the 2 fabric layers being held in place by two wide woven belts (one is worn directly underneath the other, and therefore is unseen) chosen to match the colour scheme of the embroidery on the blouse.
Shoes (alpargate) for everyday wear are a simple flat open-back shoe of either black or navy blue, or for fiestas, the same flat shoe but in coloured patterns. (I’ve got my party shoes on in the photo above)
Typical jewellery consists of a multi-strand necklace (walka) of gold-coloured glass beads or occasionally strands of gold, and bracelets of small red beads wrapped around and around each wrist.
Their long hair is worn in a pony-tail which is bound around and around with a lovely brightly coloured woven ribbon.
How to get dressed
If you are not used to wearing the indigenous Otavalo clothing, you’ll definitely need someone who knows what they are doing to help you, although those who wear it all the time do it without help.
The blouse is straightforward, but it’s the “skirt” that’s tricky as it needs to be wrapped and folded a certain way and then held in place by the woven belts (chumbi).
Edith wrapped the lighter-coloured under-layer of fabric around my waist a few inches above the waistline, making a large forward-facing pleat at one side, and meeting the two edges together at the other side and instructing me to hold onto each side. Then the dark outer layer went on – same process but starting at the opposite side, resulting in the pleated under-layer peeping out from the gap where the darker outer layer meets. (Kinda confusing unless you see it done)
Now, how to make it all stay put, as there are no seams, buttons, zips or safety pins. Normally, two chumbis are used, one over the other. The inside chumbi is called mama chumbi and is quite firm, and the outer decorative one is called gua gua chumbi, or baby chumbi). If this is all done correctly, the anacos will stay in position all day, but for the purposes of this experiment, we just used one chumbi.
I’m still holding onto each side of the anacos and Edith comes up to me with the chumbi, saying, “breathe in” and starts to wrap it around me, starting at the waistline and working up. I breathe in unsuspectingly, and that’s the last decent breath I take until I can remove the chumbi. It’s sooooooo tight and not very comfortable. Probably like corsets used to be, in the past.
But that’s what you have to do to get the anacos to stay put. I have a new respect for those who wear them!
I enjoyed trying on a different style of clothing, and seeing how it looked on me, and being able to see how it all goes together, but it’s not a style I plan on adopting in a hurry. I enjoy breathing!!
Me and Edith – clothes swap
complete!
