Bolivian Cholas

Because Bolivia is a country with extreme traditional indigenous influence, the style that stands out is obviously just that traditional ingigenous. So heres more alternate fashion for you guys. The indigenous women have a very distinct look. To me, it seemed, as if the majority of the women i saw were dressed traditionally. These women are proud of their outfits, which cost them a lot of money! Usually about one month of pay for a complete outfit. The fancy versions are especially expensive, which they usually wear only once, for a special occasion, and then never again. Apprently these outfits can cost up to a few thousand dollars American. There are three signature items to their outfits: the bowler hat, the skirt, and their "manta", a.k.a shawl. You will also often see them using a traditional hand made blanket over their back to carry children or other goods, such as food, wood, etc. Under their skirt, they wear many other skirts to make them look wider and emphazie their child-bearing hips. They almost look as wide as they are tall, and this is what their community considers beautiful! Its an extremely interesting look. There are many Bolivan parades and festivals where they flaunt these women flaunt fancier more colorful versions of these outfits adorned with gold and silver and sequins and tassles! I went to a parade, and it was stunning to see all the elaborate variations! Being there got definetely got me into liking shawls. They look really nice and are really conformtable, not to mention that in Bolivia they are georgous and hand made. I think they are a wonderful accesory for every culture. Another part of their style that isn´t is obvious is the alpaca wool leg warmers that they wear under their skirts. These are the coolest leg warmers i have ever seen! so i bought four pairs! By the way the picutres i posted arent mine, becuase im not using my laptop right now. I just posted them to give you an idea, i might post mine later.

Poncho Obsessed...Written Component

sorry guys...again blogger was giving me problems with uploading pictures and writting in the same post so heres the written part to the pictures below:

Indigenous style is the best style! in my opnion at least! bolivia has such a strong indigenous culture that I am absolutely in love with. To me, their style is the ultimate in what we (north americans) can consider alternate fashion, which is also my favourite kind of fashion. go eff yourself haute couture. just kidding, i love couture too. But this stuff really pushes fashion boundaries because its so traditional yet unique and different to us at the same time. There are many tribes here in bolivia, and they all have their own variations on traditional indigenous style. the three main tribes in bolivia are the aymara, the quetchua, and the guarani. some other tribes include the tarabuco and the jalq'a, famous across Bolivia for their textiles. one trend that transcends pretty much all tribes is the poncho, also my new favourite item. Although ponchos are the focus of this article, don’t think that they are the only thing worth writing about indigenous style, there is much more that i am going to write about in due time. (the internet is extremely slow here, and so are the computers) up to this point, ive bought three ponchos. actually one is more like a shawl. traditionally, the indigenous women wear shawls called "mantas" and the men wear ponchos. the reason these items of clothing are so amazing is because they are made out of the most stunning, hand made textiles. mine are made out of alpaca and llama wool (i am vegetarian so i obviously investigated the fact they don't kill the animals to get their wool, its merely giving them a haircut, which happens once a year), however traditional textiles are also made out of other materials, and are died with natural dies from insects, plants and flowers. My dad also caught the poncho bug, and bought two for himself. His however, are the ultimate in authenticity, and were much more expensive. we met an indigenous man, who sold us one that his mother made by hand! he also let me try on his whole outfit! Hence the second photo from the top. the other poncho that my dad bought is one that i picked out for him in Sucre, which you can see in the first picture. I think that ponchos can work just as well in our advanced culture as they work here in traditional culture. For example, I would wear one of my mine as an alternative to a fall jacket or maybe one of the lighter ones as a sweater over a t-shirt or tank top. Actually the beauty of ponchos is that they can practically be worn over anything. To me, they are the silver lining on the grey cloud that is cold canadian weather!

Poncho Obsessed in Bolivia