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!
Let me just start off by saying how challenging it has been to find wireless that works on my computer. AND even when there is wireless something always goes wrong while im trying to make these posts and thats why they have been few and far between. Nonetheless Ive been looking forward to posting this one for a while and its taken me a few tries at a few different places. These photos are from a parade that I had the priveledge to attend in Bolivia. It was a national parade that happens once a year to commemorate traditional Bolivian culture. Its a huge deal and there were thousands upon thousands of people in attendance as the parade ran throughout the entire city of La Paz. All of the seats were packed! it was hard for us to find a place to watch but when theres a will theres a way, and we eventually did manage to get our way in. The parade was an authentic cultural experience, and the costumes were absolutely stunning! so intricate and detailed! i could tell how much labour had gone into making them, and how proud the people in the parade were to be wearing them. The indigenous people in attendance at the parade were wearing clothes that they only wear once for that specific occasion, and put a lot of time and money into them. The ultimate purpose of the parade is as a competition. The parade consists of seperate groups of people, who design their costumes and coordinate their own music and dancing in order to impress the president of the country, in attendace at the parade, who ultimately chooses the winner. This is why when they go past him they dance the hardest and sing the loudest! All in all it really was unbelievable, i've never seen such a rich cultural parade so full of gorgeous costumes.
