Expert: Cesar - 2/23/2009

Question
What are the materials and props for Colombia's traditional costumes?

Answer
Dear Matthew:

Colombia has been basically an agricultural country. It produces coffee, flowers, bananas, etc. Therefore people used and some/many still wear clothing proper for agricultural work.

Many live in the mountains and produce vegetables, flowers, etc. Men would wear cotton pants, short sleeve skirts, sandals, ruanas, and hats. Women would wear long skirts that would be reach way below the knee, short sleeved blouses, and sandals.

The materials would be proper for the climates and frequently would be made in cotton for the pants and shirts and suitable fabrics for the skirts and blouses (which could be cotton or other materials). The would not use expensive materials since they cannot afford them and they use them for work on dirt. Sandals could be in different materials such as leather soles and different kinds of foot-sole holder materials such as leather.

For festival celebrations they would add decorative things to the skirts and the blouses would be fancier (have waves on the sleeves and neck. Males and females often use machetes at work, but in a festival females would not carry machetes, only men. In the field most of the time men do the agricultural work and female would do cooking, care for the children and during their free time they would do seeding, harvesting / grain collection, not much of grass cutting.

I suppose you want to design some traditional clothing for some folkloric dance events. I suggest you to visit some Colombian websites and see how their clothing looks like. Females often use black skirts and white skirts. Men would use regular yeas, but on festivals they show up in white pants, white shirts, ruanas (made of cotton), machete (long knives for cutting vegetation in the field), and a hat (two types: made of paja or made of a special hat material used years ago and that is still used in many places.)

For additional information you might want to take a look at some of my past answers.

Take care,

Cesar
www.CesarUSA.com