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All Indigenous Americas

Huipil from Oaxaca

Huipil; Mexico, Oaxaca, San Felipe Usila; 20th century. Cotton, ribbon, rickrack, lace; plain and gauze weave; 99 x 69 cm. The Textile Museum Collection 1984.7.2. Purchased with funds provided by the Latin American Research Fund.

In southern Mexico and across Central America, huipils have been a staple of Indigenous women’s dress for more than 1,000 years. These distinctive, loose-fitting tunics were worn by wealthy and lower-class women alike, and remain popular in the region today.  

Huipils are usually made from two or three fabric panels stitched together, with openings for the head and arms. Styles and lengths vary from one community to another. Long huipils extend below the knees, while the shortest ones — similar to the iconic styles worn by Frida Kahlo — are waist-length or worn tucked into a skirt. The ceremonial huipils seen at weddings, burials and on the statues of saints are the most elaborate.  

This colorful knee-length example was handwoven in San Felipe Usila, a remote Chinantec village in the mountains of northern Oaxaca, Mexico. It would likely have been worn over a wrap-around skirt in red or floral fabric. The huipil consists of three panels woven on a backstrap loom with both plain and gauze weave, with designs woven into the fabric using supplemental weft. Decorative commercial ribbons cover the seams.  

  • Colorful textile with stripes and diamond pattern
    Detail of huipil.

Most huipils are sleeveless, but in San Felipe Usila, huipils have false sleeves made of ribbon and lace. The large brocaded diamond pattern below the neck is called the “door to the soul.” The woman’s soul is secured when she wears the huipil, and it leaves her body through this portal when she passes away.  

A photograph of an elderly woman sitting in a chair. She wears a red and orange top and blue skirt.
Zapotec Indian woman in Juchitan, Oaxaca, Mexico, 1990. Oaxaca, Mexico. UN Photo/F. Keery.
  • A hilly, forest landscape with a river
    River in San Felipe Usila. © Nailotl/Shutterstock.com.
Researched by Rebecca Haase

Rebecca Haase has been a docent with the museum since 2007. She has previously lived in Hong Kong and Singapore, where she was a docent at the Asian Civilisations Museum. She is also active in the Asian American Forum.