Bolivian designer exports high-end indigenous fashion
Bolivian designer exports high-end indigenous fashion
November 14, 2016, 6:33 pm
Centuries ago, Spanish colonizers forced their Bolivian servants to wear the puffy skirts that have come to symbolize the country's "cholitas," or indigenous women.
Today, one local designer is turning the tables with plans to export high-end cholita fashion -- blossoming skirts, bowler hats and intricately woven shawls -- to Madrid, Paris and beyond.
Fresh off her first show at New York Fashion Week, Eliana Paco, a 34-year-old indigenous Aymara designer, is ready to bring her take on a once-stigmatized style to the world.
"Cholitas" -- a diminutive of "chola," a sometimes derogatory world for a woman from Bolivia's indigenous majority -- were once seen here as a silent underclass of maids and manual laborers.
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http://nation.com.pk/entertainment/14-Nov-2016/bolivian-designer-exports-high-end-indigenous-fashion