What to Wear and How to Wear It

Because Maya clothing can communicate so much information about the wearer, each item of clothing becomes quite important. Fashion trends, such as the cut of a man’s shirt or the length of a woman’s skirt, can be specific to a particular village, but the same basic elements make up the Maya clothing ensemble, regardless of the village, state, or nation of the wearer. Men usually wear a shirt, pants, a hat, and usually a sash or belt. Throughout Mesoamerica, men carry bags made of wool or maguey fiber. Women generally are seen wearing a huipil or blouse, a corte or skirt, and a sash. They also carry a shawl that serves myriad functions. It can keep them warm on a cool morning or be used to carry a child on their back. Some women use these shawls to carry their produce to the market or their purchases home from a day of shopping.

Shown below are the basic components of traditional Maya clothing. While the people of a particular village may not wear every single item of clothing shown below, they likely wear the most basic pieces, like shirts, pants, and skirts. And because there are many different Mayan languages, the words used to describe a particular piece of clothing in one village may be different than that used in another. Shown below are the names of the items of clothing in English, Spanish, and two of the most widely spoken Mayan languages, Kakchiquel and Q’eqchi’.

English	Spanish	Kakchiquel
blouse	huipil	po’t
overblouse	sobrehuipil	rij po’t
skirt	corte, falda	uq
sash	faja	pa’s
hair ribbon	cinta	tocoyal
carrying cloth	tzute	su’t
shawl	pañuelo	su’t
shirt	camisa	kamixa’
overshirt	capixay	–
pants	pantalón	wexaj
overpants	sobrepantalon	estameya
jacket	chaqueta	koton
belt	cincho	ximb’äl
hat	sombrero	pawi’aj
apron	rodillera	lantar
shoulder bag	bolsa, morral	peqës
sandals	sandalias	xajab’
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