PLOCHARSKI
(P-230)
Pantalón rajado
Olintepeque, Quetzaltenango
Linguistic community: K’iche’

These historic and classic overpants are made with wool, linen and silk lining, plus silk ribbons on the lapels, fabrics woven on industrial looms.

This complex garment is known as split overpants because it is worn over white cotton pants, worn in ceremonies of the Cofradía or Catholic brotherhood. It has buttons to adjust the waist and it copies the western style of the garments of that era at the beginning of the 1900s.

Along the length and width of each of the legs there is beautiful handmade embroidery with silk threads that form flowers like tulips and narrow stems that run along both legs to demonstrate the technical and aesthetic skills of the embroiderer and harmonize with the birds and triangles found sewn with ribbons imported from China, applied or sewn under the buttons as pocket flaps. They denote the visual and symbolic richness of this piece in the Olintepeque weaving and embroidery tradition.

The slits of the overpants are also decorated with silver coins from the 19th century, which add ethnographic, historical and documentary value to this unique specimen of the textile collection of the Ixchel Museum of Indigenous Costume.

To view the video of this piece, click here.