Mexican folk dances are something special: passionate, spectacular, and cheerful. And the folk dancers’ costumes add to that feeling. You see lots of bright colors, the fabric seems to be alive in the skillful hands of the dancers. We offer you to get to know better the traditional Jalisco folk dance outfit of a Mexican lady. Let’s see what clothing articles this costume includes and what they look like.
Mexico has 32 states and each state has its own very different and very particular type of costume. And this attire is for Jalisco. Jalisco has various songs; the most famous song and dance is called “Son de la negra”. There is also “Jarabe Tapatio”, which is very known as well and which is more of a luxurious dance, used at weddings and celebrations.
Beautiful Jarabe Tapatio folk dress. Photo from Pinterest.cl
The Jarabe Tapatio folk dance costume is colorful and very detailed. Usually, the background of the dress is black and there are many patterns in various colors on it. One of the main elements is a large eagle pictured on the blouse and on the skirt, which is the Mexican symbol, similar to the one on the Mexican flag. And when the skirt is outstretched wide during the dance, the eagle is visible, along with other traditional Mexican symbols (sombreros, guitars, flowers, etc.).
But today, we’re talking about a general Jalisco folk dance dress.
Here is one of the typical Jalisco costumes. It is used in Mexican folk dancing. This outfit is very beautiful and, originally, the craftsmen used to do all this handmade. They tend to have different ribbons because Mexican dances usually are very colorful. So you can see the wide skirt and colorful ribbons.
Actually, the outfit consists of a blouse (adorned with ribbons and ruffles), a very wide skirt, and shoes.
The skirt is secured tightly at the waist, so when you're dancing, it won't fall down.
There are buttons on the back of the blouse. This way, they’re hidden enough to not spoil the look of the attire.
The sleeves tend to be very big and puffy – that's how it is originally.
The hairpiece is made of intricate braids, with ribbons and flowers as a decoration.
(c)
C
A costume is “a style of dress, including accessories and hairdos, especially that peculiar to a nation, region, group, or historical period”. They are using the word most appropriately.
It's offensive to indigenous people in the US to call their Pow Wow ceremonial dress, costumes. They use the term, regalia. It's like calling a bride's gown a costume, or a priest's cossack a costume, or a navy uniform, a costume