The Bite Magazine - issue 16

Fiona James discovers how wearing a huipil outfit helped model Alida Boer launched her brand and helped many women in her birth country of Guatemala in the process. MARIA’S BAGS Luxuriously Crafted in Guatemala W hen you’ve been the winner of an established beauty competition and an international model, most of the time when you put your hand to something, people are going to notice, especially when it’s helping underdeveloped communities to grow. This is exactly what former Miss Gua- temala 2007 Alida Boer did in order to fulfil a dream of bringing refined textiles and the ancient heritage of Guatemala to the forefront of the fashion world. Her brand, Maria’s Bags produces premium, beautiful quality embroidered bags that are individually handmade and can take as long as three months each to make. Through establishing the brand, this has enabled Boer to support women from 16 underdeveloped communities with train- ing in sewing, embroidery and design as well as provide jobs with fair pay. In August last year, the ITV documentary Stephen Fry in Central America featured the model and her line of handbags when the TV personality travelled through Belize and Guatemala.There he discovered the ‘huipil’ fabric that Maria’s Bags are made from, which derives from the traditional embroidered blouses worn by the Mayan women, and also visited the luxury flag- ship store in Guatemala City. With a collection that embraces a mix of styles including soft clutches and trendy bucket bags, the colours are bold and vibrant, with offerings of blues, greens and hot pinks whilst the patterns are abstract, modern and exciting. Each region in Gua- temala has its unique design of huipil with fine embroidery of geometric shapes, animals, landscapes, flowers and some- times even stories and legends. For example, the huipil from San Rai- mundo slightly resembles the huipil from San Juan Sacatepéquez, with several common coloured stripes on the warp of the blouse in purple, red, yellow and brown. Each of the panels of the huipil is nicely brocaded with zoomorphic and geometric patterns over the shoulder part.The huipiles from Colotenango are known for their extreme softness due to the use of German thread that is much finer and more expensive than traditional threads. It also highlights the supplemen- tary weft brocade made up of geometric figures that are woven with multiple colours but are predominately red. The huipil in Todos Santos Cuchumatán was once upon a time red and white but in recent decades, the region has adopted cold colours. The fabric is adorned with small geometric supplementary brocades