Pollera | aaarticle.com

The pollera is the full, pleated skirt of Andean women, worn in bright layers with a shawl and, in Bolivia, a bowler hat. Derived from a colonial Spanish skirt once imposed on Indigenous women, it has become a proud emblem of the Andean chola.

Overview

A pollera is a wide skirt gathered or pleated onto a waistband, worn in several layered petticoats to stand out full around the legs, in strong colours and often trimmed with braid. With a fringed manta shawl over the shoulders and a hat above, it makes the recognisable outfit of the Andean market and festival.

How it is worn

It is stepped into and tied at the waist over layered underskirts, worn with a blouse, an embroidered shawl pinned at the front, and jewellery, and in Bolivia crowned with a bowler hat perched high on the head. The number and richness of the polleras display a woman’s means and standing.

History

The pollera began as the skirt colonial authorities required Indigenous women to wear in place of their own dress, but Andean women made it their own, and by the twentieth century it had become a chosen mark of identity. The Bolivian cholita’s layered pollera and bowler are now worn with pride and even on the fashion runway.