Art Institute of Chicago

Headcloth

Chancay

Date

1000-1476

Medium

Cotton, plain weave; tie dyed

Culture

Peruvian Central Coast

Department

Textiles

Institution

Art Institute of Chicago

Although this headcloth looks like a gauze from afar, it is actually a much simpler plain weave. Rather than invest time in weaving the sheer fabric, its maker focused on creating its circular patterns by tying off small sections of the cotton cloth and dyeing it. The technique is similar to making a modern tie-dyed T-shirt but executed at a much smaller scale. Chancay weavers on the coast likely inherited this technique from their ancestors in the Andean highlands, weavers of the Wari Empire, who created elaborately tie-dyed, alpaca-fiber tunics in much brighter colors.

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