---
node: fashion_south_america
type: fashion
slug: south_america_fashion
title: "Fashion history of South America"
lead: "South American dress centres on the great Andean textile tradition — one of the world's finest — in which the tunic (unku) and mantle (lliclla), woven of alpaca and vicuña wool and cotton on the backstrap loom, were the highest mark of wealth and status. After the Spanish conquest, Western dress and the mestizo skirt were added, and modern South America keeps Western fashion alongside living Indigenous dress."
published: 2026-07-28
updated: 2026-07-28
image_file: south_america_fashion.jpg
image_source: "https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Tupac-inca-yupanqui-small.png"
image_author: "Felipe Guamán Poma de Ayala — the Inca Topa Yupanqui (c. 1615)"
image_license: "Public domain"
change: "Created as a fashion sub-page under the history section, with a period image (south_america region)"
requester: internal
reason: "Per the owner's decision, fashion lives under each history era"
---

## Overview

In the Andes, cloth itself was the most valued wealth and marked rank and power. The backstrap-woven tunic and mantle, and the poncho, were the consistent frame of dress.

## The story of dress

After the fine textiles of Paracas and the Inca, the Spanish conquest brought Western dress. Modern South America keeps living traditions within Western fashion — the Andean skirt (pollera) and bowler hat, the poncho, and the dress of the gaucho herders.