Wrap Party Marks Renaissance of Rebozo

Anita Rubio-Durazo of La Can~ada Flintridge wore hers off the shoulder, showing just enough skin for a sexy look. Marie Moreno of Newport Beach draped hers over one shoulder, allowing it to flutter with every step. And Teresa Saldivar of Tustin wrapped hers loosely around her slender arms.

Just about every woman in the room at the Museum of Latin American Art in Long Beach on Nov. 20 had one on, making her own fashion statement with the quintessential Mexican wrap known as the rebozo--an exquisite and colorful long and narrow handmade cloth or shawl with knotting and fringe at each end.

Dating to the mid-1500s, the rebozo was almost a second skin and strictly utilitarian: protection from the sun and cold, used for carrying a baby as the mother worked, or for carting produce or hauling wood for a fire.

Once considered an ethnic garment--and worn by artists like Frida Kahlo as well as featured in paintings that show women wearing them--the rebozo is still versatile, fashionably speaking, that is.

The women at the museum’s fund-raising dinner that paid tribute to the rebozo with a fashion show called “El Rebozo y sus Encantos” (“The Charms of the Rebozo”) donned theirs--or borrowed one from their grandmother, mother or aunt--in a variety of ways: tied around the waist, wrapped around the head, fashioned around the hips. Saldivar changed the look of her $40 satin fuchsia rebozo three times throughout the evening: around the arms, then off her shoulders and finally, across her neck and down her back, a la Isadora Duncan.

Que stylish!

Move over pashminas, rebozos are having their turn.

The rebozos, sold at the museum’s gift store, in shops on Olvera Street and in specialty stores in East Los Angeles, can range from $30 to $160 depending on the fabric and size. The shawls are typically 2 feet wide but lengths vary from 4 to 8 feet.

“What I find fascinating about the rebozo is that it has that quality and touch of the pashmina [a fringed cashmere-silk blend shawl made from the downy undercoat of a goat],” said Gregorio Luke, the museum’s executive director who presented a 15-minute lecture on the historical and cultural importance of the garment before the fashion show.

“But the rebozo also is an invention, a working tool that enabled women to carry things such as baskets, objects, food, a child.”

But beyond its practical function, the rebozo also is an artistic creation, Luke said, adding that in the 1580s, the rebozo became quite the rage when the garment went from the handiwork of wool and cotton to the elegance of silk.

“In silk the rebozos became so popular with all the women in society that you could say they were trendy,” he said.

Today, the handicraft of rebozo-making is still alive in small towns, such as Santa Maria near Mexico City, where the most beautiful shawls are either handmade or made by machine and hand.

Sometimes it will take a month or longer to finish a rebozo because of the great detail that goes into each one, specifically the use of natural dyes, many with aromatic qualities to them. Yarns are stretched and tied into knots, dyed, untied and dyed again before the garment is woven and finally, completed with fringe.

“The rebozo is a work of art. It has a cultural and an aesthetic continuity to it. A lot modern women in Mexico are using the rebozo again because it is one of those incredible masterpieces of design.”

Besides that, “it’s practical and somehow integrates the new with the old and the future,” he said.

“That is very important. When somebody wears a rebozo, it is a cultural statement, not just an exotic cloth but recognizing the contributions of a civilization.”

*

When Saldivar, who lives in Tustin, called a few aunts to borrow a rebozo for the museum event, she was shocked to learn they had thrown them out.

She recalled how one relative told her, “ ‘Ten, 20 years ago you wouldn’t be caught dead with a rebozo on’ ” because of its working-class image. “I told my aunts that the rebozo was back, and they thought it was so amusing.”

Saldivar, who owns one rebozo she bought four years ago, wanted a new one for the dinner gala. She thought maybe a department store would have a selection, but no such luck. “The sales lady at Nordstrom tried to sell me a pashmina. I kept telling her that a pashmina isn’t a rebozo.”

Born and reared in Santa Ana, Saldivar has relatives in Mexico she often visits and recalled how her grandmother, who had 13 kids, always wore a rebozo. “She carried all her kids in a rebozo while doing the housework.”

After hearing Luke’s talk and seeing the rebozo on models, Saldivar vowed to buy more and wear them more often.

“It gave me a wonderful sense of pride,” she said.

Ditto for Marie Moreno who said the evening “enlightened me. I knew what a rebozo was--a shawl--but to hear about its history and an almost poetic description of it, and then see it on the runway, well, it was quite moving.”

Rubio-Durazo, president of the Amantes de MoLAA, a group that supports the museum through fund-raising efforts, also was deeply touched.

“There is so much culture and beauty in Mexican textiles, and the rebozo is just a tiny sample of that. I grew up in Mexico City and was surrounded by rebozos all my life. My mom used them.”

And now, so does Rubio-Durazo, who owns eight rebozos in various colors and fabrics and always finds creative ways to wear them.

“I tell women they can be super hip and chic with a rebozo. You don’t have to wear a typical Mexican dress with it. You can wear a sequined halter top, an evening gown, a pantsuit. You can wear one like Donna Karan wears a pashmina.

“I wore one to a party recently, and we lifted it up in the air and danced under it. It became the life of the party. But the best thing of all is that a rebozo is not about making a fashion statement. It’s a culture statement. That’s what makes it so special.”

Michael Quintanilla can be reached by e-mail at socalliving@latimes.com.