2003.107.1

Hand weaver, Kay Sekimachi wove the laid in brocaded fabric for this beige quexquemtl. (Quexquemtls, a small Mexican garment worn over a bodice, or as a bodice, were very popular with the Bay Area artistic set in the 1950s and early 1960s.) Kay used a light beige wool to create the garment, which was decorated by laid in brocade squares (with fringed "eyelashes" at either end) in wools of yellow, turquoise color, margenta and orange color. She remembers wearing this particular garment to the San Francisco Art Festival in the late 1950s or the very early 1960s.

In the late 1940s, through the 1950s and into the 1960s - when "Hippies" caught on to the style - San Francisco Bay Area artists, from Carmel to Mendocino, adapted certain items of traditional folk garments to wear every day. The quexquemtl (from Mexico) was popular because of its simplicity in cut, and the ease to wear it. It is two small strips of cloth stitch to form a "V" necked, "V" shaped garment. It was especially nice for weavers, because the could weave narrow strips of cloth (14" - 18"), stitch them together and really not "loose" much of their hand woven cloth in the process.

Used: Kay Sekimachi | San Francisco | San Francisco Art Festival | Adult | Female