Influence and Tradition: Spanish culture in Argentinian Fashion

Influence and Tradition: Spanish culture in Argentinian Fashion Valentina Chirkes PLFS 2040: History of Fashion - Elizabeth Morano & Livy Scott December 5th, 2022

Culture and tradition seep their way through almost any aspect of life. In fashion, they can leave traces that are barely noticed by the common eye, impose a message that communicates the culture to the entire world, or anything in between. In Argentina, this concept is doubled as Argentinian fashion itself is in a way a representation of Spanish culture. One can’t ignore the traces left behind by centuries-long colonization as was Spain’s on Argentina and how that may cause a blending of cultures.

Spanish influences in fashion have greatly varied throughout history. A culture with such rich clothing traditions has a lot to communicate and many aspects that people and designers can adopt in their attire. Figure 1 shows two very different ways Spanish fashion left its mark on Argentinian apparel. The women in the front are wearing garments that are perfect representations of fashion during the 1950s. These wealthy women are attending a presidential inauguration in Buenos Aires, which would require them to put on their best-looking clothes that would reinforce their status and belonging in the event. The back of the picture shows a traditional Argentinian gaucho who is preparing Argentina’s most traditional meal, an “Asado”. This man is seen wearing the typical attire of Argentinian gauchos, the traditional male clothes worn in the rural areas of the country. Everything about these two different characters, societies, and worlds is different, but they are still standing a few feet apart. Moreover, in their own way, all of the garments in this image give some reference to traditional Spanish clothing.

Chirkes 2 Gauchos is the name given to the men who live in rural areas, tend to farms and cattle, and embody Argentinian culture and traditions. They wear very specific attire which originates from a need for functionality in order to comfortably work in farms and fields.

Ponchos are one of the main garments of a gaucho, which are generally used to keep them warm or covered from the sun, and even historically as forearm guards during knife fights.1 They also wear a specific type of pants called bombacha de campo, which are an adaptation of the pants Spanish vaqueros wore traditionally and are considered the basic component of a gaucho’s attire.2 As footwear, they usually sport either alpargatas —canvas shoes with a jute rope sole, or leather boots. Generally, everything has a brown or natural color. These three main components vary between person and role and can be accessorized with different kinds of jackets, scarves, and hats, but they are still the core of gaucho’s clothing to this day. They still provide the comfort and functionality that these men need to work farms in Argentina today. They are pieces that have a lot of personal value, first because they are not something that is mass commercialized and is still only available to a certain niche, and also because they are usually related to craft and artisanal manufacturing, especially ponchos and leather boots, which are produced in many regions of the country. Gauchos were originally the descendants of Spanish men and indigenous American women, so the similarities between a gaucho outfit, as pictured in figure 1, and a Spanish Vaquero, shown in figure 2, are clear.3 The former is an adaptation of the latter, with modifications made based on resources, tasks, and functionality.

Historically, gaucho was a derogatory word or insult as he was considered a “colonial bootlegger whose business was contraband trade in cattle hides”,4 and therefore a man of 1

Victoria Lezcano, Followers of Fashion, Falso Diccionario de la Moda (Buenos Aires: Interzona Editora S.A.,

2004), 18.

2

Lezcano, 17-18.

Madaline W. Nichols, “The Historic Gaucho.” The Hispanic American Historical Review 21, no. 3 (2016): 421.

4 Nichols, 417.

3

Chirkes 3 questionable character and social status. However, with time, he shifted into legal and reputable work and started detaching the identity of the gaucho from the Spanish Vaqueros.

More recently, the name represents hard-working men who live a hands-on rural lifestyle on Argentinian farms. This is the role that the gaucho in figure 1 has, as he plays a crucial part in a traditional Argentinian event. They still represent a lower-income social class, which is also very clearly depicted in the image. They generally are employees of the land’s owner or in the case of the picture, the event’s host.

Although gaucho fashion has stayed quite the same throughout the years, Argentinian urban womenswear followed the fast changes that the 20th century saw all over. During the 1950s, Argentina benefited from the end of the war, as it could still export grains and meat to the rest of the world that was left in hunger. Argentina’s president at the time, Juan Perón, encouraged the internal economy and industrialization within the country. He also focused mostly on the light industry, which included the production of textiles and clothes.5 All of these factors made Argentina prosperous and a good place for fashion designers to have their businesses. Fashion historian Susana Saulquin described the period between 1930 and 1949 as the “boom of fashion houses in Buenos Aires”,6 as lots of designers such as Fridl Loos and Drecoll opened stores in the capital city. Another good –albeit complicated– example of this trend is Ana de Pombo, a Spanish fashion designer who worked for the houses of Paquin and Chanel during the 30s. After the war, she was accused of working with the Nazis so she decided to move to South America and opened stores in Rio de Janeiro, Montevideo, and Buenos Aires in 1945.7 This was the golden era of fashion in Buenos Aires, a city located far away from the fashion capitals of the world.

5

Gustavo Burachik, “La acumulación de capital en la Argentina en la posguerra” Oikos, no. 27 (June 2009): 4-5 https://doi.org/10.1086/690235.

6 Susana Saulquin, Historia de la moda Argentina (Buenos Aires: Emecé, 2006), 120.

7 Roberto L. Elissalde, “Ana de Pombo, la diseñadora de Evita,” La Prensa, July 23, 2022.

Chirkes 4 Thanks to the opening of so many high-fashion stores in the city, women of a high social and economic standing were able to wear the clothes that emerged during the 50s —a period of incredible fashion changes worldwide led by Dior in Paris. Figure 1 shows an example of what these women looked like at the time. Both women are wearing classic silhouettes and timeless but modern accessories. This picture was taken during a presidential inauguration, which would require them to wear their most elegant and polished clothes.

They are both wearing felt hats inspired by the pillbox shape that dominated the millinery industry during the late fifties and early sixties and that was highly tied to political attire as Jackie Kennedy was one of the main figures to wear them. Additionally, pearls, glasses, gloves, fur shawls, and brooches were all accessories related to the high class.

Spanish fashion has been an influence in Argentinian womenswear since the 1770s when the Viceroyalty of the River Plate was established in South America8 and women wore Spanish dresses in order to reflect their social status. Yet during the 1950s, Spanish culture gained a presence beyond its former colonies and appeared in international fashion, mostly through Balenciaga’s designs. It was his talent that brought Spanish influences to the light of couture and ready-to-wear. He was raised in a working-class family in a Spanish town, which meant that whether directly or indirectly, he always reflected his Spanish heritage and references to his designs. Some of these references became recurrent themes within the fashion industry, as more designers started to include them in their own collections.9 In figure 1, Balenciaga’s influence is present through the use of pitch-dark black in elegant high fashion, which derives from Goya’s tenebrism paintings.10 Both women in the picture are wearing extremely dark black, which symbolized elegance and status during this time.

8

Susana Saulquin, “Historia de la moda Argentina”(Buenos Aires: Emecé, 2006), 29.

Ana Balda Arana, “Cristóbal Balenciaga. Explorations in Traditional Spanish Aesthetics,” Costume 53, no. 2 (September 2019): 167-8.

10 Balda Arana, 171-2.

9

Chirkes 5 Additionally, as Isabel de Palencia says, quoted by Ana Balda Arana, “In no country in the world has such a diverse and well-defined taste for traditional attire been solidified as in Spain”.11 This idea can be very well seen in the image as the women are the personification of taste while combining various trends and fashion aspects of the time that weren’t necessarily from only one culture. In summary, Balenciaga brought his own Spanish culture into his work, which other important designers adapted and these designs worked their way down to fashion houses in Buenos Aires. This is a much more commercial and less traditional way that Spanish culture influenced Argentinian fashion as opposed to that of gaucho attire.

The documentation of the Argentinian presidential inauguration in 1958 shown in figure 1 explains how two vastly different worlds of Argentinian fashion, both inspired by Spanish culture, coexist. During the 1950s, high fashion, as well as gaucho attire, involved strong attention to detail: in the former, it was in order to communicate an idea of elegance and class, while the latter required it for comfort and functionality. Gaucho clothing originates from Spanish clothes that fulfill similar uses and needs and is not created for aesthetic purposes. On the other hand, high fashion inspired by Spanish culture takes its references from anywhere within this country’s history and heritage and transforms them into visually pleasing designs that reflect status and wealth. Argentina is a clear example of how tradition, heritage, and foreign influence can be assimilated and recreated in very different manners, even inside the same country.

11

Ana Balda Arana, “Cristóbal Balenciaga. Explorations in Traditional Spanish Aesthetics,” Costume 53, no. 2 (September 2019): 173

Chirkes 6 Bibliography Balda Arana, Ana. “Cristóbal Balenciaga. Explorations in Traditional Spanish Aesthetics.”

Costume Volume 53, issue 2 (September 2019): 161-185. https://doi-org.libproxy.newschool.edu/10.3366/cost.2019.0119.

Burachik, Gustavo. “La acumulación de capital en la Argentina en la posguerra” Oikos, no.

27 (June 2009): 101–123. https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/19310/.

Elissalde, Roberto L.. “Ana de Pombo, la diseñadora de Evita.” La Prensa, July 23, 2022. https://www.laprensa.com.ar/518363-Ana-de-Pombo-la-disenadora-de-Evita.note.aspx.

Lescano, Victoria. Followers of Fashion, Falso Diccionario de la Moda. Buenos Aires: Interzona Editora S.A., 2004.

Mendes, Valerie, and Amy de la Haye. Fashion since 1900. London: Thames & Hudson, 2010.

Nichols, Madaline W. “The Historic Gaucho.” The Hispanic American Historical Review 21, no. 3 (1941): 417–24. https://doi.org/10.2307/2507331.

Pinto, Felisa. “Historias de cuando Argentina quería decir “de plata”.” Pagina 12, January 11, 2008. https://www.pagina12.com.ar/diario/suplementos/las12/13-3837-2008-01-11.html.

Rene Burri. ARGENTINA. 1958. ARGENTINA. 1958. A Garden Party for the Inauguration of President FRONDIZI in Buenos Aires Which Was Also Attended by Vice President Richard NIXON, a Group of Gauchos Prepared the Traditional Meal of “Asado” (Barbecue) of Sheep and Beef. 1958. https://jstor.org/stable/community.9836610.

Saulquin, Susana. Historia de la moda Argentina: del miriñaque al diseño de autor. Buenos Aires: Emecé, 2006.

Walker, James, 1819-1889. Vaqueros at the Roundup. 1877. 30 1/2 X 50 1/2 in. https://jstor.org/stable/community.13742191.

Chirkes 7 Figure 1. A Garden Party for the Inauguration of President FRONDIZI in Buenos Aires Which Was Also Attended by Vice President Richard NIXON, a Group of Gauchos Prepared the Traditional Meal of “Asado” (Barbecue) of Sheep and Beef, Rene Burri, 1958.

Figure 2. Walker, James, 1819-1889. Vaqueros at the Roundup. 1877. 30 1/2 X 50 1/2 in.