Fashion on the Street

December 1, 2011 at 1:23 am · Filed under In Santiago

One of the first things that an American woman in Santiago will notice is that, when out on the streets, Chilean men are at their liberty to whistle, honk horns, and call out to her. The less acculturated find this to be some combination of annoying, disrespectful, and and degrading. Others take it as a compliment and feel it boosts their self esteem. Whichever the case may be catcalls emphasize the importance of personal appearance in Santiago. Appearance is always important, but as a foreigner in Santiago, learning the new “do’s” and “don’t’s” of fashion has been something of a challenge.

Here are a few that I have learned so far:

– Chilean women never wear shorts: Every now and then you will see a university student or young girl wearing shorts around the city, but most of the time when women in Santiago wear pants, that fall at least below the knee- even while exercising.

– Bright colors are “out there”: This observation might be partially due to the fact that I spend most of my time in Providencia which is a wealthy neighborhood with lots of offices and serious professionals, however it seems that most fabrics are dyed in blacks, browns, grays, whites, and earth tones. A major exception to this is a genera of  women’s fashion that is popular among 20 and 30-somethings. This rebellious style includes harem style pants with a fitted top in vibrant colors- more on this later.

– Sunglasses are in, hats are out: The hole in the ozone layer is located right above southern chile and (it might be psychological) the sun definitely feels stronger and brighter in central chile than in central California. While my host mother will always encourage me to wear sun glasses and use lots of sunscreen, she can hardly stand the sight of my sun hat with out a smile that says “Dios mío, tu eres una tourista!” And it is true, despite the burning sun, only a handful of street vendors and tourists wear hats in Santiago.

– A scarf improves every outfit: this is less true since the weather has been in the 30’s Celsius (high 80’s-90’s Fahrenheit) but even still, scarves are a favorite accessory of Chileans. If you left yours at home there are lots of street vendors that offer a large selection of colors and styles. The excellent example below shows how a worn out olive green waffle henley and dirty jeans can be transformed into a fashion masterpiece with the simple addition of a scarf.

Now about the Harem pants… that might be the wrong word to describe them but basically they are loose pants with drawstrings at the waist and ankles and pockets. Most of the time they are in plain colors but they also come in alarming rainbows of stripes and technicolored checks. Some are sewn from roughly woven cotton and others are done with soft jersey knits. The length and thickness also varies. Below is an example of a woman who nicely stopped for me to take a picture of her (And understood what I was asking her for in Spanish!). I will try to update this post with a few more examples if I can collect them.

My theory with the harem pants is that they are a fun, a little bit rebellious, and  cool (not as cool as a skirt but much cooler than jeans) in an otherwise conservative fashion climate.

Also of interests for anyone interested in Chilean fashion is El Museo de la Moda. Located in a beautiful Frank Loyd Right Inspired home in Los Condes, the collection includes museum works to connect its extensive collection of garments and accessories from around the world to Chile and Chilean fashion past and present.

This post is dedicated to Maricarmen and Annie with many thanks for introducing me to fashion beyond functionality.

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