Wintry Plumage
It’s time to embrace the winter chill again. This season, with the warmth of some renewed wardrobe by adding modern, sophisticated, and sustainable touches to celebrate a revered feathered tradition: revived cashmere scarf with ostrich plumes woven into it and restyled headwear, both by textile designer and artist Pascale Theron.
As someone born into a highly developed culture with some of the most intricate feather art coming from Amanteca Prehispanic craft, here at Viviana’s practice, we grew up appreciating a long-lasting craft called in Spanish ‘plumería’.
Historically, Amantecas were known as the Mexican Prehispanic feather specialists named after the Amantla neighborhood in then Tenochtitlan, today Mexico City. Amantecas used threads created by spinning cotton and feather shreds, and cords made of agave, to create three-dimensional feathered garments as headgear and bracelets. Amantecas also framed feathered mosaic art, cotton pasted on amate paper with glue naturally made with orchid bulbs. Feathered art was certainly a family affair. Amantecas’ children usually became embroiderers, feather dyers, and artisans of feather objects who were a regarded class of developed craftspeople.
The Museo Franz Mayer in Mexico City is home to the feathered mosaic and paper on copper mural titled Our Lady of the Rosary with Saint Dominic and Saint Francis (New Spain, 17th century). In ‘Centro Cultural de España’ also in Mexico City, other clothes with woven cotton and feathers can be appreciated.
In Europe, feathered work made by Amantecas can be appreciated in Austria at the Museum of Ethnology in Vienna, where the artwork Chimalli shows an Aztec shield (early 16th century) with feathers, gold leaf, cotton fibers, leather, and reed.
The Florentine Codex (16th century) includes prehispanic images of Aztec feather painters as part of the indigenous art that was forcibly altered into a new fusion between the Old World and the New by Catholicism. The Florentine Codex gives further reference to the importance of feathers and how the craft was created in Prehispanic Mexico, since different types of plumage were used in various contexts, each carrying its own distinct symbolism. The cultural significance of color and texture also played a crucial role, with the brightly colored feathers seen as more powerful. These were used in ceremonial regalia to denote higher status or spiritual significance. Weavings and garments incorporated feathers, often used in rituals or as offerings to gods. Artistic representations of feathers in codices further illustrate their significance, telling stories of gods, creation, and the universe.
The symbolism of feathers persists in contemporary Mexican culture, reflecting the enduring legacy of Aztec traditions. The book Images Take Flight by the University of Chicago Press is one great reference work of thorough studies of Mesoamerican feather mosaics following an exhibition at the National Museum of Art (MUNAL) in Mexico City in 2011. It examines feather art done in Aztec mural paintings through studies of early modern ornithology. It highlights the use of international trade thanks to a taxidermy archive that reveals feathers from completely different ecosystems to confirm that feathers came from trade networks and from local harvested aviaries. Above all, the book Images Take Flight by the University of Chicago Press is about the fascinating significance of feathers in our culture.
As someone born into a highly developed culture with some of the most intricate feather art coming from Amanteca Prehispanic craft, here at Viviana’s practice, we grew up appreciating a long-lasting craft called in Spanish ‘plumería’.
Historically, Amantecas were known as the Mexican Prehispanic feather specialists named after the Amantla neighborhood in then Tenochtitlan, today Mexico City. Amantecas used threads created by spinning cotton and feather shreds, and cords made of agave, to create three-dimensional feathered garments as headgear and bracelets. Amantecas also framed feathered mosaic art, cotton pasted on amate paper with glue naturally made with orchid bulbs. Feathered art was certainly a family affair. Amantecas’ children usually became embroiderers, feather dyers, and artisans of feather objects who were a regarded class of developed craftspeople.
The Museo Franz Mayer in Mexico City is home to the feathered mosaic and paper on copper mural titled Our Lady of the Rosary with Saint Dominic and Saint Francis (New Spain, 17th century). In ‘Centro Cultural de España’ also in Mexico City, other clothes with woven cotton and feathers can be appreciated.
In Europe, feathered work made by Amantecas can be appreciated in Austria at the Museum of Ethnology in Vienna, where the artwork Chimalli shows an Aztec shield (early 16th century) with feathers, gold leaf, cotton fibers, leather, and reed.
The Florentine Codex (16th century) includes prehispanic images of Aztec feather painters as part of the indigenous art that was forcibly altered into a new fusion between the Old World and the New by Catholicism. The Florentine Codex gives further reference to the importance of feathers and how the craft was created in Prehispanic Mexico, since different types of plumage were used in various contexts, each carrying its own distinct symbolism. The cultural significance of color and texture also played a crucial role, with the brightly colored feathers seen as more powerful. These were used in ceremonial regalia to denote higher status or spiritual significance. Weavings and garments incorporated feathers, often used in rituals or as offerings to gods. Artistic representations of feathers in codices further illustrate their significance, telling stories of gods, creation, and the universe.
The symbolism of feathers persists in contemporary Mexican culture, reflecting the enduring legacy of Aztec traditions. The book Images Take Flight by the University of Chicago Press is one great reference work of thorough studies of Mesoamerican feather mosaics following an exhibition at the National Museum of Art (MUNAL) in Mexico City in 2011. It examines feather art done in Aztec mural paintings through studies of early modern ornithology. It highlights the use of international trade thanks to a taxidermy archive that reveals feathers from completely different ecosystems to confirm that feathers came from trade networks and from local harvested aviaries. Above all, the book Images Take Flight by the University of Chicago Press is about the fascinating significance of feathers in our culture.
Feathers reconnect me to a tradition beyond compare that I so proudly regard.
“Feathers reconnect me to a tradition beyond compare that I so proudly regard.“ Viviana M. Calderon de la Barca.
Studio Pascale Theron in Eindhoven, the Netherlands, uses ostrich feathers typically collected during the birds' natural molting season when they shed old feathers to make way for new growth.
Viviana’s Winter 24|25
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Viviana’s Winter 24|25
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Febrero de 2025, Amberes, Bélgica.
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Notas sensoriales y emocionales de invierno.
En la exquisita sala de desayunos de nuestro parador, una historia de pasión, lenguaje amoroso y sentidos culinarios florecía en nuestro amanecer. En cuanto se abría la puerta de la cocina, el irresistible aroma a vainilla de las crepas recién hechas nos saludaba con el reconfortante olor del café.
A continuación, un inspirador paseo matutino.
El tiempo se detenía.
Silencio, ambiente relajante, canto de los pájaros.
Serenata tranquila, el agua fluyendo, brisa invernal, un baile a orillas del río.
Vivir, como dicen, el romance con aroma del ayer.
Tú y yo, cogida de tu mano.
Momento de unión.
Nutriente para mi corazón.
En la exquisita sala de desayunos de nuestro parador, una historia de pasión, lenguaje amoroso y sentidos culinarios florecía en nuestro amanecer. En cuanto se abría la puerta de la cocina, el irresistible aroma a vainilla de las crepas recién hechas nos saludaba con el reconfortante olor del café.
A continuación, un inspirador paseo matutino.
El tiempo se detenía.
Silencio, ambiente relajante, canto de los pájaros.
Serenata tranquila, el agua fluyendo, brisa invernal, un baile a orillas del río.
Vivir, como dicen, el romance con aroma del ayer.
Tú y yo, cogida de tu mano.
Momento de unión.
Nutriente para mi corazón.
WHO SAID WINTER
Thursday, 16 January. Eindhoven, the Netherlands weather, partly cloudy. H:4c L:0
SCENTING MEMORIES
Some scents feel like a warm embrace on a winter day part of a love story
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There are fragrances that lift and lighten us over the winter with their woody, spicy, irresistible notes of pink pepper. Scents that transform emotions into perfumes and exquisite bouquets. Scents used to evoke warmth, trigger memories, and enhance personal identity. They work by stimulating the olfactory receptors in the nose, which send signals to the brain's limbic system, closely linking smell with feelings and recollections. There's interesting data linking your perfume choice to your personality.
Staple scents like vanilla bean, and cocoa notes are personally one of my favourite in the chilly season. What scents warm your hearts in the cold months? What fragrances bring you comfort in a spritz? |
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Other facts about fragrances:
While fragrances have been used to modulate body odors over centuries, the psychology of fragrance choice is a topic that has been left unnoticed. Anthropological observations also point out that people of highly diverse cultures tend to manipulate their body odor with perfumes suggesting that fragrance use is a near universal human phenomenon. What effects have our natural odor in ours lives? Studies show that men tend to prefer women's odor around ovulation as it raises their testosterone (Miller SL, Maner JL. Scent of a woman. Men's testosterone responses to olfactory ovulation cues.) In a social realm, perfume is an invention that responds, as our species engage in activities to modify or hide our body odor. As olfactory enthusiasts say: to understand someone much better, find out what perfume they like. In picture: GOUTAL Maison of Haute Parfumerie. |
GOUTAL Paris
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January 2025, Paris (France).
My style in the city of love, light and innumerable charms.
Vest sold at ALEGRA Collective in Amsterdam
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What are you wearing where you are dear reader? Are you at work in a suit or are you in pj’s relaxing in the snowy countryside? Or are you in a polka dot bikini by the beach? Perhaps you just jetted off to summer in the Southern Hemisphere?
Up here in the city of the most cultural institutions, we’re hopping of joy wearing some ALEGRA Collective items: My vest with iconography combining pre-columbian relics and contemporary textile design, and my one of a kind rustic burgundy red scarf made of leftover fabric crocheted by hand, are made in Peru. |
Scarf crocheted by Guadalupe Villagomez de Calderon de la Barca
Scarf sold at ALEGRA Collective in Amsterdam
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These are special items acquired at Bianca Boezewinkel Rivera boutique in the heart of Amsterdam, where she began her business over a year ago with the hope of catering to those of us lovers of Latin American design and craft. This growth has given Bianca the belief necessary to celebrate and open a space for her Peruvian roots to glow with recent collections that have featured stronger in fashion publications present at key events internationally — follow her socials to stay ahead.
The color of my Peruvian scarf reproduces perfectly and subtly my feelings today; the passion I have for life and everything I want to do this year. What a great piece to adorn myself with while in Paris. A city synonymous with style and sartorial historic excellence —where I’ve been also with my mother and whose mother, ‘mi abuela’, got me into the world of appreciating the art of dressmaking. Paris, a metropolis with so many boutiques we want to go to, that there’s precious little time on hand. Despite the frosty mornings and harsh wind, we are out vigorously exploring it and excited just as I did once with my mom in the first month of the year: alegre (which means joyful in Spanish), and warmed up with a beautiful light scarf crocheted by my grandmother. |