Man's embroidered shirt (kutuni)

This is a man's shirt (kutuni in Wixárika) made from manta de primera, a sturdy cotton fabric once made at the historic mill in Bella Vista, a town on the outskirts of Tepic, Nayarit. This cotton muslin was the preference of the Huichol before it disappeared from the market in 1975. The embroidery is a very fine two point cross-stitch known as punto de oro. The embroidery thread is cotton and colored with aniline dyes and the shirt is trimmed in aniline dyed cotton.  Among the patterns we see two variations of the traditional eight point Wixárika star and several border designs. The animals are the fox, hummingbird, horse, squirrel, scorpion, cat, duck, deer, eagle and flowers. The shirt was purchased in Tepic by Juan & Yvonne Negrín in 1972.