Fashioning Respect in Bolivia: Indigenous designer turns traditional clothing into high fashion

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The election of an indigenous president in 2006 ushered in a new era in Bolivia. Now, indigenous culture is striding onto the world's top catwalks -As designers incorporate the styles of Aymara women - known as Cholas or Cholitas -- into high fashion. CGTN's Dan Collyns spoke to one designer about the process of turning designs, that were once shunned, into a display of pride.

Cholitas on the catwalk. It's a fashion statement and a political statement in one. By taking the clothes of her ancestors and turning them into high fashion. Bolivian designer Glenda Yanez is changing preconceptions about the traditional dress of indigenous Aymara women.

GLENDA YANEZ BOLIVIAN FASHION DESIGNER "For me, it's very important that there's been a change in Bolivia. Indigenous people now feel supported, and we have been able to show who we are and who we've always been."

The chola wardrobe is a fashion distinctive to South America's second largest indigenous group, the Aymara people. The change started to happen when Bolivia's first indigenous Aymara President Evo Morales took office more than a decade ago.

DAN COLLYNS LA PAZ, BOLIVIA "For years, Aymara women and their rural style were viewed as second class citizens but now designers are taking pride in this traditional form of dress and turning it into high fashion fit for the catwalk."

Yanez says attitudes have changed but the outfit has not. Most important is the multi-layered skirt or pollera with five petticoats. Then comes the shawl and the bowler hat - or borsalino - several sizes too small. With their new found spending power, cholitas are importing tailor-made textiles from China.

GLENDA YANEZ BOLIVIAN FASHION DESIGNER "Now the pollera-wearing women have gone to China, and it hasn't been too difficult. They know what kind of fabrics they use, what color combinations to buy. These ties mean they can find exclusively the kind of fabrics and designs they need for this style of clothes."

On top of her fashion house and workshop, Yanez has a modelling school exclusively for cholitas. For these women, their form of dress is an expression of who they are. Dan Collyns, CGTN, La Paz.