The Poncho: Civilizations to Hippie Counterculture

Published on February 13th, 2021

Throughout the decades, the poncho, a draped piece of fabric that has a hole in the middle for the head to go through and then drapes around the body, has been a symbol of very different things. In the beginning of time, Men and women wore this draped garment as protection from the environment that they lived in. Many and most of these garments were made from animal skin. This garment appears throughout history, from cavemen and Native Americans to even the hippies of the sixties.

As many know, though, credit for the “poncho” comes from Mexico or South America along the Andes Mountains. Many do not know where the original name of the poncho came from, but many historians believe it originated from the “Quechua puchu or Mapudungun pontro.” The Mapuche people, often credited with creating the poncho, lived in what is now Chile and Argentina. The Mapuche were highly skilled weavers and also created headbands and shawls, which they wove alongside the poncho. The poncho held power in Mapuche society. If the poncho had a stepped diamond motif, it signaled authority and was worn only by men. Although the poncho signaled power for men, women still wore it for warmth and protection from the elements, and because it stayed warm and functional thanks to its lack of seams, it became a go-to staple garment.

Although the poncho’s existence is mostly linked to Mexico, it can be seen in Europe in the form of a shortened “cape” worn by clergymen. During the Middle Ages, priests and church figures wore the same apparel as common people, borrowing this ‘cape’ garment from locals who used it for protection from the harsh environment, though again settling on it because it allowed movement. During the fifth century and the fall of the Roman Empire, Clergymen and priests began to adopt a set dress code that still included the poncho, or as Europeans called it, the cape. Clergymen and priests were required to wear an alb, a tunic or poncho which flowed down to their feet.  

During the early times when practicing Christianity was illegal, many of the clergymen would sacrifice themselves to being killed and tortured as a way to show their commitment to God and their religion. After the French Revolution, these devoted Christians mostly turned to the hermit life. This required them to live separately from the village and wear old clothes and garments, including one garment that looked like a poncho.  These clothing pieces represented the clergyman’s devotion to God and the church, but later hippies adopted them for a completely different reason. 

During the sixties and seventies, a fashion subculture known as the hippies emerged. This subgroup focused on peace, love, and sexual liberation. They are mostly known for protesting the Vietnam War. For hippies, clothing was about self-expression and taking down capitalism, so most of their clothes were hand-me-downs or recycled. They also dyed their clothes to create acid-phantasmagoria-type patterns and added recycled pieces to personalize them and make them look less like cast-off pieces. Their fashion was about expressing themselves as humans, whether that meant their sexuality or their freedom to speak. Many times, hippies wore nothing at all, painted clothing, or were partially clothed. The hippies were mostly known for being anti-fashion, meaning the opposite of what fashion was or is today. They broke down fashion to its rawest form and made it what they wanted, not what others or fashion history wanted.

The similarity is the poncho: what clergymen wore and what hippies wore are very similar and can be seen as an influence later in fashion. While clergymen used and still use this garment today as a form of self-sacrifice to their religion, hippies used it as self-expression and to protest what they believed in. These two views are so vastly different, which makes it interesting how the poncho or cape has become a symbol of both movements. 

Many fashion trends are taken from older garments used in the past. Many changes carry significant meaning, but many trends simply return through the fashion cycle because people like what was happening in fashion in the past. The poncho of the hippie era could be one of these trends or a coincidence, but the comparison is still fascinating, especially since their origins are so different and come from two different forms of expression.

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Chattyfeet, and Shovava. “Hippie Fashion From the Late 1960s to 1970s Is a History Lesson.” My Modern Met, 14 June 2018, mymodernmet.com/vintage-bohemian-fashion/.

“Donquijote.” DonQuijote, www.donquijote.org/mexican-culture/traditions/the-poncho/.

The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. “Clergy.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 15 Feb. 2016, www.britannica.com/topic/clergy-Christianity.

Person. “Hippie Style.” LoveToKnow, LoveToKnow Corp, fashion-history.lovetoknow.com/fashion-history-eras/hippie-style.