# Headcloth

- By: Chancay (Central coast, Peru)
- Date: 1000-1476
- Medium: Cotton, plain weave; tie dyed
- Classification: Textile
- Dimensions: 96.5 × 101.6 cm (38 × 40 in.)
- Culture: Peruvian Central Coast
- Credit line: Gift of Frank B. Hubachek
- Museum: [Art Institute of Chicago](https://www.artic.edu/artworks/152937)
- Rights: [Public domain (CC0)](https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/)
- Picture: https://www.artic.edu/iiif/2/97c1b5d4-a8bd-0879-1309-5fd18ce69224/full/!1920,1080/0/default.jpg
- Who can see it: Tweens profiles and older (museums give no ratings; placed by Invisible Network from the museum's own words)

Although this headcloth looks like a gauze from afar, it is actually a much simpler plain weave. Rather than invest time in weaving the sheer fabric, its maker focused on creating its circular patterns by tying off small sections of the cotton cloth and dyeing it. The technique is similar to making a modern tie-dyed T-shirt but executed at a much smaller scale. Chancay weavers on the coast likely inherited this technique from their ancestors in the Andean highlands, weavers of the Wari Empire, who created elaborately tie-dyed, alpaca-fiber tunics in much brighter colors.

Description © Art Institute of Chicago, CC BY 4.0