No chance to escape the city for sunnier climes this summer? The Fashion and Textile Museum, located in Bermondsey, South London, may hold the answer…

Made in Mexico: The Rebozo in Art, Culture and Fashion  (6 June-31 August 2014) traces an extensive and historically informed account of the sartorial evolution of the rebozo from the 17th century, beginning with the exquisite collection of Belgian diplomat Robert Everts (1878-1942), to the present day. The enveloping rebozo, which is derived from the Spanish verb rebozar, to cover, is a long flat rectangular garment woven from cotton, silk, wool or, more recently, synthetic fibres. It is used interchangeably by Mexican women of all social classes as a scarf or shawl, wrapped or draped around the body and/or head. This exhibition makes use of loans from the Franz Mayer Museum, Mexico City (its next destination in Spring 2015), the Museum of Textiles, Oaxaca, and the British Museum, London. It celebrates the indigenous craft skills and artistic excellence entailed in the production of the rebozo, which is still woven using long-established production techniques. In addition to the expected, and exceptional, rebozos displayed in glass vitrines or hung up throughout the gallery, the exhibition also features clothing, photographs, paintings, sculptures and installations. It includes contributions by contemporary Mexican and British fashion and textile designers, artists and photographers including Kaffe Fassett, Carla Fernandez, Francisco Toledo, Graciela Iturbide and, perhaps unsurprisingly, Zandra Rhodes. Rhodes is the founder of FTM (operated by Newham College of Further Education since 2006) and still has an active role in its direction and development.

A more detailed review of this exhibition is due to be published in a special issue on Latin American/Latino Fashion, Style and Popular Culture in the Fashion, Style & Popular Culture journal, guest edited by Jose Blanco F. (Textiles, Merchandising and Interiors, University of Georgia) and Raul J. Vazquez-Lopez (Romance Languages, University of Georgia).