If you've ever had a hunch that western fashion used a dull pallette, or that maybe too few fashion editors pushed their uninspiring ideas on women, maybe the story of the mola, as a symbol of female Kuna fashion, will inspire you.
Fashion plays a huge role in Kuna society; which is also more matriarchal than any other society in the new world. What sets Kuna society apart from so many others is that the women pass down their 'female arts' to their young at an early age. All of these arts center around designing fashion. So by the age of four or five, young Kuna girls learn to make hand-made clothing of amazing intricacy and personal style. There is little in the form of religious or societal pressure towards imposed modesty. The result is one of the most creatively fashionable societies around. The mola is the front and back panels of Kuna women's blouses. It has also become the artistic symbol that Panama most often uses to represent itself to the world.
The mola panel is an intricately sewn in a fashion unknown anywhere else in the world – using simple scissors, thread and fabric.
'Like a column of jewels walking through the jungle' one airplane passenger comments, seeing a line of women marching along a path to their mainland farms.
