In his classic study, El traje en la Nueva España (1959), Abelardo Carrillo y Gariel stated that the idea for a project on novohispanic fashion took form as he catalogued colonial paintings and felt inspired by the garments in the painted portraits (Carrillo y Gariel, 7). Unlike other artworks, textiles present numerous challenges to historical investigation due to the fragility of the materials and the fact that most textiles are created to be handled or worn, resulting in wear, damage, and loss. Working with materials that are scarce or compromised often leads textile scholars to descriptions in period documents and to images that capture the appearance and use of the original item. Reflecting this dilemma, Maya Stanfield-Mazzi notes the discrepancy between the ubiquity and importance of vestments and fabric adornments in colonial churches and their marginal presence in the scholarly literature.

As others have done before her, the author opens her book with a colonial image, an unattributed painting of a mass for the dead produced in late seventeenth-century Cusco. Her identification of the myriad garments and adornments in the painted image serves as a point of departure for an extended discussion of ritual cloth and most importantly, of the often overlooked indigenous role in the production, use, and maintenance of textiles. The author suggests that the “real” and symbolic power of colonial church cloth is tied to what she calls its hybrid or mestizo qualities, with their implication of adaptation and transculturation in the formation of early modern American identities and cultural forms.

The book is organized into five chapters, including an introduction and conclusion. Three of the five chapters focus on fabric type, specifically, silk, tapestry, and cotton, with the remaining two chapters looking at surface applications, here embroidery and featherwork. Each chapter is subdivided into sections that are relevant to each cloth type, such as its antecedents, local production, developments, and uses. The author considers indigenous traditions such as embroidery, tapestry, and featherwork, and discusses both locally produced and imported textiles. The majority of textiles examined originated in New Spain and Peru; however, given that the author consulted museum, Church, and private collections across the world, this study gathers works that have until now been separated by time, distance, and varying degrees of attention.

The work is meticulous, as are the descriptions of techniques, materials, and usage. The author adeptly weaves together information drawn from primary sources, including images, secondary literature, and her study of cloth specimens. What is especially informative is the larger historical mise-en-scène the author lays out to provide context for each of the textile forms she examines, an example being her historically and geographically ample discussion around silk production and its use. This approach aids the reader in understanding not only the nature of the material, but also the value it had in colonial society, and thus its consequent regulation. All of this provides insight into how silk–and fabric in general–was imbricated in the cultural, political, and economic dimensions of colonial societies. One of the more engaging elements in the book, consequently, are the stories surrounding the textiles, evincing how the power of cloth continues to speak to us today as it did centuries ago.

Although Stanfield-Mazzi's study of liturgical textiles is exhaustive and will be an invaluable resource for years to come, a literature review would have strengthened the project by placing it in the broader scheme of colonial textile studies and underlining its significance, particularly to readers unfamiliar with the subject. In the essay, “Textiles in Colonial Latin America” (2006), Dilys E. Blum observed, “Scholars are only now beginning to intensively study and publish research on surviving textiles from this period” (Blum, 146). Stanfield-Mazzi's book exemplifies this growing interest and represents a major step toward developing our understanding of an art form that was central to colonial societies and their institutions but has received only scant attention.