A Record in Thread: Mexico’s Collective Embroidery

At the Los Pinos Cultural Complex in Mexico City, embroidery has taken centre stage on an unprecedented scale. Mexico has officially set a Guinness World Record for the world’s largest embroidery and textile exhibition, bringing together more than 3,000 validated textile works in a single, collective display. The achievement is both monumental and deeply intimate: a gathering of threads that speaks to place, identity and the enduring power of handwork.

The World’s Largest Embroidery and Textile Exhibition, Los Pinos Cultural Complex in Mexico City. Photo: Sectur

The exhibition brings together embroideries from more than 200 artisans across Mexico’s 32 federal entities. Each state contributed works that reflect its own visual language and cultural markers, resulting in a vivid cross-section of the country’s textile heritage. Visitors encounter pieces depicting everything from the Mexico City metro and lucha libre masks to axolotls, sacred animals and symbolic motifs rooted in Indigenous cosmologies. Seen together, the works form a textured map of Mexico, stitched through everyday life...

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Image Credits:

Lead: Huipil Blouse, Mexico, 1900–1952. Cotton, Wool. Purchased through the Pauline Riggs Noyes Fund; 1952-38-2. Cooper Hewitt Museum Collection.

All further images as credited in photo captions.