CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
Barkcloth Skirt | in
vor 1900
About the object
This menswear barkcloth skirt (in) is an example of typical pre-colonial clothing worn by people living on the Marshall Islands. It is made from two bundles of long bast strips, which are bound by a fine, braided strap. The bast is stripped from a tree and then dried in the sun. A triangular-shaped, cord mat was often worn underneath the barkcloth skirt (II/1620). The skirt was fastened with a belt made from pandanus leaves (II/1320). A long, finely-braided string (II/1320) was then wrapped around it many times over. The manufacture of these skirts was often highly elaborate, thus making them very valuable.
