Grass Skirt, Anklets, and Leis
Green-dyed grass skirt with anklets
Unknown designer, Hawai’i
CFTC #387ab
Gift of Beulah Blackmore
Grass skirt with anklets
Unknown designer, Hawai’i
CFTC #388
Gift of Beulah Blackmore
Red, yellow, orange leis
Unknown designer, Hawai’i
CFTC #396
Gift of Beulah Blackmore
Blackmore collected these grass skirts, anklets, and leis while visiting Honolulu, Hawai’i. The skirts and anklets are made out of synthetic raffia, while the leis are made out of tissue paper. Both were fabricated for the tourist market. The association of Hawai’i as a colorful, romantic tourist destination during the interwar period led to the creation of “aloha attire,” commodified interpretations of Hawaiian dress designed for and worn by tourists. In the thirties and forties, American tourists often wore grass skirts, anklets, and leis with a halter top or bathing suit as seen in the image of Annette Rosser, Leialoha Lund, Lucille Coggshell ‘32 on stage for “Costumes of Many Lands” in 1938, who were either Cornell alumni or members of the surrounding community. Before Western acculturation, however, the Indigenous peoples of Hawai’i did not wear grass skirts. Instead, they wore minimal clothing made out of barkcloth. This non-woven textile referred to as kapa was created by taking fibers from the paper mulberry tree and pounding them together to create a textile.
Additional Media:
Production
For additional information on the production of kapa cloth and it’s significance within Hawaiian culture, please visit the following museum collections held within and outside of Hawai'i.
Embedded Nature: Tapa Cloths from the Pacific Islands, a museum exhibition that was on display at the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnography at Harvard University.
The Bishop Museum—The Hawai'i State Museum of Natural and Cultural History.
Consumption
While the above resources provide additional information on the production and consumption of kapa cloth, the following article discusses the work of three Indigenous Hawaiian designers who are challenging and changing popular conceptualizations of “Hawaiian design.”
Sources:
Arthur L. B. (2000). Aloha attire: Hawaiian dress in the twentieth century. Atglen, PA: Schiffer Books.
Arthur, L. B. (2010). Hawaiian dress prior to 1898. In M. Maynard (Ed.), Berg Encyclopedia of World Dress and Fashion: Australia, New Zealand, and the Pacific Islands (pp. 389–393). Oxford: Bloomsbury Academic.