Skirt Project | KATRINA SIMON

Historical Skirts of the Hawaiian People

The skirts of the Hawaiian people have a very interesting history. Because of the very warm climate in Hawaii, there was not a need for wearing a lot of clothing. To stay cool in the warmth, basic garments were worn.

Very early on, women wore rectangular shawls called kihei and skirts called pa’u. Men wore these skirts too or wore a loincloth called a malo. Both the kihei and pa’u were made of kapa, also called bark cloth, which is a fabric that was used by ancient Hawaiians before foreigners introduced them to cotton fabrics. Kapa is actually a paper but used as fabric. It is technically a paper because it is made from Hawaiian plants and trees like wauke, mamaki, oloa, and ‘akala. Wauke was the most common plant to be used in kapa creation. There were many different textures, weights and designs on kapas ,which were done by vegetable dyes and printing designs with bamboo stamps. The more decorated pa’us were, with intricate designs, stamps, dyes, and layers of kapa, showed the social status of the individual wearing it.

Also, early hula (known as hula kahiko) costumes were pa’us made out of the same material- kapas. Historically, men and women were topless usually and just wore a pa’u or loincloth. In the 1800’s, modern hula developed called hula ‘auana. International visitors, sugar plantation workers and missionaries, visited Hawaii and introduced stringed instruments and grass skirts. Hula ‘auana costumes have more of a Western influence and is what we think of now as Hawaiian clothing- fabric tops, grass skirts, and leis for the head and kupe’es (leis for ankles and wrists). Originally in hula kahiko, wrist and ankle decorations were made out of whale bone or dogs teeth. Grass skirts were made out of ti leaves and originally they were used in their natural color of brown or green but later began to dye colors and made out of many different materials like raffia and dried hala leaves. Men who dance the hula ‘auana changed from wearing the pa’u or malo to shorts and pants. When missionaries visited Hawaii, they were shocked by the nudeness. They showed Hawaiians fabric and influenced them to use fabric and to cover up more. Therefore, the pa’u started to be made out of fabric. One of the first photos of this is in 1885 where hula dancers are wearing a white blouse with fabric pa’u, and white stockings. Originally they were about nine yards of one single type of fabric wrapped around to cover legs. Now it is made using 4-12 yards of fabric and has an elastic waist band for comfortable dancing. There is a vast and interesting history about the Hawaiian skirts.