Pareo

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Young girl from cold Rimatara (Tuhaʻa pae) in 1887

The pāreu or pareo (see below) is the Tahitian word for wraparound skirt. Originally it was used only to refer to women's skirts, as men wore a loincloth, called a maro. Nowadays the term is applied to any piece of cloth worn wrapped around the body, worn by males or females. It is related to the Malay sarong, Sāmoan lavalava, Tongan tupenu and other such garments.

In contemporary Tahitian the right word is pāreu (singular: te pāreu, plural: te mau pāreu), with the pronunciation of the word with a long a (hold the sound for two beats rather than just one) and the e and u' pronounced separately, rather than slurred into a diphthong. It is not clear where the variant pareo is coming from. It might be an old dialectic variant or an early explorers' misinterpretation. But both terms were already used in the 19th century.^[1] Nowadays, however, pareo can be considered as the English-language form of the word (plural pareos), much less likely subject to mispronunciation.

The Tahitian pāreu are among the most colourful and bright ones of the Pacific. Originally flower patterns, the hibiscus flowers in particular, or traditional tapa patterns, were printed in bright colours on a cotton sheet of about 90 or 120 cm wide and 180 cm long, made in China. Nowadays they are also made in Tahiti itself and dye painting with varying colours is popular as well.

[edit] Styles

A pāreu can be worn in many ways. Women will usually wrap it around their upperbody, covering it from breasts to above the knees. Either they rely on their breasts that it will not slide down, or they may wrap a corner around their shoulder or their neck. In more traditional surroundings the covering of the upperbody is less important, but the covering of the thighs is. Then it is worn as a longer skirt. Men wear it as a short skirt, or may even make shorts out of it, especially when fishing or working in the bush where freedom of movement of the legs is needed. But during quiet, cooler nights at home, they may wear it as a long skirt too.

The ends of the pāreu are normally just tucked in, kept in place by friction only. No pins, magnets or other means are used. Only when as dress worn around the neck or shoulders, ends are knotted together. When it comes loose a few times per day, the wearer will just pull it tight again or rewrap him/herself. Nevertheless when a lot of movement occurs, at heavy work or dancing for example, wearing of a belt over it around the waists is common too. The easy undo is not a burden, rather a blessing. A woman (or man) may start her daily work on a colder morning wearing her pāreu as a long skirt and with a shirt. When it comes loose, the day may have warmed up enough for her to redo it as a shorter skirt. Again, some time later, she may discard her warm shirt and rewrap her pāreu as a dress.