Lava-lava
Encyclopedia
A lava-lava is an article of daily clothing traditionally worn by Polynesia
ns and other Oceanic
peoples. It consists of a single rectangular cloth worn as a skirt
. The term lava-lava is both singular and plural in the Samoan language
.
, Independent Samoa
, American Samoa
, and parts of Melanesia
and Micronesia
. It is worn by men and women in uses from school uniforms to business attire with a suit jacket and tie. Many people of Oceanic ethnicity wear the lava-lava as an expression of cultural identity and for comfort within expatriate communities, especially in the United States (notably Hawai'i, California
, Washington, and Utah
), Australia
, and New Zealand
.
leaves) or siapo (tapa cloth
) pounded from paper mulberry
or wild hibiscus
bark. The Samoans also created lava-lava from traditional materials such as flower petals, leaves, feathers and seashells tied to a wrap-around backing of plaited plant fibers.
Calico and loomed cotton
cloth had largely replaced woven or barkcloth lava-lavas as articles of daily use (though ie toga and siapo wraps are still used today for ceremonial and festive occasions and dance performances). Samoan men who bear the pe'a body tattoo, as well as Samoan women who bear the malu
leg tattoos often roll the waistband of the lava-lava or tuck in the sides and rear portion(s) of the lava-lava to expose their tattoo during dance performances or ceremonial functions (such as kava
ceremonies), a style referred to as agini.
), ie faitaga (Samoan), or tupenu
(Tongan
). Similar ankle-length skirts form the lower half of the two-piece formal dress worn by Samoan and Tongan women (called puletasi
and puletaha, respectively). On special occasions the Tongan tupenu and puletaha is usually associated with a tapa cloth or waist-mat called ta'ovala
and some Samoans still wear a tapa cloth vala sash in similar fashion (though the vala is generally restricted to ceremonial/festive regalia of orators or people acting/dressing as taupou maidens and manaia beaus). The formal, tailored linen lava-lava styles of Tonga, Samoa, and Fiji originated with the Fijian noble Ratu Sir Lala Sukuna
who introduced the buckled sulu to Fiji in 1920 following his military service and university education in Europe.
Loudly colored lava-lava made from materials such as satin
, velvet
, polyester
, and sequins have recently been popularized among performance dance groups and village, church, or school-based choirs.
, but that word is actually Malay
, whereas lava-lava is Samoan, being short for ʻie lavalava (cloth that wraps around). Another common name for the Polynesian variety is pāreu (usually spelled pareo
), which is the Tahitian
name. A similar simple kind of clothing is the lap-lap
worn in Papua New Guinea
and the South Pacific
, which is completely open at both sides.
Polynesia
Polynesia is a subregion of Oceania, made up of over 1,000 islands scattered over the central and southern Pacific Ocean. The indigenous people who inhabit the islands of Polynesia are termed Polynesians and they share many similar traits including language, culture and beliefs...
ns and other Oceanic
Oceania
Oceania is a region centered on the islands of the tropical Pacific Ocean. Conceptions of what constitutes Oceania range from the coral atolls and volcanic islands of the South Pacific to the entire insular region between Asia and the Americas, including Australasia and the Malay Archipelago...
peoples. It consists of a single rectangular cloth worn as a skirt
Skirt
A skirt is a tube- or cone-shaped garment that hangs from the waist and covers all or part of the legs.In the western world, skirts are usually considered women's clothing. However, there are exceptions...
. The term lava-lava is both singular and plural in the Samoan language
Samoan language
Samoan Samoan Samoan (Gagana Sāmoa, is the language of the Samoan Islands, comprising the independent country of Samoa and the United States territory of American Samoa. It is an official language—alongside English—in both jurisdictions. Samoan, a Polynesian language, is the first language for most...
.
Customary use
Today the fashion remains common in TongaTonga
Tonga, officially the Kingdom of Tonga , is a state and an archipelago in the South Pacific Ocean, comprising 176 islands scattered over of ocean in the South Pacific...
, Independent Samoa
Samoa
Samoa , officially the Independent State of Samoa, formerly known as Western Samoa is a country encompassing the western part of the Samoan Islands in the South Pacific Ocean. It became independent from New Zealand in 1962. The two main islands of Samoa are Upolu and one of the biggest islands in...
, American Samoa
American Samoa
American Samoa is an unincorporated territory of the United States located in the South Pacific Ocean, southeast of the sovereign state of Samoa...
, and parts of Melanesia
Melanesia
Melanesia is a subregion of Oceania extending from the western end of the Pacific Ocean to the Arafura Sea, and eastward to Fiji. The region comprises most of the islands immediately north and northeast of Australia...
and Micronesia
Micronesia
Micronesia is a subregion of Oceania, comprising thousands of small islands in the western Pacific Ocean. It is distinct from Melanesia to the south, and Polynesia to the east. The Philippines lie to the west, and Indonesia to the southwest....
. It is worn by men and women in uses from school uniforms to business attire with a suit jacket and tie. Many people of Oceanic ethnicity wear the lava-lava as an expression of cultural identity and for comfort within expatriate communities, especially in the United States (notably Hawai'i, California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
, Washington, and Utah
Utah
Utah is a state in the Western United States. It was the 45th state to join the Union, on January 4, 1896. Approximately 80% of Utah's 2,763,885 people live along the Wasatch Front, centering on Salt Lake City. This leaves vast expanses of the state nearly uninhabited, making the population the...
), Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
, and New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
.
Attire
The lava-lava is secured around the waist by an overhand knotting of the upper corners of the cloth; women often tuck the loose ends into the waistband, while men usually allow them to hang in front. Women generally wear ankle-length lava-lava while men's wraps often extend to the knee or mid-calf depending on the activity or occasion.History
In pre-contact times, the most prestigious lava-lava were made by wrapping the body in a ie toga with fine mats (finely woven textiles of pandanusPandanus
Pandanus is a genus of monocots with about 600 known species. They are numerous palmlike dioecious trees and shrubs native of the Old World tropics and subtropics. They are classified in the order Pandanales, family Pandanaceae.-Overview:...
leaves) or siapo (tapa cloth
Tapa cloth
Tapa cloth is a bark cloth made in the islands of the Pacific Ocean, primarily in Tonga, Samoa and Fiji, but as far afield as Niue, Cook Islands, Futuna, Solomon Islands, Java, New Zealand, Vanuatu, Papua New Guinea and Hawaii...
) pounded from paper mulberry
Paper Mulberry
The Paper Mulberry is a tree in the family Moraceae, native to eastern Asia. Other names include Dak, Halibun, Kalivon, Kozo, and Tapacloth tree.It is a deciduous tree growing to tall...
or wild hibiscus
Hibiscus
Hibiscus is a genus of flowering plants in the mallow family, Malvaceae. It is quite large, containing several hundred species that are native to warm-temperate, subtropical and tropical regions throughout the world...
bark. The Samoans also created lava-lava from traditional materials such as flower petals, leaves, feathers and seashells tied to a wrap-around backing of plaited plant fibers.
Calico and loomed cotton
Cotton
Cotton is a soft, fluffy staple fiber that grows in a boll, or protective capsule, around the seeds of cotton plants of the genus Gossypium. The fiber is almost pure cellulose. The botanical purpose of cotton fiber is to aid in seed dispersal....
cloth had largely replaced woven or barkcloth lava-lavas as articles of daily use (though ie toga and siapo wraps are still used today for ceremonial and festive occasions and dance performances). Samoan men who bear the pe'a body tattoo, as well as Samoan women who bear the malu
Malu
Malu can refer to:* Malu, a Samoan tattoo* Malu, Nepal* Malu, Giurgiu, a commune in Giurgiu County, Romania* Malu, a village in Bârla Commune, Argeş County, Romania* Malu, a village in Godeni Commune, Argeş County, Romania...
leg tattoos often roll the waistband of the lava-lava or tuck in the sides and rear portion(s) of the lava-lava to expose their tattoo during dance performances or ceremonial functions (such as kava
Kava
Kava or kava-kava is a crop of the western Pacific....
ceremonies), a style referred to as agini.
Current forms
Specially tailored linen lava-lava which extend mid-calf, often with pockets and ties/buckles, are worn by men at special occasions or to church; these are always solid colors (in contrast to the bright patterns of everyday lava-lava) and are known as sulu (FijianFijian language
Fijian is an Austronesian language of the Malayo-Polynesian family spoken in Fiji. It has 450,000 first-language speakers, which is less than half the population of Fiji, but another 200,000 speak it as a second language...
), ie faitaga (Samoan), or tupenu
Tupenu
Tupenu is the Tongan term for a wrapped garment also called a sarong, lungi, or lava-lava, worn through much of South Asia and Oceania. It is analogous to the kilt worn in Scotland....
(Tongan
Tongan language
Tongan is an Austronesian language spoken in Tonga. It has around 200,000 speakers and is a national language of Tonga. It is a VSO language.-Related languages:...
). Similar ankle-length skirts form the lower half of the two-piece formal dress worn by Samoan and Tongan women (called puletasi
Puletasi
The puletasi is a traditional item of clothing worn by Samoan girls. Today, puletasi is used as female full dress. Most commonly worn to church and formal Samoan cultural events....
and puletaha, respectively). On special occasions the Tongan tupenu and puletaha is usually associated with a tapa cloth or waist-mat called ta'ovala
Ta'ovala
A taovala is a Tongan dress, a mat wrapped around the waist, worn by men and women, at all formal occasions, much like the tie for men in the European and North American culture...
and some Samoans still wear a tapa cloth vala sash in similar fashion (though the vala is generally restricted to ceremonial/festive regalia of orators or people acting/dressing as taupou maidens and manaia beaus). The formal, tailored linen lava-lava styles of Tonga, Samoa, and Fiji originated with the Fijian noble Ratu Sir Lala Sukuna
Lala Sukuna
Ratu Sir Lala Sukuna, KCMG, KBE was a Fijian chief, scholar, soldier, and statesman. He is regarded as the forerunner of the post-independence leadership of Fiji...
who introduced the buckled sulu to Fiji in 1920 following his military service and university education in Europe.
Loudly colored lava-lava made from materials such as satin
Satin
Satin is a weave that typically has a glossy surface and a dull back. It is a warp-dominated weaving technique that forms a minimum number of interlacings in a fabric. If a fabric is formed with a satin weave using filament fibres such as silk, nylon, or polyester, the corresponding fabric is...
, velvet
Velvet
Velvet is a type of woven tufted fabric in which the cut threads are evenly distributed,with a short dense pile, giving it a distinctive feel.The word 'velvety' is used as an adjective to mean -"smooth like velvet".-Composition:...
, polyester
Polyester
Polyester is a category of polymers which contain the ester functional group in their main chain. Although there are many polyesters, the term "polyester" as a specific material most commonly refers to polyethylene terephthalate...
, and sequins have recently been popularized among performance dance groups and village, church, or school-based choirs.
Related names and garments
In English, such garments are generically called sarongSarong
A sarong or sarung is a large tube or length of fabric, often wrapped around the waist and worn as a kilt by men and as a skirt by women throughout much of South Asia, Southeast Asia, the Arabian Peninsula, the Horn of Africa, and on many Pacific islands. The fabric most often has woven plaid or...
, but that word is actually Malay
Malay language
Malay is a major language of the Austronesian family. It is the official language of Malaysia , Indonesia , Brunei and Singapore...
, whereas lava-lava is Samoan, being short for ʻie lavalava (cloth that wraps around). Another common name for the Polynesian variety is pāreu (usually spelled pareo
Pareo
The pāreu or pareo is the Cook Islands and Tahitian word for a 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...
), which is the Tahitian
Tahitian language
Tahitian is an indigenous language spoken mainly in the Society Islands in French Polynesia. It is an Eastern Polynesian language closely related to the other indigenous languages spoken in French Polynesia: Marquesan, Tuamotuan, Mangarevan, and Austral Islands languages...
name. A similar simple kind of clothing is the lap-lap
Lap-lap
Lap-lap is a waistcloth or loincloth worn in Papua New Guinea and the South Pacific. This item of clothing has three parts: a front flap, a back flap, and a thread to tie them around the waist. The sides are generally open...
worn in Papua New Guinea
Papua New Guinea
Papua New Guinea , officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea, is a country in Oceania, occupying the eastern half of the island of New Guinea and numerous offshore islands...
and the South Pacific
Oceania
Oceania is a region centered on the islands of the tropical Pacific Ocean. Conceptions of what constitutes Oceania range from the coral atolls and volcanic islands of the South Pacific to the entire insular region between Asia and the Americas, including Australasia and the Malay Archipelago...
, which is completely open at both sides.