siapo (Tapa Cloth)

Fine mats used as garments by both sexes throughout Polynesia. In Samoa, men and women wore voluminous tapa skirts on special occasions.

Alan Sawyer notes: Late 19th century; sold by the Peabody Museum as 'duplicate materials' many years ago; purchased by the donors from a New York dealer in 1963.

Tapa cloth with geometric patterns of straight lines and zigzags. Predominant patterns are width-wise with dark brown diagonal lines, zigzags, and triangles.