Coconut tree dress

The 1990s and early 2000s were a pioneering period for Pacific fashion designers in Aotearoa/New Zealand. Their innovative use of indigenous materials and style brought new cultural expressions to the catwalk and contemporary fasion. This “coconut dress” by Asomaliu Fou Tagiilima is inspired by the coconut palm tree and was a finalist in the Smokefree Fashion Design Awards 1997.

Construction

The dress is constructed in a tabard style, comprising two almost separate straight-cut front and back panels connected by thin shoulder straps of finely plaited coconut fibre. The two panels are laced at the sides and constructed from pandanus leaf and tapa sewn to a cloth backing. The upper section of the front panel is decorated with two wide crescents, one placed above the other, of green-dyed pandanus tabs attached to green cloth. A cluster of three partial coconut shells form a decorative feature at the centre. The upper section of the back panel is decorated with coconut leaf midribs which radiate from a central pearl shell surrounded by black feathers. The lower sections of the front and back panels are constructed from layered undyed pandanus leaves and tapa attached to a cloth backing.

Award winner

Asomaliu Fou Tagiilima is a New Zealand based Samoan designer who has twice been a finalist in the Oceania section of the Smokefree Fashion Awards (1997, 1998). He was also a category winner in the 1998 Pacifica show in Auckland.