A SUMMER COVER-UP FOR PEOPLE WHO HATE TO SEW

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From MOM'S tour to the islands of French Polynesia, we bring you a wardrobe as inexpensive

Going native, in the Polynesian fashion, can be a glamorous and comfortable experience... as participants in our South Seas Seminar discovered this past winter. It seemed like we'd barely arrived in that tropical, flower-laden paradise before most of the female tour members began learning to wrap themselves in the versatile native pareu!

Although the colorful clothing was once made exclusively of tapa cloth (produced from the inner bark of the paper mulberry tree), the modern pareu is usually cotton, and features white or yellow floral designs on a red or blue background. Nowadays, however, the traditional attire (which, in its various permutations, is worn by men and women) can also be seen in a rainbow of hand-printed, batiked, and tie-dyed materials . . . including jersey, polyester, Indian gauze, and French voile.

The garment starts as a piece of cloth slightly over two yards long (1.90 meters, to be exact) and 45 inches wide. (If you're very tall or very short, you may want to try a different width.)
And there's certainly no reason at all to keep this tropical wraparound confined to a South Seas island... or even to the beach and back yard. It could also provide a beautiful, appropriate (according to how it's tied), and thrifty outfit to wear to a picnic, to a dinner party, or even for a night out on the town.

So, since we figured that many of MOM'S readers would be glad of a chance to increase the versatility of their wardrobes at little cost, we asked Marline Post-ma—a French Polynesian woman who, with her husband Richard, helps run the Hotel Bora Bora on the little island of the same name—to demonstrate just a few of the ways in which her national costume can be worn.

A LONG SKIRT
This hipline style involves wearing the pareu widthwise. Start as you do when tying the “short and sweet” version, knotting the “bunny ear” at whatever spot will allow you to secure it to the back corner for a good fit. But at this point take what’s left over…. Fold it in two vertically…and truck the upper edge of the panel over the knot, letting the long fold drape down your leg.

SHORT AND SWEET
You can produce a short style if you hold the pareu lengthwise and fold it in two . . . put the fold on your hipline . . . and tie a "bunny ear" at a point on the front of the material which will—when knotted to the back corner—allow the garment to fit snugly. Then you can take the remaining material, force it up and under the knot, pull it until it's even, and unfold it into a neat drape.