Cloak

A rectangular cloak (korowai karure) made from New Zealand flax with black tassels on the main part of the cloak, and forming a fringe along the neck edge. There are feathers (chicken or kiwi) along the other three edges. This garment was made by finger-weaving or twining without the use of a loom. The technique used is single-pair twining, which forms the wefts (aho). This is uneven in some places. It began at the bottom with a selvedge and finished at the neck edge with the warps (whenu) folded over to give a rolled effect. There are four to five warp threads per cm, and the wefts are 8-13 mm apart. There are five grouped extra wefts (aho poka) on each side of the shoulder area and five on each side at the hip to provide shaping. The black-dyed rolled tassels on the main part of the cloak are three-ply, and inserted sideways, those at the neck edge are inserted upside down. The feathers are inserted vertically. The black-dyed tassels are very fragile.