Skirt

A skirt (piupiu) made from New Zealand flax with a fringe of partly stripped and dyed cylindrical leaf tags in a chequered pattern in black and pale yellow. The waistband is decorated with feathers, probably chicken feathers. There is no backing section to the fringe, which is plaited into a waistband. The feathers (probably chicken) are twined in near the top, with a long running thread of New Zealand flax between them and the plait. One end of the waistband plait forms a tie, the other end has a separate tie attached. The techniques used are single and double-pair twining. There are two lines of double-pair twining, then two lines single-pair (the latter in blue factory-produced thread).There are three warp threads (whenu) or fringe strands per cm. The feathers are inserted vertically, in pairs, into the top rows of double-pair and single-pair twining.