Indian Women's Wrap Skirt


This past Winter I was approached by a esteemed collector of American Indian Art. He wanted me to create a Women's Wrap skirt for his Significant other. I was given full liberty in its design and construction except for the color of the wool to be used she was fond of the color blue! With that simple request I was off to work.Many long hours went into this piece It feels exceptionally good to know I also had a part in the production of the Wool Cloth (Stroud Cloth).  This piece is not a Musuem reproduction but a compilement of known examples incorporating there design elements.

"The dress which particulary distinguishes the women is a petticoat or strowd,blue, red or black,made of a piece of cloth about two yards long, adorned with red, blue or yellow bands laid double and bound about the body."
David Zeisberger: History of the northern American Indians 

  

“The women, since the time we first traded with them, wrap a fathom of the half breadth of Stroud Cloth* round their waist and tie it with a leathern belt, which is commenly covered with brass runners or buckles: but this sort of loose petticoat, reaches only to their hams, in order to shew their exquisitely fine proportioned limbs.”
James Adair:History of the American indian 

"The stroud is formed by doubling the cloth so far as to have one fold a quarter of a yard below the other; this is wrapped around the waist, and reaches a little below the knee"
Elizabeth Hicks: A True Romance of the American War of  Independence 1775 to 1783 

                        American Indian Womens Wrap skirts Ilustrated From 18Th Century Paintings



" American Indian Family" by Benjamin West



"Mohawk Woman and Baby" Artist Unknown