Maroon Fashion History

Abstract

Abstract Fashion has long been a dynamic aspect of Maroon culture in Suriname and French Guiana (Guyane). The textile arts that carry it through from one generation to the next were totally ignored by early writers, who lavished praise on the men’s art of woodcarving but said virtually nothing about the artistic gifts of women—most importantly in calabash carving (referred to by one of them as “doodling”) and clothing. This article, based on more than fifty years of ethnographic work with Maroons, focuses on textile arts and clothing fashions, running briefly through styles of the past before focusing on current directions. Today, with Maroons participating increasingly in life beyond the traditional villages of the rain forest, the women—like their mothers and grandmothers—have continued to enjoy adopting newly available materials and inventing novel techniques. In the process, they have been producing clothing that reflects both their cultural heritage of innovative artistry and their new place in the multicultural, commoditized society of the coast. The illustrations give an opening hint of the remarkable vibrancy of this aspect of Maroon life in the twenty-first century.