Lavalava

Samoan police band, wearing lava-lavas
A Samoan woman wearing a lavalava in Apia.

A lavalava, sometime written as lava-lava, also known as an 'ie, short for 'ie lavalava, is an article of daily clothing traditionally worn by Polynesians and other Oceanic peoples. It consists of a single rectangular cloth worn similarly to a wraparound skirt or kilt.[1] The term lavalava is both singular and plural in the Samoan language.

  1. ^ Rhone, Rosamond Dobson (1924). "Nauru, the Richest Island in the South Seas". National Geographic. Vol. 40, no. 1. pp. 559–590.