Tapa cloth

Colour and the patterning of surface designs in Australian fashion textiles has also been influenced by the tapa patterns of the South Pacific. Tapa collected from Tonga, Fiji Islands and Samoa was known to have been brought into Australia from around 1900.

The Fijian masi or tapa ceremonial cloth is made by beating strips of bark together until the fibres meld and pieces are then joined together with starch paste to make one large piece of cloth. The print pattern is made using ink and stencils cut from banana leaves with the brown dye sourced from the sap of a mangrove tree and the black dye from kerosene lamps.

Georgia Chapman and Maureen Sohn of Vixen describe their label as 'sensual, in terms of the nature of the cloth'. In 2002 Vixen created a diamond scarf from cotton tulle with handprinted designs and glass tassels as well as an 'Artefact skirt' inspired by the tapa cloth of Samoa and Fiji. The surface designs for the skirt were created using dyes on power mesh, discharge and a devore print on a silk viscose velvet with a silk georgette border.