pareus

The Gallery Label for this picture states: "Before embarking on a series of pictures inspired by Polynesian religious beliefs, Gauguin devoted this, his first major Tahitian canvas, to a Christian theme, describing it in a letter of March 1892: "An angel with yellow wings reveals Mary and Jesus, both Tahitians, to two Tahitian women, nudes dressed in pareus, a sort of cotton cloth printed with flowers that can be draped from the waist.

Archive 2009-04-01 2009

Large prints: Wild, colorful patterns dominate such pieces as Balenciaga's Amazon-bird T shirts, Giorgio Armani's Tahitian floral dresses, Anna Sui's poppies on summer shifts and printed pareus at Gibo by Julie Verhoven.

Style: Springing Forward 2007

We bounced along a very odd direction on a dirt track at the side of the tiny coral airstrip by the sea, until we reached the end where we disembarked among what looked like Cargo Cult people camping out in tents and whatnot, flimsy shelters of canvas and gaily colored cloth pareus.

The Macphersons: Week 51: All Things French 2007

Outside, people walked past clad in the familiar pareus, occasionally in a diving gelsuit.

Cachalot Foster, Alan Dean, 1946- 1980

Their massive bodies and cafe au lait color, encased only in pareus or skimpy diving gear, made her feel like an awkward splinter of jet set among twenty-karat topazes.

Cachalot Foster, Alan Dean, 1946- 1980

So passed the night and the rum, in a pandemonium of voices, gyrating tattooed bodies, flashes of red and yellow and blue _pareus_, rolling eyes, curls of smoke drifting under the gently moving canvas ceiling, while from the garden came the scent of innumerable dewy flowers; and at intervals in the chanting I heard from the darkness of the bay the sound of a conch-shell blown on some wayfaring boat.

White Shadows in the South Seas Frederick O'Brien 1900

So the drums were beating on the palace lawn, and afternoon found the trails gay with _pareus_ and brilliant shawls as the natives came down from their _paepaes_ to the seat of government.

White Shadows in the South Seas Frederick O'Brien 1900

The light fell upon the giant limbs and huge torsos of the men, picking out arabesques of tattooing and catching ruddy gleams from red _pareus_.

White Shadows in the South Seas Frederick O'Brien 1900

It was a picture of which artist's dream, the naked girl laughing in the torrents of transparent water, the wet crimson blossoms washing from her drowned hair, and beneath the striped shade of the palm-trunks her simple, savage companions waiting their turn, squatting on the sand or crowded on the canoe, their loins wrapped in crimson and blue and yellow _pareus_.

White Shadows in the South Seas Frederick O'Brien 1900

Behind me my companions, in their red and yellow _pareus_, pushed the boat through the water with gentle strokes of their oars.

White Shadows in the South Seas Frederick O'Brien 1900