How To Dress

There are many rules that come with how girls and boys are to dress in certain occassions back home. It is very different here in the states and young people get away with dressing inappropriately very often than not. For example, girls are not allowed to wear short shorts during any soecial event that older people will be attending. The shrotest she can wear her shorts are halfway down her thighs and that is it. Here, it is very normal for girls to wear short shorts around and people are okay with it. If for some reason she wears her shorts very short, she is to wear a long cloth around her waist to cover it. We call this an "ie" which is very similar to a sarong. Every family in Samoa owns plenty of these and always has them handy at all events. A formal wear for the ladies is called a "puletasi". This article shows talks about it and shows images of what it looks like. http://www.mapsofworld.com/samoa/people-culture-festivals/clothing.html) It basically covers the full body as a sign of respect to family members and elders. This outfit can be worn to big events, dances, and to church. For men, they wear a button down shirt of tribal design and a skirt called "ie faitaga". It has pokets in it and usually covers everything down to thei mid-calf. The purpose of these outfits are to look appropriate for any occassion and to cover the entire body. There are many different designs, colors, and ways to sow and style these outfits and it is shown in the bottom image. One more clothing that both men and women wear is called the "lava lava". It is similar to an "ie" or a sarong that is basically wrapped around the body to cover anything that needs to be covered. Girls can wear these to the beach and tie it aroudn their neck into a dress to cover the full body and guys can wear it around their waist to cover the bottom half of their body. This piece of clothing is worn daily by everyone in Samoa up until this day. This article talks a lot about the different types of "lava lavas" or "ies" but in the end, it's all the same thing that everyone wears daily. < http://www.samoaobserver.ws/opinion/letters-to-the-editor/7426-samoas-dress-code-ie-faitaga-ie-lavalava-ie-solosolo-ie-ie>