February’s Ko te Kākahu o te Marama — Outfit of the Month at the Whanganui Regional Museum is a stunning kaftan made of indigo-coloured satin cotton and tie-dyed in splashes of coral, yellow and emerald.
It was bought in Nigeria, West Africa, in the early 1980s and worn during that decade by Sharon Dell, director of our museum from 1995 to 2008.
Kaftans, which are basically robes, have a long history, having emerged in Asia and moved all over the world, adapted by various cultures, which all put their own stamp on it. North Asia, Eastern Europe, Central Asia, Southwest Asia and Northern Africa all had, and still have, their own distinct kaftan styles, materials and appropriate ways of wearing them. Kings, queens and nobles wore them, heavily decorated with embroidery, gold and silver, sometimes in many layers. The poorest people of the world also wore them as a practical, cheap and protective garment in which to work for their living.
In the 1950s, Western women began to wear them for formal or evening events such as balls, parties and dining out. Actress Elizabeth Taylor famously wore kaftans, to the extent they became synonymous with her glamorous style.
Kaftans became popular, in a different way, in the Western world in the 1960s and 1970s. Worn by both men and women, they were often associated with the counterculture of youth, their music, their politics and their lifestyles.
