When we talk about fashion or costume we tend to refer to garments or some type of ornamentation that is external to the body. However, throughout history, cultures have also used the body itself and human skin as a decorative medium to relay aesthetic significance as well as social status or rites of passage. The human epidermis is a remarkable organ that provides a barrier between the inner organs and the external environment and helps us regulate temperature. It is also what we present of ourselves as individuals to the world around us and so the way we treat our skin, or manipulate it, or adorn and change it, can convey a lot about who we are or who we want others to see us as.
The most conspicuous and familiar forms of body adornment to Western eyes are probably cosmetics (including lip coloring, eye shading, nail polishes, etc.) and ear piercings and, more recently, tattoos and piercings on other parts of the body. The history of cosmetics certainly has to be a long one since its application is easy and the sources for natural dyes and treatments are abundant. Other forms of bodily adornment include more painful forms of manipulating the skin, such as body piercings or scarification. Both are a form of ornamentation that tampers with the skin and creates wounds for the purpose of distinguishing that part of the body, whether by attaching further adornment (such as earrings) or changing the surface texture of the skin itself to create patterns (such as through scarring).
Tattooing, also a potentially painful practice, has a long history as feature of human ornamentation; remains of a human preserved in ice, dated to about 5000 B.C.E, show various tattoo patterns and attest to a fairly early use of tattoos. Tattooing as a distinct tradition in some cultures, such as those of Oceania, is further example of its relevance as a form of display/adornment. Today, tattoos are a cultural phenomenon in the West and have become fashion indicators more than social indicators but in cultures where the tradition is longer, tattoos have been a signifier of much deeper binds. In the cultures of Polynesia, different islands had their own traditions and styles of tattooing and the variety of tattoo motifs and patterns and their placement on the body also offered different layers of meaning, both for the person adorned with them and for anyone encountering him.
History of Moccasins
The soft elk skin, deerskin or buffalo skin slippers worn by Native Americans and known widely as moccasins were a fashion of shoe shared by many different tribes over time. The seemingly simple design of moccasins, however, was actually so nuanced that Native Americans could attribute moccasin footprints to different tribes and identify one another accordingly. Subtle variations in stitching or fringe detailing or the finishing of the heel could distinguish one pair of footprints from another. Beyond this, the decorative detailing in beadwork or quill design on the front tab, or vamp, of the moccasin would also signal origins or affiliation.
The shoes are remarkably efficient in design and would have been well-suited to different geographical and climate conditions. They were also extremely well crafted in supple leather with careful stitching to allow for ease of wear as much as for sensitivity to the landscape, something that would have been essential to Native Americans so skilled at traversing the land and tracking things on foot. Those tribes to the west that lived in drier, more rugged terrain would have had shoes made of tougher leather with soles to match and would be constructed of two or more pieces of leather for sole and upper. Tribes further east would have relied on soft-soled moccasins, typically constructed of one piece of hide and sewn with seams at the sides or at the top.
The word moccasin in association with Native American footwear has been adopted by the greater American public but it was never a universally understood word within the different Native American tribes. Moccasin was the word for shoe in the Virginia Algonquian language and was passed into English as a generalization through the encounters early English settlers had with the native community. Captain John Smith of the Jamestown settlement is attributed with noting the translation in his 1612 glossary, ‘mockasins: shoes.’ In actuality, each tribe used words in their own language or dialect to signify shoe/slipper and it is coincidence that has made ‘moccasin’ the lasting word in English. It is more than coincidence and surely a tribute to the beauty of the design and image of the moccasin that it has been preserved as a style of shoe until today and continues to permeate the broader fashion market.
moccasin image from: Wisconsin Historical Society- and Morning Star Gallery, Santa Fe, New Mexico
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