Paréo

“Paréo” is a word first written down with this spelling by Pierre Loti in 1880, according to the Dictionnaire historique de la langue française (Le Robert, 2022, p. 1787). It refers to a traditional Tahitian garment which later inspired beachwear garments. Its equivalent in Southeast Asia is the sarong, while in New Caledonia it is called a manou, a loincloth made of a piece of cloth tied around the waist and covering the lower body from the hips to the knees or ankles (Base de données lexicographiques panfrancophone). They are differentiated by their colors and patterns. Unlike its Tahitian cousin, the manou is virtually unknown in the West, attesting to the significant place held by Polynesia in the tourist imagination as opposed to the relative occultation of Melanesia, victim of negative racial bias: while Polynesia and the vahiné were long eroticized and fantasized in the European male gaze, Melanesians were long associated with the figure of the cannibal (Boulay, 2001, Tcherkézoff, 2009, Blondy, 2017 & Gay, 2017).

The Polynesian influence in France resembles phenomena in other colonial relations. The Hawaiian archipelago, annexed in 1898 by the United States, attracted U.S. nationals, while the French Establishments of Oceania, renamed French Polynesia in 1957, had the same effect on the French. These two countries, through the influence they have had on the dynamics of tourist practices, are the root of representations which have become almost universal. The paréo is one of many “exotic” elements introduced into the world of tourism. It is one of the typical souvenirs that tourists bring back from their seaside or island holidays, particularly if the latter are tropical (picture 1), and tourist circuits often include visits to the artisans who fabricate them, as in Bora Bora for example (picture 2). Paul Gauguin (1848-1903) immortalized these colored fabrics in his paintings. It is Titaÿna, alias Élisabeth Sauvy-Tisseyre (1897-1966), journalist, globetrotter, adventurer and sister of the demographer Alfred Sauvy (Heimermann, 1994) who made the Tout-Paris discover it during a conference on Tahitian women, at the Musée d’Ethnographie du Trocadéro in 1929, following a stay in Tahiti. It first appeared on the beach in Biarritz in 1934, when the great couturier Jacques Heim (1889-1967) launched his collection of two-piece swimsuits and matching pareos (Gay in Violier et al., 2021). In Vogue Magazine, one can read:

“Here is a brand new idea and one of the most attractive: the loincloth for the beach. No more need for very feminine women to look like tomboys. Heim was happily inspired by Pacific Island costumes for this sarong that is wrapped around the hips. It is completed with a bra also made in a white canvas printed black. A brick cord holds it on the shoulders.

(July 1934, pp. 28-29).

In Hollywood, Dorothy Lamour (1914-1996), later called “sarong girl”, wears it in the 1936 film The Jungle Princess. This garment came to be associated with the beach, the islands of the South Seas and the eroticized pin-up girls whom the GIs will dream of during the Second World War.

The Club Méditerranée, starting in the 1950s, made the paréo one of its symbols, comparing its mainly Mediterranean vacation villages to distant Polynesian “paradises”. This was an idea of the second wife of the founder of the Club (Gérard Blitz), Claudine Blitz, who had spent time in Tahiti in the 1940s (Peyre and Raynouard 1971). The “kind organizers” (gentils organisateurs) came to wear it and the “kind members” (gentils membres) came to buy it in the Club’s stores. Claudine Blitz also introduced the idea of greeting club members with flower necklaces, in imitation of how visitors are greeted upon arrival in Tahiti (Gay 2013). Lightweight and able to be tied in a variety of ways (there are often demonstrations on how to knot a pareo in the major hotels in French Polynesia, where information is published about how to wear them), this chic, summery garment remains prized nearly a century after it became fashionable.

Jean-Christophe Gay

Bibliography

• Base de données lexicographiques panfrancophone
• Blondy Caroline, 2017, « La fabrique d’un haut lieu du tourisme insulaire tropical: Tahiti et ses îles », in Coëffé Vincent (dir.), Le tourisme, de nouvelles manières d’habiter le monde, Paris, Ellipses, 456 p., p.376-399.
• Boulay Roger, 2001. Kannibals et Vahinés. Imagerie des Mers du Sud, Paris, Réunion des Musées Nationaux.
• Gay Jean-Christophe, 2013, « Les îles du Pacifique dans le monde du tourisme », Hermès, n° 65, p. 89-93.
• Gay Jean-Christophe, 2017, Un Coin de paradis. Vacances et tourisme en Nouvelle-Calédonie, Nouméa, Musée de la ville. En ligne.
• Heimermann Benoît, 1994, Titaÿna. L’aventurière des années folles, Paris, Flammarion, 360 p.
• Peyre Christiane et Raynouard Yves, 1971, Histoire et légendes du Club Méditerranée, Paris, Le Seuil, 267 p.
• Tcherkezoff Serge, 2009, Polynésie / Mélanésie – L’invention française des «races» et des régions de l’Océanie (XVI^e-XX^e siècles), Pirae, Au Vent des Iles, 393 p.
• Violier Philippe, Duhamel Philippe, Gay Jean-Christophe et Mondou Véronique, 2021, Le Tourisme en France 2, approche régionale, Londres, ISTE.