Ceremonial skirt (lawo butu)

The sarong, or tubular skirt, is the standard garment for men and women on the mountainous island of Flores, in eastern Indonesia. Men tend to wear shorter and wider sarongs, usually rolled tightly at the waist as a lower body garment. They also drape the sarong diagonally on the torso, over one shoulder and under the other arm, atop a commercial shirt and pants. Women wear longer and narrower sarongs, often with commercial blouses. In keeping with personal preference or local tradition, women secure this versatile garment by rolling it under the arms or at the waist, supporting it over one shoulder, or, among the Ngadha, tying it at the shoulders by attached cotton cords.

Glass beads form the skeletal human figures, spidery creatures, and ships that glisten in low relief against the indigo ground of Ngadha ceremonial skirts. Although the type is no longer made, and explanations of the designs are mostly speculative, glass beads are widely associated with fertility, prosperity, and abundance, and they are often considered heirlooms. Women of high social status wove the ikat-patterned cotton cloth and wore the beaded skirts, but only on the most important ceremonial occasions. They rituals that accompany birth, marriage, house building, and death are occasions for such elaborate dress, as are ceremonies for planting and harvesting in the agricultural cycle.

"Dallas Museum of Art: A Guide to the Collection," page 69