A Woven Natural Fibre Rain Cape For a Child Taiwan

This little Rain Cape made for a child before people had plastic raincoats, the woman I bought it from was in her 60’s and said that she remembered people wear these when she was a child.   The interesting part plant fibre Rain Cape is that it looks like a modern sculpture & could easily be presented & interpreted as fibre sculpture. To me, it looks a flying ghost.  It is in very good condition. I am not sure exactly what type of plant was used, it looks like a palm fibre.

To see how much the world has changed , once almost everything was made from natural materials found in one’s environment but with modern times people started using cheap plastic everything and the knowledge to make something like a fibre rain cape is probably gone from many places that once made them.

Provenance: The Todd Barlin Collection of Oceanic & Asian Arts