Inuit clothing

Traditional Inuit clothing is a complex system of cold-weather garments historically made from animal hide and fur, worn by Inuit, a group of culturally related Indigenous peoples inhabiting the Arctic areas of Canada, Greenland, and the United States. The basic outfit consisted of a parka, pants, mittens, inner footwear, and outer boots. The most common sources of hide were caribou, seals, and seabirds, although other animals were used when available. The production of warm, durable clothing was an essential survival skill which was passed down from women to girls, and which could take years to master. Preparation of clothing was an intensive, weeks-long process that occurred on a yearly cycle following established hunting seasons. The creation and use of skin clothing was strongly intertwined with Inuit religious beliefs.

Despite the wide geographical distribution of Inuit across the Arctic, historically, these garments were consistent in both design and material due to the common need for protection against the extreme weather and the limited range of materials suitable for the purpose. The appearance of individual garments varied according to gender roles and seasonal needs, as well as the specific dress customs of each tribe or group. The Inuit decorated their clothing with fringes, pendants, and insets of contrasting colours, and later adopted techniques such as beadwork when trade made new materials available.

The Inuit clothing system bears strong similarities to the skin clothing systems of other circumpolar peoples such as the Indigenous peoples of Alaska, Siberia and the Russian Far East. Archaeological evidence indicates that the history of circumpolar clothing may have begun in Siberia as early as 22,000 BCE, and in northern Canada and Greenland as early as 2500 BCE. After Europeans began to explore the North American Arctic in the late 1500s, seeking the Northwest Passage, Inuit began to adopt European clothing for convenience. Around the same time, Europeans began to conduct research on Inuit clothing, including the creation of visual depictions, academic writing, studies of effectiveness, and museum collections.

In the modern era, changes to the Inuit lifestyle led to a loss of traditional skills and a reduced demand for full outfits of skin clothing. Since the 1990s, efforts by Inuit organizations to revive historical cultural skills and combine them with modern clothing-making techniques have led to a resurgence of traditional Inuit clothing, particularly for special occasions, and the development of contemporary Inuit fashion as its own style within the larger Indigenous American fashion movement.

The most basic version of the traditional Inuit outfit consisted of a hooded parka, pants, mittens, inner footwear, and outer boots, all made of animal hide and fur. These garments were fairly lightweight despite their insulating properties: a complete outfit weighed no more than around 3–4.5 kg (6.6–9.9 lb) depending on the number of layers and the size of the wearer. Extra layers could be added as required for the weather or activity, which generally cycled with the changing of the seasons.

Although the basic outfit framework was largely the same across Inuit groups (as well as other Indigenous Arctic peoples, including the Alaska Natives and those of Siberia and the Russian Far East), their wide geographic range gave rise to a broad variety of styles for basic garments, often specific to the place of origin. The range of distinguishing features on the parka alone was significant, as described by Inuit clothing expert Betty Kobayashi Issenman in her comprehensive study on Inuit clothing Sinews of Survival: "a hood or lack thereof, and hood shape; width and configuration of shoulders; presence of flaps front and back, and their shape; in women's clothing the size and shape of the baby pouch; length and outline of the lower edge; and fringes, ruffs, and decorative inserts."

Group or familial affinity was indicated by aesthetic features such as variations in the patterns made by different colours of fur, the cut of the garment, and the length of fur. In some cases, the styling of a garment could indicate biographical details such as the individual's age, marital status, and specific kin group. The vocabulary for describing individual garments in the Inuit languages is correspondingly extensive, which Issenman noted in Sinews of Survival:

A few examples will indicate some of the complexities: 'Akuitoq: man's parka with a slit down the front, worn traditionally in the Keewatin and Baffin Island areas'; 'Atigainaq: teenage girl's parka from the Keewatin region'; 'Hurohirkhiut: boy's parka with slit down the front'; 'Qolitsaq: man's parka from Baffin Island' (Strickler and Alookee 1988, 175).