One word, many wardrobes
“Apache” covers several distinct nations, including the Western Apache (with groups such as the White Mountain and San Carlos Apache), the Chiricahua, the Mescalero, the Jicarilla, the Lipan and the Plains Apache. Each lived in a different environment and had different neighbours, so there was never one uniform Apache costume. What follows describes patterns that were widely reported, and it says where practice differed or where the sources are thin.
Much of what is known about older dress comes from three kinds of evidence: objects in museums, photographs from roughly the 1870s onward, and written descriptions by soldiers, travelers and anthropologists. All three have limits. Photographs were often staged, and outsiders recorded what interested them, so any picture of earlier dress is partial. Apache families’ own knowledge of clothing is a further source, and some of it is not shared publicly.
Hide clothing
Before and during early contact with Europeans, clothing was made largely from the hides of deer and other game, supplemented by woven plant fibers for some items. The preparation of hides was skilled, time-consuming work, and the same craft is described under Apache hide tanning. A hide was cleaned, scraped, softened and often smoked, which kept it flexible after it got wet.
Commonly described garments include:
- For men, a breechcloth, a hide shirt or tunic in cooler weather, leggings, and moccasins.
- For women, a hide skirt with a separate poncho-style top or blouse, plus moccasins.
- Robes or wraps of hide for cold seasons.
Cut and decoration varied. Fringes were common, and some garments carried painted designs or added ornaments. How much any one family wore depended on the season and on what could be hunted and traded.
Footwear
Footwear deserves its own mention because it is among the most recognizable parts of Apache dress. The high, turned-up-toe moccasin worn by Western Apache, Chiricahua and Mescalero people was well suited to rough ground, and the leg portion could be folded down or pulled up. Other groups, especially those on the Plains and in northern New Mexico, show influence from neighbouring styles. The details are covered in a separate article on the moccasins themselves.
Cloth arrives
From the period of Spanish colonial contact onward, and increasingly in the nineteenth century, trade cloth and later calico became available through trade, raiding, gifts and government issue. Cotton and wool cloth did not replace hide overnight. For a time people combined the two, wearing a cloth shirt with hide leggings and moccasins, for example. Cloth headbands became familiar in photographs of men from the later nineteenth century.
For women, the cloth garments that developed in this period became the camp dress, a two-piece outfit of a full skirt and loose blouse, discussed in its own article. It is a good example of Apache people adopting a new material and shaping it into something distinct. Apache women commonly made garments for their families, so changes in clothing also reflect women’s work and choices, a theme found under Apache women more generally.
Pressure and change in the reservation era
The reservation system disrupted ordinary life, including the ways clothing was made and worn. Rations and annuity goods sometimes included clothing and cloth. Hunting grounds shrank, so hides became harder to obtain. Children sent to Apache boarding schools were typically given uniforms and had their hair cut, as part of a government and church policy of forced assimilation that left lasting harm. For many families, cloth garments and store-bought items became everyday dress, while traditional pieces were kept for special occasions or set aside.
The experience of the Chiricahua prisoners of war, held in the South and later in Oklahoma, brought its own disruptions to dress. Details varied by place and period, and sources differ on specifics.
Adornment
Adornment included jewelry and other ornaments such as necklaces, earrings, hair ties and decorative fringes. Shell, stone and metal were the best-known materials, and the older forms are described in a companion article. Silver and turquoise work grew in importance later and today is carried on by contemporary jewelers, a topic treated separately.
Dress today
Apache people today wear ordinary contemporary clothing in daily life, like most Americans. Traditional pieces appear in particular settings: camp dresses at community events, moccasins made by hand, and regalia at gatherings such as a powwow. Some regalia is public dress and some is not. Items connected with ceremonies are a separate matter, and what can be said about Apache ceremonial regalia is limited because some knowledge is not shared publicly. Visitors should not assume that everything seen at an event may be photographed or discussed.
Dress also connects to identity and community, which is one reason handmade clothing continues to be valued within the broader movement of traditional arts revival. For current information about events, protocols and artists, the official websites of the Apache nations are the best source.
Reading the evidence carefully
Anyone writing about “traditional” Apache clothing should keep a few cautions in mind. Museum labels sometimes record a collector’s guess rather than the maker’s identity. Nineteenth-century dress was already shaped by trade and contact, so “traditional” does not mean “unchanged since ancient times.” And clothing practices differed between nations and even between local groups. Treating any single outfit as “the” Apache costume tends to flatten a varied record.