Wamus Explained

A wamus is a type of jacket worn in the United States. The term is applied to several different types of upper-body garment.

Early American history

One of the more consistent uses of wamus is to describe a fringed leather tunic that slips over the head.^{[1] [2]} For early American pioneer families in the Southern United States, the buckskin (later, cloth) wamus was widely worn by young and pre-teen boys in the late 18th and very early 19th century.^[3] The wamus, if it opened down the front, was either laced shut or held closed with a belt, with dressier versions made from elk skin.^[1] If made from cloth, the wamus was dyed blue and trimmed with yellow fringe.^[1]

As worn by the Lakota people, the wamus was a ceremonial tunic which was coloured to represent the type of person the wearer was, as well as painted with mnemonic designs.^[2] Traditionally, if a warrior had scalped his enemy, he was allowed to trim his wamus with human hair cut from the heads of mourning women in addition to the cut fringe.^[2]

Later history

The wamus eventually came to describe a sleeved jacket or cardigan, typically with buttoned wristbands and a belt-like waistband, in which format, it was also sometimes called a roundabout.^{[4] [5] [6]}

For Sunday best and other special occasions Amish men wear a jacket called a wamus, distinct from the 'mutze' traditionally worn for preaching.^{[7] [8]}

See also

• Zouave jacket

Notes and References

1. Book: Wilcox . R. Turner. Five centuries of American costume . 2004 . Dover Publications. Mineola, N.Y.. 9780486436104. 42–43. Dover . registration .
2. Book: Walker . James R. . DeMallie. Raymond J.. Lakota society. 1992. University of Nebraska Press . Lincoln. 102 . 9780803297371. 1. Bison Book printing.
3. Book: Dick. Everett. The Dixie frontier : a social history of the Southern frontier from the first transmontane beginnings to the Civil War . 1993 . Univ. of Oklahoma Press. Norman [u.a.]. 9780806123851. [Repr. der Ausg.] New York, 1948. .
4. Book: Picken. Mary Brooks. A dictionary of costume and fashion : historic and modern . 1999 . 9780486141602 . 188–189.
5. Book: Krohn. Katherine. Calico dresses and buffalo robes : American West fashions from the 1840s to the 1890s . 2012 . Twenty-first Century Books . Minneapolis . 9780761358909 .
6. The American Tailor and Cutter. 1902. 23. 125. Roundabout. Jno. J. Mitchell Company. Roundabout — A name for a certain kind of jacket. (See Wamus.).
7. Book: Schwieder . Elmer . Schwieder . Dorothy . A peculiar people Iowa's old order Amish : an expanded edition . 2009. University of Iowa Press . Iowa City . 9781587298486. 1st University of Iowa Press .
8. Book: Hostetler. John A.. John A. Hostetler. Weaver-Zercher . David . Writing the Amish : the worlds of John A. Hostetler . 2005 . Pennsylvania State University Press . University Park, Pa. . 9780271026862 . The Amish use of symbols (1964).