A kiekie is a Tonga

Tonga

Tonga, officially the Kingdom of Tonga , is a state and an archipelago in the South Pacific Ocean, comprising 176 islands scattered over of ocean in the South Pacific...

n dress, an ornamental girdle around the waist, mainly worn by women on semiformal occasions, but nowadays also sometimes by men. At highly formal occasions both gender will settle for a taovala

Ta'ovala

A taovala is a Tongan dress, a mat wrapped around the waist, worn by men and women, at all formal occasions, much like the tie for men in the European and North American culture...

. At casual occasions no girdle is needed for any gender, although women may continue wearing a kiekie even then, as it is considered an easy sitting, nice looking decoration, with which one can show off. (All taovala look more or less the same, and are usually quite stiff and hot to wear).

The characteristic of a kiekie is that it is between a mat and a grass skirt (manafau): it is a string skirt attached to a waistband. It is supposed to be somewhat transparent, showing the skirt

Skirt

A skirt is a tube- or cone-shaped garment that hangs from the waist and covers all or part of the legs.In the western world, skirts are usually considered women's clothing. However, there are exceptions...

 or tupenu

Tupenu

Tupenu is the Tongan term for a wrapped garment also called a sarong, lungi, or lava-lava, worn through much of South Asia and Oceania. It is analogous to the kilt worn in Scotland....

 worn under it. The strings can be short as a mini skirt, or down to the ankles, but down to somewhat above the knees is most common.

Related to the kiekie is the sisi, where the strings are sī

Ti (plant)

Cordyline fruticosa is an evergreen flowering plant in the Asparagus family, Asparagaceae, known by a wide variety of common names including Cabbage Palm, Good Luck Plant, Palm Lily, Ti Plant, Kī, La'i , Tī Pore , Sī , "Lauti" , and Autī .Formerly treated in the families Agavaceae...

 leaves or plaited maile leaves, but where the waistband, full with sweet smelling flowers and fruits, is more important. Sisi are worn by both gender during dance performances.

Kiekie are part of the koloa, the handicraft goods made by the women. Every woman can do it, although nowadays we see that some women specialise in it and sell their products on the market.

Kiekie can be made from many different materials, both natural and introduced:

• strips of pandanus
  Pandanus
  Pandanus is a genus of monocots with about 600 known species. They are numerous palmlike dioecious trees and shrubs native of the Old World tropics and subtropics. They are classified in the order Pandanales, family Pandanaceae.-Overview:...
  
   leaves, often painted in bright colours. Either hanging loose, or plaited together. The salusalu is a long kiekie, especially for Haapai
  Ha'apai
  Haapai is a group of islands, islets, reefs and shoals in the central part of the Kingdom of Tonga, with the Tongatapu group to the south and the Vavau group to the north. Seventeen of the Haapai islands are populated....
  
  .
• strips of hibiscus
  Hibiscus
  Hibiscus is a genus of flowering plants in the mallow family, Malvaceae. It is quite large, containing several hundred species that are native to warm-temperate, subtropical and tropical regions throughout the world...
  
   bast fiber, called fau. Same as the pandanus leaves, but not as course and therefore suited for finer designs.
• kaka, de fibrous tissue which is wrapped around the growing fronds of palm
  Arecaceae
  Arecaceae or Palmae , are a family of flowering plants, the only family in the monocot order Arecales. There are roughly 202 currently known genera with around 2600 species, most of which are restricted to tropical, subtropical, and warm temperate climates...
  
   trees. It is usually varnished to make it stronger and then cut in all type of shapes.
• strings or ropes
• little disks (few centimeter diameter) made from coconut shell and strung together along their diameter.
• old VHS tapes.
• New Zealand flax
  New Zealand flax
  New Zealand flax describes common New Zealand perennial plants Phormium tenax and Phormium cookianum, known by the Māori names harakeke and wharariki respectively...
  
  , a Māori piupiu (see Pania
  Pania
  thumb|Statue of PaniaPania, often styled "Pania of the Reef", is a figure of Māori mythology, and a symbol of the New Zealand city of Napier. A statue of Pania on Napier's Marine Parade is a major local tourist attraction.-The legend of Pania of the Reef:...
  
  ).