Fish Skin Coat from the Amur River

Along the lower reaches of the Amur River, in Eastern Siberia, where the water empties into the Pacific Ocean, the indigenous Nivkh, Ulch and Nanai peo- ples dressed themselves with fish skin coats made with the skin of the chum salmon. Until the beginning of the twentieth century, these indigenous peoples lived entirely from fishing and hunting. Salmon was an essential part of their world view, providing them with food and clothing for centuries. Living at a crossroads in East Asia, these groups have always interacted with each other and with the Chinese, Manchu, Koreans, Japanese and Russians. Imagination, resourcefulness, and materials have flowed in and out of their homeland for thousands of years.These Amur groups have distinctive identities.yet centuries of sharing materials have led to similar material cultures, belief systems and rituals.

This paper looks at a Nivkh coat from the lower Amur River in Eastern Siberia acquired by the V&A Museum in 1905 and compares it to a John Galliano fish skin parka from the Autumn/Winter 2002 collection.The paper draws on the design practice that I instigated developing fish leather garments whilst working as head of the design studio at John Galliano.The paper reflects on the use of fish skin by Indigenous Arctic peoples, which has, since the late 1990s, been assimilated as an innovative sustainable material for fashion, due to its low environmental impact. Moreover, it reflects on the anthropological fashion journey on which I have embarked to understand processes of social, cultural and historical transformation through the study of fish skin practices in the Arctic.