Hi, my name is Rachel, and I'm the owner of austinstylewatch.com street fashion site, and I'm also a fashion reporter, and today we're going to talk about how to wear a pareo. Now, pareos are also kind of synonymous with sarongs or saris. They're all pretty much the same. They're a wrap that's worn around the body, but there are subtle differences, and it's mostly cultural, in the way they're worn. Whereas, the sarong is usually worn around most of the torso, a pareo is traditionally worn more around the waist and more around the upper body; not so much a full kind of thing as a sarong or a sari is. The pareo comes from Tahiti, kind of the South Pacific. That's why you're going to find a lot of floral patterns on them, think very tropical, you'll see a lot of passionflowers. So, that's how you're going to see it in tribal looking pictures. That's generally how they're sold as well. So, pareos were wrapped around the body of tribal, kind of beach people so it was loose, it was comfortable, it was easy to take off to swim. That's why it makes em' great beach cover-ups. So, one of the first ways we're going to show is just very simple. We're going to wrap it around our back, bring the two parts to the front, and just tie it in a knot, very simple. And if you want to take that one up a notch you can take the ends, wrap em' once around one another, bring it up behind your neck. It gives kind of a beachy little dress, and it actually provides a little bit more coverage than you're going to have when you wrap it just like that. Another way that's kind of a trendier look and looks nice if you're going out after swimming; do the one shoulder look. Bring your pareo up here, tie it right at your shoulder, make sure you have your bust covered over here. And it gives it kind of almost a toga, but a little more evening look. You can wrap a belt around it if you want to cinch it in at the waist. And again, pareos are also just good for beach blankets, carrying things in it. You can wrap it up like a basket. And the last way I'm going to show you is how to wear it as a little jacket. We're just going to tie this right here, and just as though it were a halter top we're going to bring this hole back up behind our neck, and we have a nice little beach cover-up jacket. So, that's been how to wear your tropical Tahitian pareo.
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