Lonely Planet™ · Thorn Tree Forum · 2020 |

# Dress Codes Country forums / Pacific Islands & Papua New Guinea / Fiji
qltrmouse 00:06 UTC 02 Feb 2012 | We have booked a dive trip for the end of March and understand that we cannot wear sunglasses or hats. Is this for both men and women. Can anyone explain the reasoning for this? Our glasses darken with the sunshine and I don't have any others and I am basically blind without the glasses. Are women required to wear skirts when in the towns and villages, or are capris OK as long as they are below the knees? What are the requirements for men? Are there anyother dress requirements we need to know about? It is not a problem with complying, but I just want to be clear on when and where the dress code is expected. Thank you. |
childchi 07:57 UTC 02 Feb 2012 | You can wear sunglasses and hat. Just take it off when entering a house, which most people do anyway. Women can wear shorts or skirts in towns. In villages it is respectful to wear a dress or skirt or a (sulu) warp around.I live in shorts, but always have a sulu in my bag when I go into villages and just wrap it around my shorts when I go in and take it off when I leave. Men can wear shorts. If you do not comply with the dress code, nothing will be done about it, its just disrespectful. Of course lot of tourist are uninformed. You are now informed. Enjoy. | 1
ozziegiraffe 12:01 UTC 02 Feb 2012 | I am interested in the glasses thing. I too wear glasses which darken in the sun, and take a short time to adjust when going indoors. However, i would not want to take them off. I have lived for some time in Solomon Islands, and never noticed this as a custom there (and some of my friends there are Fijian) although I did not wear the glasses when i lived there. | 2
watsoff 17:49 UTC 02 Feb 2012 | I was under the impression that sun glasses and hats, if worn when going into a Fijian village, are considered to be disrespectful to the village headman. I've was asked to remove mine, on one village trip, but as I also wear transition glasses it was a bit problematic. My eyes are also super-sensitive to the sun. Took them off in a bure until they lightened up. I never wear hats so was okay on that one. But when I visit friends in their villages the rule doesn't seem to apply, probably would only if I was introduced to the headman. My son was given a sulu to cover his shorts when he went to stay in a village, with a friend, as a visit to the headman was obligatory in this case because they did not go in as 'tourists'. So his covering up was obligatory as well. No. 1 is right by saying nothing will be done, though, but I doubt anyone wants to be considered disrespectful. | 3
ozziegiraffe 12:48 UTC 03 Feb 2012 | I'n not really a hat wearer either. The only part of me that tends to burn is my nose. However, I am a regular donater of sunglasses to people in Solomon islands villages, especially the ones who drive me around in boats. There is a high incidence of pterygium there. Maybe someone should educate Fijian chiefs about skin cancer and eye conditions? | 4
childchi 01:43 UTC 04 Feb 2012 | Ozziegraffe. - As I mention earlier, you can wear hats and sunglasses in the villges. However it is polite to take them off when you are in a home.(any home be it mine or yours) This is a British custom. , Maybe the Fijians were influnced by the British. Nice to hear that you are helping the Solomon Islanders. | 5
ozziegiraffe 12:01 UTC 04 Feb 2012 | I think it must be a colonial hangover ("Mad dogs and Englishmen"). I have heard from other posters here that you have to take them off entering a village. | 6
watsoff 17:26 UTC 04 Feb 2012 | I also was required to wear a sulu/sarong when walking through my friend's village in the interior of Fiji. But the hat/sunglasses thing wasn't an issue there. In any case, I don't wear sunglasses in a house anywhere. | 7
thurstonhowell4th 09:09 UTC 07 Apr 2012 | Hats and sunnies are what they where themselves, but if in doubt just ask. In the very few times you are in an actual village they prefer a tiny little more formality but if the eye wear is for health not pride you are more than welcome to wear them. On the beach or in a resort glasses and hats are worn by everyone. | 8