服飾不但是穿戴在表面的身體遮蔽物，更可以透過其形式、紋樣和色彩，展現性別、年齡、階級和族群等差異，以及物質技術和時尚變遷。在貿易棉布開始大量輸入臺灣之前，臺灣各族群主要是以自織的苧麻布製作衣服；運用各種植物、貝珠、玻璃珠、瑪瑙珠等作為飾物。

自17世紀起，臺灣經歷了多重的外來殖民和現代化衝擊。原住民的社會生活也逐漸受到影響而變化。由於可以說明過去臺灣服飾文化現象的物質留存非常稀少，因此保存在海外博物館的一些早期原住民服飾織品，無疑是解讀過去裝飾特性、相關社會情境、時代變遷和對外互動軌跡的難得資料。透過這些文物資料，我們可以一窺早期臺灣原住民華麗的身體裝飾風格和精巧的織布工藝。

 

Although clothes are primarily intended to protect the human body, these inevitably represent gender, age, class, and ethnic variations, as well as the transformation of techniques or fashions by distinctive forms, patterns, colors, and styles. Prior to the importation of a huge volume of cotton cloths by foreign traders 400 years ago, Taiwanese clothes were mainly made of self-produced woven ramie cloths. Ornaments were mainly created from plants, animal bones, shells, or precious traded beads.

The Taiwanese indigenous people have repeatedly experienced the effects of waves of external colonization and modernization since the 17th century. Indigenous lifestyles and cultures have been influenced and transformed. Consequently, limited material evidence of the early clothing traditions of Taiwan has remained. These rare Taiwanese indigenous clothes and textiles collected and preserved in overseas museums are precious materials that interpret the characteristics of cultural traditions, social transformations, and historical interactions in Taiwan. From these precious material traces, the colorful body decoration style and the delicate craftsmanship of Taiwanese indigenous peoples in the past are depicted.