In a world awash in a global trade of industrially produced cottons and synthetic fabrics, it is easy to forget that all of the cloth needed in any community once had to be woven by hand and that much of it was made from bast (fibers found in plant stems) or leaf fibers. Material Choices features an unusual array of garments and other items made of these challenging fibers, exploring their significant use in the Pacific region where many bast and leaf fiber weaving traditions nearly became extinct in the mid-20th century but have now undergone a revival.