The word "Filipiniana" often evokes images of women giggling demurely behind their delicate paynetas, of men and their slicked-back hair talking amongst themselves over cerveza, of the banquet waiting for all of them in the comedor.
We've come a long way from those days of Love in the Time of Traditional Dress, but Filipiniana wear is not just a matter of nostalgia: it's also about supporting indigenous fabrics, local producers and homegrown designers-it's a pista, then, of beauty and elegance; a piging of memory. In time for National Heroes Day next week, we wax nationalistic about local fashion hubs that house the best baro’t sayas, barongs, traje de mestizas and more.
Photos by Apo Española (Three J's Luisita, Barong Pilipino and Silk Cocoon), and from Facebook (Kultura c/o Nuevo Mundo, Dita Sandico-Ong and Tygie), and by SPOT.ph (Rustan’s, Landmark). Art by Warren Espejo