The Filipiniana in the time of Covid

Former First Lady Imelda Marcos trend on Twitter the  other week  because she was mentioned in the Netflix series, “The crown. Mrs. Marcos’ s popularity or infamousness if you may not only stems from the fact that she was married to a dictator with a regime that spans from 1965 to 1986 and has been an eventful part of the Philippine History.  Imelda Marcos is a legend on her own. A lot has been written and stories alluded to her from music, plays , movies and what not  about her extravagant shopping sprees in New York, Rome and Copenhagen. Her extensive jewelry collection is worthy of a museum and of course her shoe collection. One more thing she is identified with is her “Filipiniana” get up , whatever the occasion . No one is more ubiquitously seen and identified with the traditional outfit than Imelda. She was extravagance personified but to some she was a fashion icon and she feels like a hero to the masses in her own right.

According to her interview with William Langley “

Perched on a Louis XIV sofa, beneath a gilt-framed Picasso, Imelda Marcos is explaining how tough the job used to be. “When I became First Lady, it was very demanding,” she says. “I had to dress up and make myself more beautiful because the poor are always looking for a star in the dark of the night.”

Googling the term Filipiniana can be confusing. Its real meaning can be hard to pin down, but its actual history does reveal several forms: the baro't saya, the terno, the Maria Clara, and the traje de mestiza. You could then say that Filipiniana is an umbrella term that spans different styles of Filipina dress.

I’ve worn the outfit myself on occasions growing up as a costume in some school occasions commemorating important National days, pageants or simple parties with it as the dress code. As an adult as I was part of a young entrepreneur organization such as Jci and we would have occasions such as benefit balls and inductions. 

The pandemic that has started early this year, has been an unprecedented time to say the least, however one of the silver lining to this is that small businesses thrives where the focus is supporting local businesses.   There is a resurgence of wearing Filipiniana with a modern twist. Wearing a blouse with a Terno sleeve with jeans or a coordinating blouse and shorts in Filipiniana material of local cloths such as hablon and some locally made or weaved  cloths  of some indigenous minorities mostly from Mindanao or Luzon. In my province Iloilo or Panay we have the hablon cloth, the sinamay and the Pinya ( pineapple cloth) . Face masks made of this materials sometimes also made to match the dress or top . Some artist and designers have encouraged the use of locally made clothes and coined it as Filipino Fashion Fridays. 

 No Doubt in Asia Filipinas are one of the most fashionable ,  in a different way  with the youth culture of Japan and the labels obsessed China or the k pop fashion of Korea and maybe at par . the Filipina I would say are the most well dressed and always put together. Imelda Marcos may have put Filipinas in the map for some outrageous reasons but yes she was an icon nonetheless, for wearing beautiful filipiniana long dresses that may be her aspiring quality of  maintaining her culture and expression . It is also her redeeming quality of probably showing modesty . But make no mistake behind this feminine demeanor she was also a force behind her husbands regime. 

The appreciation of the traditional Filipino garments and supporting locally made and sourced materials is a proof of the life cycle of fashion, that truly we have to always  go back to our roots.