The Philippine Islands consist of an archipelago of over 7000 islands lying about 500 miles off the southeast coast of Asia with a population of about 76.5 million. Most Filipinos are of Malay stock. Only about 7% of the islands are larger than one square mile and only a third of them have names.

The Portuguese navigator Ferdinand Magellan explored the Philippines in 1521 and 21 years later a Spanish exploration party named the islands in honour of Prince Philip who was later to become Philip II of Spain. Spain retained possession of the islands for the next 350 years with 80% of the population now being Catholic. The islands were ceded to the United States of America after the Spanish-American War, despite the declaration of Independence by the Filipinos under Emilio Aguinaldo. In 1902 peace was established, except among the Islamic Moros on the island of Mindanao. The Philippines finally achieved full independence in 1946 despite a troubled history and with ongoing attempts to form an independent Islamic State in Mindanao, where at present the Moro Islamic Liberation Front controls the area, 15% of the population of the country being Muslims.

Textiles have always been an important part of the various Philippine tribal cultures, but today modern westernised dress is worn almost everywhere and traditional costume is worn only by dance troupes or at cultural festivals. The Philippines are divided into 3 geographical areas: Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao, which are then subdivided several times. As there are about 11 languages with 87 dialects spoken in the Philippines, one can see that there are many different cultures throughout the islands and thus many variations in the traditional textiles to be found there.

Embroidery is an ancient craft which reached the Philippines through ancient Chinese and Indian connections before the arrival of the Spanish. It was said that Filipino women knew their worth by the way they pushed the needle and thread or sometimes fine wire, with their fingers and they were often lavishly praised for their work. Embroidery occupied much of the spare time of Filipino women becoming taught in all schools. Many women augmented the family income by doing embroidery professionally. Filipino women in mainly central Luzon and in the Visayan province of Iloilo embroidered with great flair.

In 1912, during the American period of rule, the School of Household Industries opened in Manila and the course in embroidery and lacemaking took from six to eight months to complete. The Americans also set up some forty embroidery factories in Manila, the main market being the United States, but also India, Australia and China. In these factories cloth was cut, stamped and prepared for the embroidery worker who did the work in her own home, returned it through an agent to the head office in Manila, where it was inspected, cut, sewn, laundered and exported. Garments made were chemises, night gowns, handkerchiefs and infants’ and children’s wear and bed covers. Today, the formal men’s wear of the Philippines is called Baro ng Tagalog, or simply Barong. These are beautiful formal shirts which are exquisitely embroidered. First the pattern to be used on the shirt is chalked on to the cloth. Then the cloth is stretched in a round or rectangular frame and then the hand embroidery begins. The embroidered cloth is very expensive as it is so time-consuming and labour-intensive. The designs used in the 19th century were European style floral patterns, stylized plants, leaves and stems on two coloured cloths of tiny checks or squares. When the Americans came to the Philippines, the motifs changed to pilgrim scenarios and the American Indian! Nowadays Philippine scenery such as the hut, the plough, rice fields, roosters, flora and fauna, folk dances and games as well as geometric embroidered designs, such as circles, squares and triangles appear. Designs on the Barong became all-over until the late 1970s when the embroidery became simplified, although Barongs for special occasions can still be very complicated.

In Lumban, a town in Laguna, Luzon a hand embroidery cottage industry thrives today, as it does in the town of Taal in Batangas. The women of Las Pinas and Paranaque in Rizal province still do hand-woven embroidery. When machine embroidery was introduced in the 1930s, most practitioners still preferred to embroider by hand and these embroideries now fetch fabulous sums. The orphans of Asilo de Molo still turn out beautifully embroidered garments and the embroiderers or bordadoras here range from five to fifteen years old! Some of the embroiderers of the neighbouring city of Bacolod in Negros Occidental were educated at Asilo de Molo and married or moved there as the area was wealthy because of the sugar trade. However, since the slump in the sugar industry, there is no longer employment for their skilled fingers.