People Asia: Finding space for the baro’t saya in the modern Filipino woman’s wardrobe
April 18, 2018
We know it today as the Maria Clara, the three-piece Filipino attire for women consisting of a loose skirt and diaphanous top usually made of cotton or piña with matching embroidered accessory known as the panuelo, but it was simply called baro’t saya by our ancestors during the Spanish colonial period.
No one exactly knows how it came to be known as the Maria Clara, but designer Jojie Lloren, quoting costume and production designer Gino Gonzales during a recent talk he gave to aspiring fashion designers, says that it’s just the dress’ “nickname” inspired most likely by one of the most famous characters in Jose Rizal’s Noli Me Tangere: the lovely but ill-fated Maria Clara.
Not to be confused with the terno, the other Filipiniana attire with iconic butterfly sleeves that became associated with former First Lady Imelda Marcos, the baro’t saya will be the inspiration behind Balik Saya, a fashion design competition hatched by Rep. Cristal Bagatsing of Manila’s fifth district in the hopes of updating, modernizing and perhaps making the Maria Clara more relevant to today’s generation of Filipino women.
Read full article here: http://peopleasia.ph/?p=10444
Other Press Articles
Get Started
Get creative and learn from the leading mentors in the Philippine Fashion industry and
related arts. Sign up now! Enrollment is ongoing.