Spanish conquistadors under the rule of King Philip II captured the city of Maynilad (Manila) in 1571, ushering in 300 years of Spanish colonial rule in the Philippines. During this period, Catholic missionaries from Spain converted many Indigenous communities to Christianity.
Women in these communities typically wore long skirts with a collarless blouse lightly covered by a “pañuelo.” This delicate scarf was worn over the shoulders and neck, with the two longer ends of the triangular cloth meeting over the chest and fastened with a pin. The pañuelo provided shade from the sun and covered the translucent material of the blouse for modesty.
Soft, lustrous and light, the fibers used to create this pañuelo come from the leaves of pineapple (piña) plants, which Spanish colonizers introduced to the Philippines in the 16th century. Harvesting piña fibers is painstaking and involves manually scraping the leaves to expose the inner fibers. Once the fibers are removed, they are dried and knotted end to end to create a continuous thread for hand weaving.
Detail of pañuelo.
This pañuelo was inspired by 19th-century European fashions. Its resemblance to lace, the absence of strong color and the decorative motif of grape vines (which do not grow in the Philippines) are all distinctly European traits. Piña cloth in its natural color is elegant but understated. The elaborate embroidery and European decoration on this example would have conveyed the elite wearer’s wealth, status and Western sensibility.
