Filipino Costumes

Sunday, August 24, 2008

Filipino Costumes

Male Filipino Costume

Un Yndio Natural



female Philippines costume

Una Joven, Mestiza



male guard uniform - the Philippines

A guardia de Vino
(an officer to look after the government monopolies, such as arrack and tobacco)



female Filipino costume with veil

A Damsel Going to Early Mass




male costume from Manilla

A Manila man




female attire from the Philippines

Una Yndia Natural, de Filipina



male wearing Philippines national costume: Barong Tagalog

Un Mestizo Chino



female costume Philippines

A señorita walking to church in the daytime



national costumes of the Philippines

A Spanish Mestiza of Manila



Filipino female costume

A country girl



Filipino costume - old woman

An Old Woman



Rich mestizo wearing Barong Tagalog

Rich mestizo



traditional costume of a Mandaya Woman

A Mandaya Woman

"Note the silver "patina" on her breast, and the load of armlets. The Mandaya women blacken their front teeth by holding a quid of tobacco and strongly acidic leaves between teeth and lips."
[IN: 'The non-Christian peoples of the Philippine Islands' by DC Worcester, 1913, among the Cornell University South East Asia Visions Collection]



engraving of Filipino costumes
Costumes des Habitans de Manille

[IN: 'Atlas du Voyage de la Perouse, no. 42', 1797 by Jean-Francois de Galaup, Comte de La Perouse. Drawing by JM Moreau; engraved by P Triere. [source]


All the images above (apart from the last two) come from a watercolour album from about 1841, online at NYPL. (there are a few more there I've not posted) The first half of the pictures above are displayed at full size. All of the NYPL images have been extensively background cleaned.

Incidentally, a few of the men are wearing the national male costume of the Philippines: Barong Tagalog (the female counterpart is called Baro't saya {Barbie or anime(!)})

Further Filipino costume illustrations: Skyscraper city forum and The Impact of Spanish Rule in the Philippines from the Tagalog language and cultural resources site at the University of Northern Illinois.

It's obviously an old site, but the People of the Philippines exhibition from the Museum of Anthropology at the California State University, East Bay, has some useful information, particularly about the distribution of ethnic groups across the Philippines.

I added costumes to the delicious tags recently.

Added later: See this article on the Boxer Codex (1595) that is said to depict the Tagalogs, Visayans, Zambals, Cagayanons and Negritos of the Philippines in vivid colors.

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