72 



MANILA DAILY BULLETIN 



The Philippine Embroidery Industry 



By LOUISE P. BROWN 



For many years the women of the Phil- 

 ippines have known how to embroider. It 

 was originally taught in the convents by the 

 sisters who came from Spain, Belgium! and 

 France _in the early days, and the native wo- 

 men, with their patience and dextrous fingers, 

 became experts in their workmanship. 



They embroidered intricate designs using 

 a great variety of stitches, and also various 

 patterns in the open-work known as "calado." 



In the early years, there was a trade es- 

 tablished by some of the native men, in 

 embroideries, selling their products only 

 in the Philippine Islands. They would pur- 

 chase cloth, draw a design by pencil and give 

 it out to the women to embroider, afterwards 

 peddling the product around the streets of 

 Manila, selling it for the best price they could 

 get. They dealt mostly in embroidered 

 blouses and dresses, the workmanship on 

 which was excellent although often the de- 

 signs would be crude. If the design was 

 good, it would be the material that was 

 wrong. 



However, there was quite an amount of 

 work completed and sold and a great many 

 women in provinces close to Manila made it 

 their daily work and trained their children 

 up into it. It was the combining of these 

 three essentials, correct materials, dainty and 

 attractive designs and good workmanship, 

 that started the embroidery industry as it 

 stands to-day. 



Considerable quantities of these blouses 

 and dresses had been purchased from the 

 peddlers and shipped to the United States, 

 but at that time embroidered blouses were 

 not the style. There were heavy losses as 

 a result, and it prejudiced the buyers in the 

 States against Philippine embroideries to 

 such an extent that it was difficult even to 

 show the samples of the newly organized 

 industry of embroidered hand-made lingerie. 



Lingerie being a mere staple article, not 

 so apt to be affected by the change of styles, 



was the opening wedge that brought the at- 

 tention of the buyers in the United States 

 to the industry of the Islands. The French, 

 who had always made the fine hand-made 

 lingerie, had the reputation, the undisputed 

 style and the entire market. There was a 

 big constant demand for lingerie and a big 

 future for the Philippine industry, if the 

 Philippines could produce articles equal to 

 the French. Correct materials were selected, 

 correct shapes and styles made to fit the 

 American women, and designs adapted that 

 would please them. This was the type of 

 merchandise that was first put on the Ameri- 

 can market. It was greatly admired and 

 highly commented on but there was a great 

 doubt that it. could actually be produced and 

 delivered, if it was ordered. 



The beginning of the industry was a real 

 struggle. Not only was the market made 

 and carefully developed in the United States, 

 but in the Philippine Islands it was neces- 

 sary to teach and train the natives to do the 

 style of embroidery used on lingerie; to teach 

 them to work in a systematic way and dev- 

 elope organizations that would make it 

 possible to manufacture lingerie in quanti- 

 ties. 



The majority of the work is done in the 

 homes, of the workers the same as in Europe. 

 The work is prepared in a factory and then 

 sent out to the country, embroidered and 

 returned to the factory, to be cut and made 

 up. There are thousands of women in the 

 Philippines scattered all over the islands 

 who are embroidering. In some parts they 

 are more proficient in some styles of work, 

 while other localities do certain stitches better 

 according to what has been customary among 

 their ancestors. 



As soon as the stores in the States realized 

 that their orders on Philippine hand-made 

 lingerie were delivered properly and the 

 American women who bought it found that 

 it was both correct in cut and suited to their 



A HOME INDUSTRY RAPIDLY DEVELOPING IN THE PHILIPPINES 



PHILIPPINE HAND EMBROIDERIES ARE UNEXCELLED 



taste, the industry started to grow, with the 

 result that the factories have been kept busy 

 keeping up with the increased demands. 



The French have never used as fine a grade 

 of material in their cheaper grade of lingerie 

 as the manufacturers in the Philippines also 

 the workmanship is of a different style. The 

 stitches on the Philippine product are fine, 

 the embroidery cotton finer than usually seen 

 in the French merchandise and the Filipinos 

 use a great deal of the open work, known as 

 "calado" in their patterns, giving a very 

 dainty lacey appearance. This "calado" 

 previously was only seen in the most expensive 

 French models. 



After the industry was started, the main 

 attention was given to producing hand-made 

 lingerie in quantities, and various factory 

 methods were adapted to facilitate this. This 

 eventually gave the American market a hand- 

 made garment at a very much less price than 

 it had ever had before. It was only the 

 wealthy class that could afford to wear the 

 hand-made lingerie ten years ago, but this 

 new Philippine lingerie was within the reach 

 of many others of small means. This creat- 

 ed an immense new buying public. 



Figures from the Bureau of Customs show 

 the growth in the export of embroidered 

 hand-made lingerie from a small beginning 

 in 1912 to a value of almost 4J millions in 

 1918. 



The war and the difficulty of getting the 

 French hand-made lingerie, has hastened the 

 recognition of the Philippine article, and the 

 industry is permanently established. Em- 

 broidery can be counted as a permanent ex- 

 port of the Philippines. 



The manufacturers are producing all arti- 

 cles of ladies and children's underwear and 

 all qualities from the most inexpensive to the 

 very elaborate with such wonderful work- 

 manship as only the old convents knew and 

 taught. They are also manufacturing in- 

 fants' dresses out of the finest materials, 

 children's frocks, handsomely embroidered 

 net robes, elaborate tea cloths, luncheon sets 

 and linens, in the Venitian cut work, Mosaic, 

 and darned in filet, having adopted this 

 style of embroidery from European patterns. 



The industry is just in its infancy, and a 

 great future is predicted for it. 



