The Barong Tagalog, the national dress of the Philippines, is primarily made out of pina fiber, giving it a transparent appearance. This along with its untucked nature has spawned many myths about its origins and its history, the main one being it was worn a certain way because the Spanish forced the native Indios to wear the shirt untucked and transparent so as to not hide a weapon.
The truth has a lot more to do with the climate and local culture than a Spanish colonial law that has never existed.
- Tipos de pais paintings by Jose Honorato in the 1840s depict everyday Filipino fashions. The two people in these examples belong to a wealthier class.
Pina fiber is a very difficult material to work with. With the introduction of pineapples from the Americas as a result of trade, pina fiber began production in the Philippines. This fiber would be used to make the highly elaborate Barong Tagalog that was worn by the wealthy and upper classes in society.
The transparent and lightweight nature was a perfect fit for the tropical climate of the Philippines, so it quickly caught on with the locals. Wealthier members of society would wear very elaborate Barong Tagalog. In the 1820s, the mahabang barong was the style, where very long baro would be worn to show off the intricate designs of the dress.
In traditional settings across Asia, traditional clothing has always been untucked. This is in contrast to the Western style of dress that tucking in shirts was commonplace. The way the Barong Tagalog is worn is no different from how the kurta in India, or the baju melayu in Malaysia would be worn, often untucked.
- Kurta in Indian dress.
- Page 173 of this academic article explains the untucked nature and similarity to the Indian kurta in further detail, dispelling the myth that Spanish colonizers forced the Barong Tagalogs way of dress on the natives.
Further study of colonial laws, written in Spanish may shed light into whether there were really sumptuary decrees. Clothing prescriptions, not impositions, found its way in the moral novels written by Spanish priests, the likes of Fr. Modesto de Castro (1864) and Fr. Miguel Lucio y Bustamante (1885); however, it is unlikely that there were any legal consequences for wearing tucked shirts and clothes that crossed racial boundaries.452 Besides, an indio and mestizo population, which was increasingly becoming affluent --and influential- - traversed these boundaries, contributing to shifts in hierarchies previously based on race to hierarchies based on a combination of factors, including class, education, race, talents, social networks, etc.
Transparent clothing is not limited to the Barong Tagalog. In fact, it’s common throughout Southeast Asia.
- Av Pak in Cambodia.
- Sheer kebaya worn by Javanese in Indonesia.
