UNCOMMON THREADS
GLORIETTA, A MALL IN MANILA’S chic Makati district, is bustling with Saturday shoppers. But on this October weekend, there’s an unfamiliar buzz inside one of the central courtyards. Here, visitors are excitedly picking through stalls for products they won’t easily find elsewhere: vivid hand-woven textiles and dress collections, ikat-embellished handbags and ethnic-inspired shawls, soft Philippine cotton cushions and bedspreads. This is the Likhang HABI Market Fair, which promotes locally made products and materials from across the Philippines.
HABI is part of a burgeoning fashion movement that aims to revive the textile traditions of the Philippines’ numerous indigenous communities. Drawing inspiration from these tribal groups and collaborating with their artisans, a cohort of Filipino designers are using the age-old crafts of handloom weaving, embroidery, and needlework to make 21st-century collections of sustainable, highly collectible clothing and homewares.
They have a rich heritage to draw on. Weaving patterns and techniques vary considerably across the country: in the misty Cordilleras of northern Luzon, different mountain tribes each produce their own textiles, such as the checked weaves of the Kalinga and the ikat and , which are derived from pineapple and banana plants, respectively.
