Fine fibers culled from the leaves of the pineapple plant give this scarf length its gossamer appearance. Some believe the pineapple was introduced to the Philippines from the Americas in the 1500s by Spanish sailors working trade routes connecting Manila and Acapulco, Mexico. Already skilled at making textiles out of abaca, or banana-leaf fiber, Filipinos created luxury piña-cloth garments and textiles for a wealthy local clientele. Piña textiles were also exported across the world, sold as an alternative to lace. By the 17th century, Chinese and Indian immigrant artisans added new embroidery techniques and design motifs, seen in the exquisitely worked traditional Indian flowering tree motif that graces the central field.
Piña - (Spanish, Filipino) the Spanish word for pineapple in the Philippines, it is also became the name of the cloth made from leaf fibers of the red pineapple plant. The plant is mainly cultivated in the Visayas, and it may come directly from America or through the Portuguese who introduced it to India, Malacca and China during the sixteenth century (Crawfurd, 428; Medina, 1; Foreman 376.(Castro,70)
Source :
Castro, Sandra B. (2018).Textiles in the Philippine colonial landscape : a lexicon and historical survey. Quezon City : Ateneo de Manila University Press
Castro, Sandra B. " Nipis", Intramuros Administration. N.D. www.//archive.org/details/nipis-an-exhibition
Annotation: Piña textile was added for additional information by: Noel Jordan Racca
Courtesy of Rhode Island School of Design Museum, Providence RI
Rights
The images on this website can enable discovery and collaboration and support new scholarship, and we encourage their use. This object is in the public domain (CC0 1.0). This object is Scarf Length with the accession number of 14.403.
To request high-resolution files or new photography, please send an email to [email protected] and include your name and the object's accession number.
Type
Textiles, Embelishments, Embroidery, Weaving
Identifier
14.403
Origin
Philippines
Materials
MEDIUM Piña (pineapple-leaf fiber) plain weave with piña embroidery
Castro, Sandra B. (2018). Textiles in the Philippine colonial landscape : a lexicon and historical survey. Quezon City : Ateneo de Manila University Press Castro, Sandra B. " Nipis", Intramuros Administration. https://archive.org/details/nipis-an-exhibition
Gonzales, G., Higgins, M. L., Castro, S. B., Villegas, R. N., & Bitagcol, J. A. (2015). Fashionable Filipinas: An evolution of the Philippine national dress in photographs, 1860-1960.
Piña (Part 1) The Philippine Cloth of Pride, Endurance and Passion. Lacis Museum, Accessed 24 February 2022. https://youtu.be/1KRbZ59H8II
Piña (Part 2) The Philippine Cloth of Pride, Endurance and Passion. Lacis Museum, Accessed 24 February 2022. https://youtu.be/dRN9GY-gyX4
Acknowledgements
Contributed by Noel Jordan Racca
Courtesy of Rhode Island School of Design Museum, Providence RI
Sensitive Content Mapping Philippine Material Culture collates digital material from institutions, and some of this material is inherently colonial and contains words, terms and phrases that are inaccurate, derogatory and harmful towards Filipino and Filipino diasporic communities. Catalogue transcriptions, book titles, exhibition titles and museum titles may contain harmful terms. We recognise the potential for the material to cause physical and mental distress as well as evoke strong emotions. Owing to the scale of the collection’s data, a process to implement sensitive-content warnings in the displayed data is still incomplete. The material within the catalogue does not represent Mapping Philippine Material Culture’s views. Mapping Philippine Material Culture maintains a strong anti-colonial, anti-racist position and affirms its support for centring the humanity of historically marginalised and disenfranchised communities.
Share this Facebook Twitter