Narda Capuyan weaves a successful enterprise
April 12, 2004 | 12:00am
She has been called many things: the First Lady of Ikat, the Weaver of Dreams, even the Blanket Lady. Our woman of substance, Narda Capuyan, measures up to all these and more. My first impression of Narda – who was wearing a smart, wine-colored dress made from ikat – is that this lady practices what she preaches. Or more appropriately, she wears what she weaves.
Leonarda Olat Capuyan is the multi-awarded fabric exporter who brought the indigenous fabric of her mountain people to center stage, and caused worldwide awareness of it. For 30 years, she has passionately created and woven a collection of work that now graces a number of five-star hotels here and abroad; her bags, shawls, placemats and rugs are carried by boutiques and specialty shops in four continents. At the recently held World Eco-fiber and Textile Forum fashion show held in Malaysia, this petite firebrand of an entrepreneur stole the show with her beautiful dresses, shawls, ponchos, scarves made of hand-woven indigenous fabric, exquisitely trimmed with mountain crystals, lake stones, coconut beads, and even mink. Her innovative designs created a stir and were heartily applauded by a discriminating audience. Not bad after a 15-year absence from the limelight.
Narda epitomizes the modern Filipina: hardworking, decisive, family-centered and community-oriented. Her story, written about countless times, never ceases to inspire. The fact that she is considered a folk heroine of Bontoc province has made her an even more intriguing subject to write about.
As if gently unfolding one of her multicolored ikat cloths, Narda recounts effortlessly the story of her life. She is from Besao, a picturesque mountain village that is surrounded by stonewalled rice terraces that rise hundreds of feet to the sky. The fourth of seven daughters of Didaco Olat, a native Bontoc Episcopalian missionary teacher, and Ina Dam-ay, an unschooled hard-working woman, steeped in the traditions of the mountain tribe. It was her mother who taught her the age-old craft of hand-tying and dying thread and then weaving them into patterns with blurred edges. This was called ikat.
As a young housewife, Narda took on the job of family-planning lecturer to help address the unprecedented baby boom in that area. "Young Bontoc women were always pregnant," she says. "They had a lot of time in their hands. That’s why they were getting pregnant."
Her entry into the world of business began auspiciously. "One day," she continues, "while waiting for other young mothers to come in for my weekly family-planning lecture, I picked up my knitting needles and proceeded to finish a piece that I had started." Frustrated by her apparent unsuccessful efforts to curb population explosion in her area, she complained to a young mother who sat watching, "Is there nothing you women can do except make babies?"
The young woman’s answer surprised Narda. "If you will give me that ball of yarn, I will use it to weave. I know how. Maybe I will no longer get pregnant," she said. True to her word, she came back in a week’s time with a beautiful blanket in hand! Soon more and more Bontoc women made a beeline to Narda’s door to ask for yarn.
Thus began the weaving mania that solved the population explosion in La Trinidad. Entire families became involved. Children helped in winding the yarn. Women and even men wove on wooden, back-strap machines.
In 1973, her husband Wilson suggested launching the business known today as Narda’s Handwoven Arts & Crafts. He asked Narda to leave her family-planning activities and focus on the now-growing weaving efforts of Bontoc women. The continuous need for yarn needed constant capitalization for textile junk (used yarn) which Narda discovered was just being burned for fuel by factories. It was an unschooled aunt who put up her savings to finance Narda in purchasing a whole warehouse of recycled thread.
Soon, Narda’s small home began to burst at the seams with tons of yarn and with the bustle of women weaving furiously all day. Wilson’s gas station became the sole outlet for the colorful blankets, which sold like hot cakes at P12 each. Narda’s brand new, originally-designed, washable and affordable blankets were a big hit with the local people, who had for so long lived on secondhand "relief blankets." In no time, Narda’s products found their way to Baguio and even as far south as Mindanao.
With the business sense of seasoned entrepreneurs, the couple decided to use upright loom weaving. "Upright looms allowed weavers to work in a comfortable position and to produce continuous 72-inch stretches of cloth," Narda reveals. "The old traditional hammock-like, back-strap looms produced 22-inch panels which had to be sewn together to make blankets or wider bolts of cloth." Output rose because weavers were happy about the new, comfortable and artistically broadening new technology. Soon enough, Narda moved on from blankets to bedspreads, draperies and upholstery fabric.
Her first break came in 1974 when the Hyatt Terraces Hotel, then a new five-star hotel in the City of Pines, commissioned Narda to decorate its interiors with a Cordillera ambience. Soon, other hotels in Baguio such as the Pines Hotel and Hilltop Hotel followed suit, ordering thousands of yards of her native cloth to use in their upholstery, curtains, bedcovers and furnishings.
It was at this time when she was well into the weaving business that she met American weaver Ellen Schatsneider, who reintroduced her to ikat. Traditional ikat dyes (using roots, flowers and bark) proved unreliable in color-fastness and too muted in tone to attract buyers. Ellen and Narda tested new chemical textile dyes in strikingly bright colors and soft pastel hues. Excitement stirred in Narda’s blood. "I was bored with upholstery, bedcovers, etc. I wanted to do something to preserve our culture," she recalls. When Ellen went back to the USA, Narda pressed on with her private experiments. She was criticized by purist-weavers as being too wild in her choice of colors, and for straying from primitive traditional designs. Unfazed, Narda persevered.
Narda recognizes upscale Bloomingdale’s in New York as her first real big break. Having seen one of her ikat bags featured in the popular US magazine Women’s Wear Daily the posh store decided to centrally feature Narda’s products in an all-Philippine exhibition in 1982. Her collection, which took six months to produce, was sold out and popularized Narda’s one-of-a-kind shawls, bags, placemats and tapestries. "Native weaving craft and ikat makes waves," bannered a news article on that memorable show which traveled next to Washington DC.
Soon after, orders came from US stores like Neiman Marcus, Lord & Taylor, Marshall Field’s, JC Penney and Canada’s Hudson Bay for two million pieces a month. "I had 600 workers toiling day and night to finish the orders," she recounts. Other countries were not to be outdone. Invitations for Narda to showcase her products in Germany, France, Hong Kong, and Australia followed. Each one brought more fame to Narda’s ikat, which created an excitement wherever they were displayed and sold.
The world had discovered Narda.
The Philippines, however, did not lack in bestowing honors and awards to this dynamic entrepreneur. In ‘82, she was given by the Ministry of Trade the prestigious Golden Shell Award for excellence in exports and for reviving a dying indigenous art. In ‘89, President Corazon Aquino presented her the Countryside Investor Award. The same year, the Philippine Market Association recognized Narda’s "very forward and uncomplicated network open for the indigenous entrepreneur, propelling the Philippine export industry to better heights," and honored her with the Agora Awards for her outstanding achievement in export marketing. The PMA’s unforgettable tribute read: "Narda is to the Cordilleras as Kennon is to Baguio City."
But the demand for ikat eventually waned towards the 1990s. The July 16, 1990 killer earthquake, and the eruption of Mt. Pinatubo a year later, ushered a decade of business reversals for Narda’s industry. A supply glut of ikat products and Igorot crafts occurred. A downturn brought about by these twin natural calamities seemed to have affected the once-thriving business.
"I was devastated by the toppling of the Hyatt Terraces Hotel in 1990. My ikat tapestries decorated its walls. Its rooms were dressed with my bedspreads, upholstery, curtains," she remembers. "Many of the hotel staff who were trapped in the rubble were my friends," she shudders. Her husband Wilson, a civil engineer, who was commissioned to do renovation in the hotel the past year, joined the rescue team because he knew the ins and outs of the hotel.
"Baguio was like a ghost town," she looks back. "In the villages outside Baguio, there was no food because of massive landslides caused by the earthquake. Only helicopters could reach the villages." Narda went on radio and pleaded for help. People heeded her call. Manila folk adopted the City of Pines and sent four big vans filled with relief goods and rice. When certain politicians wanted to commandeer the huge relief and take credit for it, Narda chided them for their selfishness and conceit. "They were fighting at the airport over the goods," her voice becomes emotional. "They called me ‘Commander Narda,’ because I resisted them and fought for what was meant for my people."
What is her advice to women entrepreneurs like herself?
Narda says, "Do not be afraid to pioneer in something you truly believe in. Do not be discouraged when trials come your way."
What is the secret of her success?
"Innovation is a ‘must’ especially when one produces for the export market," she declares. "The attitude to take is to be the trendsetter. Always be the first!"
What does she value in life?
She declares, "Money was not the overwhelming force that propelled me into business. It was love for my villagers and the desire to uplift their quality of life." The Winaca Foundation, her social responsibility project, is committed to the "cultural well-being and economic development of the indigenous communities in the Cordilleras."
To keep her inner peace, she heads for their mountain retreat located in the quiet barangay of Acup in the town of Tublay, 11 kilometers up from Baguio City en route to Sagada. Here, she has a sanctuary in the mist, a log cabin built by non-architect husband Wilson that sits as the crown jewel of a 28-hectare property surrounded by towering pine trees. A 200-year old nipa hut that Narda transported from the old mission settlement of Sagada also holds court in the estate. Clearly, it is here where she gets her inspiration for her beautiful colors and designs that evoke poetic images of sunrises and sunsets, forests and trees.
Today, her workshops in La Trinidad, a valley town that is a short ride from Baguio City, continue to hum with activity. "There are new shows in Japan and Italy to be planned. There are new products to be created using organic dye."
It seems Narda Capuyan, dubbed one of the country’s most outstanding Filipinas, will never retire. She will continue with her great adventure and bring not just ikat and other indigenous fabrics but also Philippine silk, rustic furniture, Igorot crafts, as well as woven leather to the world.
You can e-mail me at myorosa@studio5designs.com.
Leonarda Olat Capuyan is the multi-awarded fabric exporter who brought the indigenous fabric of her mountain people to center stage, and caused worldwide awareness of it. For 30 years, she has passionately created and woven a collection of work that now graces a number of five-star hotels here and abroad; her bags, shawls, placemats and rugs are carried by boutiques and specialty shops in four continents. At the recently held World Eco-fiber and Textile Forum fashion show held in Malaysia, this petite firebrand of an entrepreneur stole the show with her beautiful dresses, shawls, ponchos, scarves made of hand-woven indigenous fabric, exquisitely trimmed with mountain crystals, lake stones, coconut beads, and even mink. Her innovative designs created a stir and were heartily applauded by a discriminating audience. Not bad after a 15-year absence from the limelight.
Narda epitomizes the modern Filipina: hardworking, decisive, family-centered and community-oriented. Her story, written about countless times, never ceases to inspire. The fact that she is considered a folk heroine of Bontoc province has made her an even more intriguing subject to write about.
As if gently unfolding one of her multicolored ikat cloths, Narda recounts effortlessly the story of her life. She is from Besao, a picturesque mountain village that is surrounded by stonewalled rice terraces that rise hundreds of feet to the sky. The fourth of seven daughters of Didaco Olat, a native Bontoc Episcopalian missionary teacher, and Ina Dam-ay, an unschooled hard-working woman, steeped in the traditions of the mountain tribe. It was her mother who taught her the age-old craft of hand-tying and dying thread and then weaving them into patterns with blurred edges. This was called ikat.
As a young housewife, Narda took on the job of family-planning lecturer to help address the unprecedented baby boom in that area. "Young Bontoc women were always pregnant," she says. "They had a lot of time in their hands. That’s why they were getting pregnant."
Her entry into the world of business began auspiciously. "One day," she continues, "while waiting for other young mothers to come in for my weekly family-planning lecture, I picked up my knitting needles and proceeded to finish a piece that I had started." Frustrated by her apparent unsuccessful efforts to curb population explosion in her area, she complained to a young mother who sat watching, "Is there nothing you women can do except make babies?"
The young woman’s answer surprised Narda. "If you will give me that ball of yarn, I will use it to weave. I know how. Maybe I will no longer get pregnant," she said. True to her word, she came back in a week’s time with a beautiful blanket in hand! Soon more and more Bontoc women made a beeline to Narda’s door to ask for yarn.
Thus began the weaving mania that solved the population explosion in La Trinidad. Entire families became involved. Children helped in winding the yarn. Women and even men wove on wooden, back-strap machines.
In 1973, her husband Wilson suggested launching the business known today as Narda’s Handwoven Arts & Crafts. He asked Narda to leave her family-planning activities and focus on the now-growing weaving efforts of Bontoc women. The continuous need for yarn needed constant capitalization for textile junk (used yarn) which Narda discovered was just being burned for fuel by factories. It was an unschooled aunt who put up her savings to finance Narda in purchasing a whole warehouse of recycled thread.
Soon, Narda’s small home began to burst at the seams with tons of yarn and with the bustle of women weaving furiously all day. Wilson’s gas station became the sole outlet for the colorful blankets, which sold like hot cakes at P12 each. Narda’s brand new, originally-designed, washable and affordable blankets were a big hit with the local people, who had for so long lived on secondhand "relief blankets." In no time, Narda’s products found their way to Baguio and even as far south as Mindanao.
With the business sense of seasoned entrepreneurs, the couple decided to use upright loom weaving. "Upright looms allowed weavers to work in a comfortable position and to produce continuous 72-inch stretches of cloth," Narda reveals. "The old traditional hammock-like, back-strap looms produced 22-inch panels which had to be sewn together to make blankets or wider bolts of cloth." Output rose because weavers were happy about the new, comfortable and artistically broadening new technology. Soon enough, Narda moved on from blankets to bedspreads, draperies and upholstery fabric.
Her first break came in 1974 when the Hyatt Terraces Hotel, then a new five-star hotel in the City of Pines, commissioned Narda to decorate its interiors with a Cordillera ambience. Soon, other hotels in Baguio such as the Pines Hotel and Hilltop Hotel followed suit, ordering thousands of yards of her native cloth to use in their upholstery, curtains, bedcovers and furnishings.
It was at this time when she was well into the weaving business that she met American weaver Ellen Schatsneider, who reintroduced her to ikat. Traditional ikat dyes (using roots, flowers and bark) proved unreliable in color-fastness and too muted in tone to attract buyers. Ellen and Narda tested new chemical textile dyes in strikingly bright colors and soft pastel hues. Excitement stirred in Narda’s blood. "I was bored with upholstery, bedcovers, etc. I wanted to do something to preserve our culture," she recalls. When Ellen went back to the USA, Narda pressed on with her private experiments. She was criticized by purist-weavers as being too wild in her choice of colors, and for straying from primitive traditional designs. Unfazed, Narda persevered.
Narda recognizes upscale Bloomingdale’s in New York as her first real big break. Having seen one of her ikat bags featured in the popular US magazine Women’s Wear Daily the posh store decided to centrally feature Narda’s products in an all-Philippine exhibition in 1982. Her collection, which took six months to produce, was sold out and popularized Narda’s one-of-a-kind shawls, bags, placemats and tapestries. "Native weaving craft and ikat makes waves," bannered a news article on that memorable show which traveled next to Washington DC.
Soon after, orders came from US stores like Neiman Marcus, Lord & Taylor, Marshall Field’s, JC Penney and Canada’s Hudson Bay for two million pieces a month. "I had 600 workers toiling day and night to finish the orders," she recounts. Other countries were not to be outdone. Invitations for Narda to showcase her products in Germany, France, Hong Kong, and Australia followed. Each one brought more fame to Narda’s ikat, which created an excitement wherever they were displayed and sold.
The world had discovered Narda.
The Philippines, however, did not lack in bestowing honors and awards to this dynamic entrepreneur. In ‘82, she was given by the Ministry of Trade the prestigious Golden Shell Award for excellence in exports and for reviving a dying indigenous art. In ‘89, President Corazon Aquino presented her the Countryside Investor Award. The same year, the Philippine Market Association recognized Narda’s "very forward and uncomplicated network open for the indigenous entrepreneur, propelling the Philippine export industry to better heights," and honored her with the Agora Awards for her outstanding achievement in export marketing. The PMA’s unforgettable tribute read: "Narda is to the Cordilleras as Kennon is to Baguio City."
But the demand for ikat eventually waned towards the 1990s. The July 16, 1990 killer earthquake, and the eruption of Mt. Pinatubo a year later, ushered a decade of business reversals for Narda’s industry. A supply glut of ikat products and Igorot crafts occurred. A downturn brought about by these twin natural calamities seemed to have affected the once-thriving business.
"I was devastated by the toppling of the Hyatt Terraces Hotel in 1990. My ikat tapestries decorated its walls. Its rooms were dressed with my bedspreads, upholstery, curtains," she remembers. "Many of the hotel staff who were trapped in the rubble were my friends," she shudders. Her husband Wilson, a civil engineer, who was commissioned to do renovation in the hotel the past year, joined the rescue team because he knew the ins and outs of the hotel.
"Baguio was like a ghost town," she looks back. "In the villages outside Baguio, there was no food because of massive landslides caused by the earthquake. Only helicopters could reach the villages." Narda went on radio and pleaded for help. People heeded her call. Manila folk adopted the City of Pines and sent four big vans filled with relief goods and rice. When certain politicians wanted to commandeer the huge relief and take credit for it, Narda chided them for their selfishness and conceit. "They were fighting at the airport over the goods," her voice becomes emotional. "They called me ‘Commander Narda,’ because I resisted them and fought for what was meant for my people."
What is her advice to women entrepreneurs like herself?
Narda says, "Do not be afraid to pioneer in something you truly believe in. Do not be discouraged when trials come your way."
What is the secret of her success?
"Innovation is a ‘must’ especially when one produces for the export market," she declares. "The attitude to take is to be the trendsetter. Always be the first!"
What does she value in life?
She declares, "Money was not the overwhelming force that propelled me into business. It was love for my villagers and the desire to uplift their quality of life." The Winaca Foundation, her social responsibility project, is committed to the "cultural well-being and economic development of the indigenous communities in the Cordilleras."
To keep her inner peace, she heads for their mountain retreat located in the quiet barangay of Acup in the town of Tublay, 11 kilometers up from Baguio City en route to Sagada. Here, she has a sanctuary in the mist, a log cabin built by non-architect husband Wilson that sits as the crown jewel of a 28-hectare property surrounded by towering pine trees. A 200-year old nipa hut that Narda transported from the old mission settlement of Sagada also holds court in the estate. Clearly, it is here where she gets her inspiration for her beautiful colors and designs that evoke poetic images of sunrises and sunsets, forests and trees.
Today, her workshops in La Trinidad, a valley town that is a short ride from Baguio City, continue to hum with activity. "There are new shows in Japan and Italy to be planned. There are new products to be created using organic dye."
It seems Narda Capuyan, dubbed one of the country’s most outstanding Filipinas, will never retire. She will continue with her great adventure and bring not just ikat and other indigenous fabrics but also Philippine silk, rustic furniture, Igorot crafts, as well as woven leather to the world.
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