Philippines's piña fabric headlines San Francisco exhibit

MANILA, Philippines - The country's piña fabric was successfully introduced in San Francisco last September, through an exhibit called The Hinabi Project’s “Piña, The Enduring Philippine Fabric."

Held at the Educational Resource Room of the Asian Art Museum, the exhibit features the development of 300 years of piña fabric production from its early origins in the 1500s, to contemporary times. The exhibit includes an antique pañuelo, a christening gown and a flapper dress from the private collection of Jules Kliot.

Fashion designer and textile technologist Anthony Cruz Legarda showcased piña in evening wear, along with three panels of piña woven by master weavers and embroiderers from Aklan and Laguna provinces.

Also included in the display was a piña handkerchief embroidered with San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge, with a Philippine vinta in the foreground. Dyed piña samples were displayed, allowing museum-goers to touch the textiles.

The event also launched the San Francisco Philippine Tourism Office’s new product, a textile tour that would bring San Francisco-based textile enthusiasts around the Philippines for an immersive and buying tour that would support the weavers and embroiderers at the grassroots level.

Philippine American Writers and Actors, Inc., in partnership with the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, and in conjunction with the Philippine Consulate General and the Department of Tourism San Francisco Office made the exhibit possible.