Philippine Display Doll: "Baro't Saya"
Philippine Display Doll: "Baro't Saya"

Philippine Display Doll: "Baro't Saya"

Collection: Everyday Connections


Country: Philippines
Continent: Asia
Geographic Region: Southeastern Asia
Materials: Fabric/Fiber, Piña, Wood
width: 3 in; height: 9.5 in; depth: 2.25 in

This doll is wearing the "baro't saya, a national dress of the Philippines. The baro't saya traditionally consists of a blouse and skirt, a kerchief for over the shoulders, and sometimes a short rectangular piece of fabric that resembles an apron. The blouse is usually made from piña, a fiber made from pineapple.

This doll is wearing the outfit of the subject of a painting by Juan Luna, "Una Mestiza."

See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baro't_saya#/media/File:Una_Mestiza_by_Juan_Luna.jpg

Unique to the Philippines, piña is made by weaving the fibers of the leaves of the pineapple plant. It is made into shirts, women’s blouses, shoulder scarfs, handkerchiefs, and table linens. Europeans introduced the pineapple to the Philippines from the Americas sometime in the sixteenth century. By the 1570s, local inhabitants began weaving piña fabric. Piña has long been treasured due to the laborious, time-consuming process of its production—extracting the pineapple plant fibers, washing and drying the fibers in the sun, patiently hand knotting three to four feet of fibers together to form thread, weaving threads into cloth on simple looms, and then embroidering the fabric.
Source:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baro't_saya#Etymology
https://www.sfomuseum.org/exhibitions/pineapple-pina-philippine-textile