Product Description

Antique Southern Philippines Trousers

Material: Abaca, beads
Style: Southern Philippines
Size: Height 58 cm, Width 42 cm (waist)
Order Number: MHSASPT1

The Bagobo people live on the south and east slopes of Mount Apo, the highest peak in the Philippines, down to the shore of the Davao Gulf in Mindanao. They concentrated their artistic creativity on clothes and personal adornment. They wore splendid garments during their ceremonies.

Their society was stratified into four segments:  chieftains or datu, head hunting warriors or magani, commoners and slaves. Clothing was closely related to status and special cloths were reserved for chieftains and warriors.

There are now about ten or twelve thousand of them. They are short and skinny, broad-headed, and with a light reddish-brown complexion. They practise agriculture, hunt and fish. Their main crop is rice.

Abaca is the extracted fiber from banana leaves. The finest grade of hemp from abaca stalks is stripped, pounded, combed and then prepared for dyeing.

Bagobo men’s trousers (saroar) are nearly all of a similar cut, but they are made from a variety of abaca fabrics. Sometimes it is plain, but more often stripes or checks. The added embroidery, appliqué and beadwork make every pair of trousers a unique work of art.

The large gusset in the crotch is typical of Middle Eastern tailoring and is an example of Islamic Mindanao dress.

There is an example of a very similar one in the Fowler Museum of Cultural History in From the Rainbow’s Varied Hue, Textiles of the Southern Philippines, edited by Roy W. Hamilton, UCLA Fowler Museum of Cultural History, 1998, page 22, but this one has more elaborate decoration.

Late 19th century.

Please ask for the price (or make an offer).