Pinoy Fashions 1900 to 1949.

When the People in america came to become the second country to colonize the islands, the fashion remained the same for the first five years of the 20th century, But it started to change and become more modern in contrast to the conservative style of the previous centuries as the Americans began to affect the modern Filipino culture.

The women now put on the ”’Traje de Mestiza”’, a lot more modern version of the Maria Clara. This now had bigger sleeves and a narrower floor length skirt with a long train called ya de cola replaced the full wide skirt exhibiting the Edwardian Fashion to the west.

By the 1920s, the style of the skirt still continued on however; the Butterfly  sleeves now replaced the “Angel Wings” sleeves and the big panuelo reduced it is size. Some Filipino ladies who had lived in the States and Europe put on the western 1920s fashions with loose dresses and knee length skirts.

The event of the 1930s came, the exposure of Filipinos to the western culture lead to the increasing of influence on young adults, teenagers and children’s clothing. Young women began to abandon the typical “Traje de Mestiza” and started to wear flowery printed dresses with mid-calf length shirts. Though many women embraced the traditional western ideals, the typical “Traje de Mestiza” wasn’t completely gone. The elders and middle aged women still wore the traditional dress, while the adults considered it as an recognized dress for events such as carnivals. In the 1930s , the Philippines was famous for its beauty pageants and carnivals that draw visitors from around the world, and translated into the influencing of fashion and beauty criteria for the Filipino women. The women wore more elaborate and intricate dresses. The ”’Traje de Mestiza”‘ is still popular with the people through the 1930s. Men’s fashions continued to be the same as they continued to wear the “Americana” suits.

When the 1940s came, the Philippines observed breaking out of World War II, resulting in the shortage of attention given to clothing shops, boutiques and dressmaking factories when the country was occupied by the Japanese Empire. The austerity era started when the rations were executed and the women put on more standard clothing. The ”terno” little by little disappeared and stopped being manufactured. Simply the older people wear their old ”terno” dresses. Clothing boutiques only sold monochromatic dresses, mostly in dark tones. The shirtwaist dresses of the earlier decade also became popular in the 1940s with a simpler look.

The Filipiniana/Terno gown, the modernized Terno de Mestiza rose to popularity as a formal attire during latter half of the 20th century.

As far as the boys were concerened,  ”Chinos” became popular as well as white t-shirts, and  paréo plaids. The drape lower suits remained popular as well. Formal attire remained important when attending family functions, going to church, funerals, and as always, graduation ceremonies. The 1960s would bring great change to Filipino fashions.