Unknown Maker, Philippine

The design of these abacá trousers—two leg tubes and a triangular gusset—is typical on the island of Mindanao in the southern Philippines. This region has long been home to Islamic communities, and this trouser shape likely derives from Middle Eastern influences. Piña cloth was traditionally woven on floor looms in the central Philippines, whereas the use of backstrap looms for abacá weaving has persisted in Indigenous communities in the southern Philippines. Like piña, abacá fibers are knotted together before weaving. You can see this in an image on the wall behind you.

Across Southeast Asia the words for trousers vary only slightly, all deriving from the Persian shalwa or the Turkish shalvar, and therefore pointing to an Islamic source for the garment’s introduction to the region. While women in other parts of the Islamic world wear trousers under layers of clothing, only the men wear sawal in Southeast Asia. Sawal generally have a straightforward silhouette that is typical of Middle Eastern tailoring: two tubes for legs are joined by a large gusset at the crotch. In the Mindanao example here, burnished abaca fiber from a wild banana plant provides a stiff and slick base for colorful embroidery characteristic of the area. The mostly geometric pattern includes an abstracted human figure that survives from the pre-Islamic symbolic repertoire. A regionally significant motif, the figure blends into the overall design and references ancient tradition, while the trouser form itself shows the more recent influences of Islam in the community.