I was searching for old photos of Manila last night to show my husband how our capital evolved to what it is now. I chanced upon this site called www.philippine-history.org – and my! what a treasure trove it is. My husband who is a history buff spent the rest of the night reading and familiarising with Philippine history. Now he knows how much Spanish and American influences we’ve had in our country. I was doing a bit of reading as well and found this old photo of Binondo church in Manila. If you look at the Filipinos, they are wearing what was then considered urban clothes.

The woman on the left is wearing a traditional Filipino blouse called camisa, a collarless blouse with bell-sleeves paired with a skirt called saya. The man on the right is wearing a white, collar-and-cuff-less long-sleeved shirt called camisa de chino, the clothes of the working class. The materials for both men’s and women’s clothing were often made from light materials, such as pina cloth, sinamay or cotton, which are very good for the tropical Philippine weather. If you’d look closer, there is a man on white coat and pants -  which were introduced by the Americans after their arrival in the country in 1898.