How it began
Piña cloth originated in the Philippines. The pineapple itself was introduced by the Spanish in about 1565. According to the University of Michigan Museum of Anthropological Archaeology, Filipino fabric makers then adapted to pineapple leaves the methods they already used for abaca fiber, a tradition indigenous to the islands. The museum describes piña garments as belonging to a tradition spanning nearly 400 years. No individual originator is recorded.
How it works
Farmers harvest the leaves of a specific pineapple known as pinya Bisaya and extract the fibers by hand. The usual method is scraping: the pulp of a split leaf is scraped away to expose a coarse fiber and then a fine fiber, which is the one used for piña. The strands are separated with a fine-toothed comb, washed, dried and joined end to end into a continuous filament, then woven on a handloom. A French visitor, Jean Mallat, wrote that the thread was so delicate that workers sat under a mosquito net because moving air could break it.
Who pushed back
By the mid-1800s piña began to fall out of favor as Western fashion came into style, and by the early 1900s production had dwindled to practically nothing. Philippine designers revived the practice in the 1980s as a symbol of national identity, and the museum describes a renaissance of traditional methods and styles.
What changed first
Because the work is laborious and slow, piña was always expensive, and it became tied to wealth and status. Pieces were elaborately embroidered and kept by families for grand occasions. The blouse, skirt, kerchief and overskirt of the Maria Clara gown were traditionally made of piña. Trade records from Manila do not show it as a major export, but museum documentation indicates it was a common souvenir for American travelers in the 19th century.
Where it stands today
Piña is now produced mainly in Kalibo, in the province of Aklan. In 2023 UNESCO inscribed Aklan piña handloom weaving on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. UNESCO notes that the skills pass mainly within families and through Schools of Living Traditions set up by communities with the government, and that the fibers are weighed with a local method that uses old coins.
