FABRIC: "Hablon"

                                  PHOTOS by: Anne Karmela E. Eucogco and Joy Lopez

      An annual project that was supported by the Department of Trade and Industry at Iloilo, Philippines together with their Provincial Government brought up this preservation of their own hand-loomed textiles named “HABLON.”

        Hablon is a silky fabric popularly woven by the Iloilo citizens. It is derived from the Hiligaynon word “habol”, meaning to weave and, therefore, refers both to the process and the finished products. “Sinamay” is another word used to identify the industry and is taken from the Hiligaynon term “samay”, which means to weave by hand. “Sinamay” products, naturally, are those that are hand-woven textile material swhich are expensive because of the long and tedious process.

       At 1880’s, as a result of Iloilo’s becoming a sugar centered industry in Western Visayas with its opening in the port of the international trade. The weaving industry lost its importance, also cheaper machine-made by the English as cotton a good centered market and competed heavily in the local textile materials resulting to decline of the Hablon industry. The production of Hablon is thought to be extinct and will be gone forever. Thanks to some designers that the use of Hablon seems to arise once more.