The Cool Face of Lace

Many of our memories of lace are at church ceremonies: Our christening attire, our mothers' veils for Mass, our sisters walking down the aisle, our mothers' widow's weeds.

- RICKY TOLEDO & CHITO VIJANDRE

Very serious, if not profoundly solemn. But lace was fun, too: The lace minis of the '60s from Aureo Alonzo, picking up from Mary Quant and Biba in London; and lace shirts for clubbing from Ernest Santiago.

Lace never really went away, though they have had a tendency to come out in stuffy iterations. But recent runways have resurrected them in the unlikeliest colors, cuts, and combinations that have made them cool again.

With our weaving and handcrafting heritage, it was natural to lean into lace. During the Spanish colonial era, lacemaking and embroidery were introduced in church schools and found their way to local fashion's traje de mestiza. During the American period, the craft was promoted in public schools as a practical skill and source of income.

A notable type introduced was bobbin lace, which the Belgian nuns of the Immaculate Heart of Mary (ICM) brought to Sta. Barbara, Iloilo, and Tagudin, Ilocos Sur.

This lace was made into collars, napkins, and trims. Bobbin lace edgings in abaca from Capiz, dating from 1910, have been spotted at the Smithsonian.

Open woven fabrics and fine nets with a lace-like effect have been around for centuries before the establishment of the great European lace houses. Early references to lace refer to ties, as this was the primary meaning of the word until well into the 17th century.