Passion for Fashion

In the old days, clothes making was a domestic craft. Thus, in the 19^th century, the two most common occupational categories in parish registers were Labrador (Farmer) for men and tejedora (weaver, seamstress) for women.

In the early 1900s, Cebu saw the beginnings of a “fashion industry”. Local newspapers reflected this in advertisements for tailors, dressmakers, milliners, and hair stylists (which, by the 1930s, accounted for a portion of total advertising space).

Advertising was straightforward, no more than simple notices, as in the ads of such haberdashers as Daniel Gutierez’s Modern Fashion (Magallanes St.), Andres Salimbangon’s Royal manila-Cebu Fashion (Manalili) and Fidel Llanto’s Tahianan (Juan Luna corner Manalili).

Business grew in the 1930s as shown in the proliferation of “institutes” and “academies” offering courses in dressmaking, tailoring and “hair science.” By 1938, Cebu had such schools as Feliza Villamor’s Home Arts and Fashion Academy (Lapu-lapu st), V.P. Castillo’s Sartorial School of Men’s Institute of Hair Science Garment (D. Jakosalem), P.E. Isidoro’s Violet’s (Colon) and Victoria Morante’s Visayan School of Modified Hair Science and Beauty Parlor (Juan Luna cor. Manalili).

Their ads stressed their “science” and up-to-dateness, announcing that their proprietors were graduates of schools in Manila (like “Sartorial Academy of the Philippines” and Aguinaldo Institute of hair Science”) or even the United States (as in the case of a graduate of the “Sulivan College of Cosmetology” in Los Angeles.)

Tailors advertised their expertise in the methods of Metchell and London, and beauty parlors offered such hairstyles as croquinole, spiral, top hat, windblown, and coronet.

Source from Sun*Star Weekend