Slow Fashion Artisans
Client: Canva Philippines
Brief: A collection of photos promoting the slow fashion movement through portraits of artisans, craftsmen, their products, and their process.
Natural light. Ringing noise of hammers. The rich and earthy smell of leather. The place is packed to the brim with different patterns, shoe materials (abaca, waterlilies, yakan and more), all made by hand by our Filipino craftsmen in the 'tsinelas' capital of the Philippines: Liliw, Laguna.
Lala Ladies
Lucena Roasa, a weaver from “Lala Ladies” in Luisiana, Laguna. ‘Paglalala’ is a traditional form of weaving—it has been one of the main sources of livelihood in the province due to its huge supply of pandan leaves. They specialize in making bayongs, planters, hats, beach caps, bottle holders, and other products for @sewnsandals, a celebrated local business in the industry that also champions supporting many of our local weavers.
The process usually begins with 'pag-iilo', the manual back and forth pressing of the pandan leaves to soften them. They use a huge trunk of wood mounted in stone, and you can see them randomly on the long roads of Luisiana! Followed by the drying, pressing, coloring and folding of the products in Lala Ladies’ HQ. It’s a very relaxing process to watch, especially how quickly they can produce them in a day.
Personal shots excluded from Canva. I requested some of the Lala Ladies to pose with the favorite products they weaved.
Pag-iilo.
The manual back-and-forth pressing to soften the pandan leaves. It uses a huge trunk of wood mounted in stone.
