Why are Filipino men afraid of skirts?

The new-age guru of the ’70s, Alan Watts, said that the most comfortable men’s garment in the world was the Philippine salwal. He was referring to a very loose pair of pants, gathered around the waist. It is cut so generously that when you wear it, you look like you are wearing a skirt. I think Watts’ criteria involved the fact that salwals were free-flowing as well as roomy and yet one could still chase a bus while wearing them.

Once, while I was in the market of Jolo, I decided to buy some salwals. I ended up with a number in bright colors but always with that characteristic white band around the waist. I later found the same cut among the pants of the men in Laos.

My Jolo salwals were truly comfortable. They were perfect for sleeping, for lounging around. I began to think of wearing them more often – and outside the house, too.

When I asked my friends about this, they all disagreed violently. Their objection boiled down to one thing: I would look like I was wearing a skirt! I guess in the Philippines, men are supposed to chase skirts – not wear them.

Now, this raises an interesting point. Why are Filipino men so afraid of skirts? All over the world, there are macho men who wear skirts: The Greeks and the Scots, for instance. More important, in Asia, we are probably one of the few large countries where the men don’t go out in a skirt-like garment. The men of the Middle East, the older Chinese generation, the Indians, the Burmese, the Vietnamese, and the Indonesians – they still wear skirts as part of their traditional and even everyday garb.

Skirts have several advantages. They are cool. That’s obvious. They are forgiving. One’s waist can grow but wraparound, tucked in skirts will, well, wrap around. And skirts have the added advantage of allowing you to be creative with fabric. If one looks at old prints of the 19th century, one sees that Filipino men wore malong-like pants with their embroidered shirts. And the colors and patterns were so rich!

Even in the Basi Revolt paintings by Esteban Villanueva, a 19th-century painter from Vigan, we see that the men are wearing biggy skirt-like pants embellished with fancy embroidery.

Why did we lose this heritage of comfort and creativity?

Perhaps it’s because of our exposure to American education. America was the land of the Wild West. There were strict requirements for what made up the male image, and skirts were certainly out of the picture.

In this post-modern, post-colonial world, it’s time we explored colorful and comfortable alternatives. Remember colorful malong skirts go wonderfully with barongs. Note that embroidered shirts are now in. But we have always been wearing embroidered shirts – that’s really what barongs are. Why wait until the West affirms our own traditional fashions before we embrace them ourselves?

Let’s stop skirting the issue!