o record exists of the first appearance of a distinct native costume in the Philippines.  But it is wonderful to speculate on what were worn, perhaps 25,00 years ago, by the peoples from Asia who crossed land bridges to the archipelago and settled in the islands.

These original settlers must have worn some form of bodily covering complementing the constant movement demanded by their hunting and gathering cultures 

The archipelago was peopled in the immemorial past from continental Asia.  Gradual movements through land bridges connecting Taiwan with Luzon, and Borneo to Palawan, brought in tiny bands of people who adapt superbly to the area’s warm tropical conditions.

            About ten thousand years ago, the waters of the surrounding seas rose, preventing migration on foot.  But many indigenous societies perfected boat-building technologies, and evolved great seafaring cultures that were to continue to populate not only the Philippines, but also Indonesia, and eventually, the islands of the vast Pacific Ocean.

These lithe, brown-skinned peoples are now collectively known as Austronesian, and their common language is spoken – with hundreds of variations – from Madagascar near Africa, to Easter Island near South America.

            By the first half of the millennium after Christ, the populations in the Philippines – some of whom already knew to cultivate rice, create superb pottery and weave textiles – were probably settled in more or less the same location where they were found by the Europeans.