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Weaving Possibilities: Wear with Intentions. Wear who you are. | Anya Lim | TEDxLahug


[Music]
you
[Music]
we have three basic needs food and water
shelter and clothing and the day I’m
gonna talk to you about clothing corn
Charlie – the moniker used to introduce
me I am no fashion – I’m a princess aunt
who values clothing and culture nowadays
it’s very easy for us to access loans
rent or buy clothes you look at your
Instagram account you follow what’s
trending
you have been dressed and you choose
your pants you find all the it girls are
wearing and then you rush to the mall
every give the Intel 30 and for the next
sale or like me you go through every
liable hoop a guy in your neighborhood
or the thrift store right but let me ask
you this question how many of you
actually ever thought of where your
clothes come from who made it how does
it mean where is it made of have you
ever actually thought and wondered about
these things as easy as it is for us to
actually access our own clothes now it
wasn’t the case for ancestors back in
the days they had the plant cotton
harvested they had to strip the fibers
off from a bar of the indigenous plants
available to them they had to gather
natural
to put color in their fabrics they meet
their own looms prepare the war
prepare the West and spend hours and
days on and weaving they made their own
fabrics they made their own clothes
isn’t it amazing and while they were out
there as if it’s not enough work already
they made sure that every fabric
actually became a canvas of the story of
their lives every bathroom every wheel
every color was symbolic of their
heritage
it was distinctive of their origin they
even considered it their second skin how
beautiful is that right there second
skin to actually wear something that
reflects your identity as a person it’s
really a labor of love no wonder it’s
called
heart women blonde now indulge me let me
ask you in this audience how many of you
here actually owns a wheel in their
closet can I see a raise of hands one
two three four five oh my god
six my mom will pass I was told that we
have 300 people in this audience and
only six people raised their hands
that’s really sad oh there’s another one
seven though the weeds are probably
familiar to us are those that we wear
and very very rare occasions the Pina or
the borrow when do we wear these
clothes when they are so wedding it when
it’s linked go on and become one of
Independence Month right
our verse when we required to wear
when in fact it’s not a costume it’s our
traditional wear our verse is when we
see a dead man inside a coffin wearing a
burro or sometimes in her household we
see table runners bed covers blankets
placemats and whatnot and who would want
to be a walking table runner right no
one so why do I even bother why am I so
passionate about our heart woman north
and our culture so all most of you grew
up probably falling in love with this be
princesses my bedtime stories was about
eternity princess it was a classmate of
my mom and college and also the
characters of my textbook in early human
Lagoona I was so drawn and fascinated to
learn so much about the different ethnic
groups and the Philippines the ayahs the
manago’s the towel soaks the Maranao the
tobias how different they were and yet
they were one and the same they were all
Filipinos so much so that when my
parents brought me to the spilling
village in Bonn away my heart skipped a
beat I was walking through the village
and I was seeing weavers basket makers
men brass mething carving wood and
literally it felt like – Neyland all the
characters in my storybook came to life
I remember the moment so vividly I think
the words my mom held her hand and say
these are our people
it had such an impact on me as a child
that my brother and I went back five
years after in the same village and
sadly much to our dismay and our
surprise the entire village became a
ghost town no one was there anymore
and what was left of the weavers is this
skeleton you know in love they say you
don’t know what it’s worth until it’s
gone who birthright but that’s really
how I felt
bearing witness to a death of a culture
was also an oozing – Leland
it was also losing a part of my
childhood and I was really heartbroken
[Music]
fresh out of college I was looking for
my place under the Sun I was searching
for my identity I travel there not the
Philippines without desire to put the
pieces together of my Disneyland – the
puzzle so I can recreate it but in every
village should I visited the hard truths
remained the same the only Weaver slacks
were in their 60s 70s atheists
punished back barely weaving a yard a
day the young men and women in that
village in Vanara they opted to become
tour guides because they were lured by
instant cash by instant income young
people no longer found relevance and
learning this intergenerational craft
they would rather go to the cities and
seek for greener pastures we may went
beyond its rich
volume and became a source of livelihood
for women but you know that’s not the
case it doesn’t put food on the table
it’s not a sustainable source of income
why there’s no market demand for it
because no one is wearing it and we’re
not burning it because we think it’s
it’s see it’s too thick it’s too hot
it’s too traditional
x2 tribal is but doing it’s uncool why
am I going to wear it
we ourselves you undervalued our living
culture and what’s sad is that our own
beavers also undervalued their own skill
because some lack of appreciation
because we don’t value it enough
[Applause]
cultural degradation is a serious social
issue it has changed the dynamics of
family and village life it seems to
value systems it has disrupted learning
methods that weakened the sense of
identity of young people an identity
crisis of sorts there is a poverty of
identity in this generation and this
young generation that is largely
aspiring to live a westernized way of
life we are so consumed in colonial
mentality and and we are so disconnected
our own roots to who we really are
something had to be done it became very
personal to me and I get emotional
sometimes talking about it because like
my mother
some day I do want to be able to bring
my children
to a thriving weaving village to –
steela to my happy place I want them to
see beautiful wheels and other these are
our people
this is who we are I was so determined
to change the perceptions about her
heart within fabrics for me the Filipino
fabrics this beautiful fabrics are not
just meant to be pages and coffee table
books they’re not meant to just be
framed and the museum walls waiting for
you to gather dust while underneath
there’s a label that says do not touch
me how’s that possible culture must be
celebrated right fabrics are meant to be
woven with price and worn with pride I
wanted to prove that weaves can actually
be worn every day and with this vision
in mind within to the power of our
closets your closets partying spark the
movement of contemporary weave wearing
here we are
the obvious solution is that the
continuity of our culture lies and the
hands of the yarn
look around you that’s us that’s you
that’s me
through young designers talented
designers willing to pay chrous to use
our fabrics that are unknown to them we
are able to transform these weaves into
everyday wear imagine it’s one day every
Filipino I hope that when I come back
here all of you will raise your hand one
day all of you actually are able to wear
a weave every day and own a weave and
your Joseph how beautiful without he
right why is it an Indian for example
you go around and you see people wearing
saris in anymore
lawyers and even doctors where there
long ceased to work why can it be the
same in the Philippines why can’t we go
about our day to day errands go to work
go to church attend meetings and wear
wheels and not feel like we have been
warped in the 1800s
you know I think you probably won’t wear
something like this but you’ll probably
wear something like this right
what I’ll start the friends but they’re
all both hand women Here I am proudly
wearing a full moon and I don’t think
it’s bad or old-fashioned at all the
solution is to create a sustainable
business around the movement of slow
fashion having the young as front liners
playing an active meaningful and
purposeful rule in weaving an ecosystem
of change transforming cultural
degradation the cultural reclamation
through our closets so fashion is a
revolutionary approach that focuses and
fashion consumption and discussions
about its impact in the environment and
the people it is human and design
centered celebrating the past and the
balance of every artisan versus the
industrial wastes of mass production
mass consumption while compromising work
environment quality fair wage and the
carbon footprint in the environment slow
fashion is not knowledge thing the real
value of clothing clothes that really
matter you know this might be a novel
concept for you guys it might be hard to
understand so I’ll try to simplify it
fast fashion unlimited rice right slow
fashion your beloved our beloved who saw
everybody near pessoa it goes through a
very personable personal meaning
process it is honoring the story of who
is behind it the story of a tape Alina I
met at the Paolina the first time when
she just gave birth to a beautiful
assignment named Ann hello she quietly
invited me to her home she wanted to
show me her pride her doom and gloom
passed on to her by her great
grandmother she actually told me that
she was considering leaving the country
and going to Hong Kong to become a
domestic helper she said it will help
for Angela’s future but at the same time
she couldn’t also for it believe envelo
because he was a newborn I was so much
in all and in tears when I saw how she
died the Tama where I’m hello was
sleeping connected it to her new so that
as the steps on the loom she’s able to
cradle her child to sleep that was
really very powerful for me she said I
may be a weaver but I am a mother first
I am a mother first now I’m seven years
old and happy Paulina did not have to
leave the country to become a domestic
helper in fact at the Paulina is one of
her master beavers under her are young
apprentices learning to learn how to be
you she is one of those six Weaver’s
that grew our community to fifty
Weaver’s were half of them are actually
very young but it’s not only the likes
of at the Paulina the our culture
Alliance slow fashion we use under
connected relationships within an
ecosystem that insurance
stainable supply-chain without our
talented young designers the woman
taught will die without our seamstresses
tailors jazz makers shoemakers bat
makers which by the way is also a dying
industry in itself our heart women cloth
will die without but most especially
without our proud we where’s you guys
our heart women gone will die and it
must not die the continuity of our
weaving culture will live on and be
shared in communities and villages only
as the artisans are given the right
incentives and proper income preserving
our culture will only happen if we are
able to end the great tradition in our
curriculums and provide proper market
access we have to create sustainable
demand in order for us to be able to
provide enabling environment so we can
provide livelihood sustainable
livelihood to our communities our heart
woman fabrics tell us the story of our
lives our shared identity it connects us
it portrays our way of life
it is a tapestry of whom we are not
where we used to feel good our weavers
don’t need your pity branches wear it
because it reflects who you are it
matches your lifestyle
wheels are very very integral in our
culture one of our proudly wearers Louie
she’s a Filipino American and she came
to the Philippines last year she came
back to the she came back already to the
US and she posted a recent Instagram
photo while she’s proudly wearing a
weave and she wrote the poem and it was
very powerful she said she came back to
the US with a higher sense of pride for
her roots and she saw the country a
different life away from all these
things that they have narratives about
the Philippines the poem the line of the
poem read I wear the never free gift
I wear the never forget I wear my tribe
with pride because someday I’m gonna be
a mother too and I want to be able to
just my children and beautiful Filipino
we use again one day I want to be able
to bring them to thriving villages
weaving villages – Ilan my happy place
and all the these are our people
this is who we are know who made your
clothes how is it made where is it made
and what is it made of honoring the
connection and where with invention
thank you very much
[Applause]
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