Mary Helen Fee, the Thomasite teacher, whose book about Her life in Capiz around 1900-1908 I got a hold of, describes the fashion of the "aristocratic" women of Capiz during that time.
Wow! I wonder where those pearls half as big as bird's eggs, with black lace mantillas fastened by jewelled birds and butterflies of emeralds, sapphires and diamonds are now. Wow!
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Capiz was a town of twenty-five thousand people rejoicing in many commodious and luxurious homes and a fine old church.
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...When the Filipinos win a fight or an election, or fall heirs to any particular luck, they do not
express their enthusiasm as we do in fire crackers, noise, and trades processions. They go
sedately to church and sing the Te Deum. And as we enjoy the theatre, not merely for the play,
but for the audience and its suggestions of a people who have put care behind them and have
met to exhibit their material prosperity in silks and jewels, so do the Filipinos enjoy the
splendor of the congregation on feast days. The women are robed as for balls in silken skirts of
every hue--azure, rose, apple-green, violet, and orange. Their filmy camisas and panuelos are
painted in sprays of blossoms or embroidered in silks and seed pearls. On their gold-columned
necks are diamond necklaces, and ropes of pearls half as big as bird's eggs; while the black
lace mantillas are fastened to their dusky heads by jewelled birds, and butterflies of emeralds,
sapphires, and diamonds."
XXX"
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