Habi, the Philippine Textile Council, puts the spotlight on Filipino textile artisans who can showcase their creativity in revitalizing the traditional piña cloth through the Lourdes Montinola Piña Weaving Competition.

The contest is named after the Far Eastern University Chair Emeritus who wrote Piña, a formative book presenting pineapple cloth as a national treasure. This queen of Philippine fabrics, which is a naturally glossy ivory-white fiber extracted from the leaves of the tropical fruit, is often blended with cotton, abaca, silk, or polyester to produce traditional Filipino dresses such as the barong Tagalog and baro’t saya.

Sharing the same advocacy as Montinola, the competition encourages young talents to take up piña weaving as a craft and a vocation.

The competition challenges all artisans, who weave, dye, embroider, or embellish piña to create a new form of the elite fabric. Winning pieces must encapsulate the full artistic ambition of cloth-making using tried and unknown techniques alike. The cloth must be two meters in length with no limitation on width and at least 50 percent piña. It must champion excellence in weave and design—tension control, balance between fabrics, and execution of dyeing among others; and embrace the fibers of craftsmanship and innovation such as dexterity in handling materials and blends.

Three awards will be given to artists and artisans who—individually or collaboratively—create extraordinary piña cloth in October. The winning entries will be exhibited at the annual Likhang Habi Market Fair at the Glorietta Activity Center, Ayala, Makati, from October 13 to 15. These will remain the property of their makers after the full documentation of Habi.

The top three entries will receive cash prizes of P50,000, P30,000 and P20,000, respectively.

Deadline of entries is on September 15 at the Habi office: 4D Carmen Court, 6080 Palma Street, Barangay Poblacion, Makati.