Negros fashion today: Kahirup Ball glamor made sustainable

When you say “Bacolod,” different images flood the mind. For the foodie, it is Chicken Inasal. For the traveler, it is the annual Masskara Festival. But for me, it is the glamorous Kahirup Ball, a semblance of which was immortalized in the Filipino film classic Oro, Plata, Mata, directed by my Production Design mentor Peque Gallaga, and starring one of my filmmaking mentors and a fashion icon in her own right, Cherie Gil.

Although the ball was originally held in Manila as a gathering for Negros and Iloilo, then later on Visayas, “haciendero” or sugar clan families and elites, it became a benchmark of not only Visayan high society and social events, but also of Visayan fashion.

Nowadays, the Kahirup (which means “togetherness” and “sweetness” in Visayan) had been reportedly staged very occasionally and was last revived as an arts and culture and charity event before the pandemic.

At the “Himbon: The Negros Trade Fair” in SMX Convention Center, SM Aura in Taguig City, which is ongoing until 28 September, the ghosts of Kahirup’s Golden Age from Fifties to Sixties come back in many forms.

Apart from sugar that was the country’s most important agricultural exports in the mid-19th century to the ‘70s, Negros is known for its pineapple industry that focuses on fiber production for the piña fabrics industry.

As such, many fashion items featured at the Himbon fair are made of piña and pineapple plant by-products — from traditional ternos with handmade Calado embroidery; to sneakers made from upcycled pineapple leaves.

Besides piña, Negros products made of other indigenous and sustainable materials — such as buri, cogon and abaca — are available at the fair.

Spanning to over three decades, Negros’ sericulture industry produces high-quality Philippine silk in Negros Occidental, primarily through the Organization for Industrial, Spiritual and Cultural Advancement (OISCA) Training Center in Bago City. The project cultivates silkworms, harvests cocoons and processes silk into threads for local textiles, promoting rural livelihoods, particularly for women. The province also hosts the first Silk Innovation Hub in the Visayas, enhancing the processing of raw silk into stronger yarns for fabric production and supporting the growth of the Philippine silk industry.

Usually, my go-to booth at the annual Negros fair is Artisans of Hope by NVC Foundation, which now upcycles eggshells and discarded coffee capsules into artworks, in addition to Christmas ornaments.

Ahead of Bacolod’s annual Masskara Festival held every October, many of the designs at the fair are colorful, festive and reflective of Bacolod as the “City of Smiles.” But behind the masks and the smiles are some grim reminders.

About seven million children are sexually abused every year in the Philippines. Around 98 percent of these cases are reportedly girls who later on also fall victim to illnesses such as sexually-transmitted diseases (STDs) and HIV-AIDS. These are according to Cameleon, an international solidarity association created in 1997, which aims to develop a global approach to act on the causes and effects of sexual violence against children and adolescents.

At the fair, there is a booth selling clothes and bags made by girls under the care of ZCME’s Psychological Center for Sexually-Abused Girls. Also established in 1997 like Cameleon, ZCME’s center has been providing emotional and mental intervention to over 10,000 victims of rape, girls who are sexually-abused or trafficked, as well as children who were involved in sexual commerce.

Just across the ZCME booth is EMGEE by Get Spotted, a local brand that champions the use of the Visayan weave Hablon, as well as the preservation of Negros Nine Weavers in Kabankalan, Negros Occidental.

“Their looms do not simply produce fabric,” a poster for the Negros Nine Weavers says. “They carry with them memory, resilience and the quiet dignity of artisans who have built their lives around craft.”

Truly, Negros fashion today, as seen at the fair, is not only a celebration like the Masskara Festival — but a sum of many hours spent on the loom, of threads of traditions carefully passed down from one generation to the next — a heritage and culture that refuses to be forgotten.