What is the history and origin of pina fiber?

• Pina is the queen of Philippine fabric and its cultivation and production goes back to the 16th century during the Hispanic colonization.
• It is believed that the Spanish introduced the art of making pina fabric to the Philippine’s however they were already well aware and knew the process of weaving with natural fibers.
• The clothes made of pina fabric were initially worn by the less privileged Philippine population in the 1700s however the market of the pina fabric market tossed by the 1800s and the pina garments were then worn by the elite and upper-class people as a status symbol. The reason behind this shift was easy to access to cheaper fabrics.
• During the 19th century, the Spanish exported the clothes made using pina against their European lace and was a luxury textile material. As the textile industry progressed and the markets were flooded with affordable British and American factory-made clothes, pina fabric declined by the mid-1800s. • But pina fabric faced a major setback in the 1980s with the coming up of economical and cheap cotton fabric.
• Also, since Philippine’s was not an independent country, no attempts were made by the controlling government to uplift the pina production as the production units were regarded as insignificant and small-scale industry and gradually by the 20th century the pina production units almost vanished.
• But as the Philippine gained independence in the late 20th century, the government made efforts to boost the manufacturing of pina fabric.