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15-km mountain trek—Len Cabili’s fulfilling climb to our tribes of weavers

She’s bringing Filipino beadwork and embroidery to the world, including the likes of heiress Aerin Lauder, by giving artisans
respect—and free rein to be creative

On one of her early visits, Len Cabili with Subi Nalon, the 'Dream Weaver'. The revered artisan passed away a few years ago. (Photo from Len Cabili)

Blaan wearing a simple Albong Takmon (beaded with shell plates) with the Maguindanao plaid Malong as an alternative to Tabih and it is called Gintlo. (Photo from Len Cabili)

(Filip + Inna has a pop-up store at Rockwell Power Plant Mall until the end of June. On June 12 and every Independence Day thereafter, Len and her colleagues at the Filipino Cultural Collective are enjoining Filipinos to celebrate “Dama Ko, Lahi Ko,” a campaign that aims to promote appreciation and practical application of Filipino culture through the five senses.)

PANDEMIC restrictions and Bell’s Palsy, a temporary weakness of facial muscles, have kept designer Lenora Luisa “Len” Cabili from doing her usual rounds of tribes in the Philippines. (That also goes for her foreign trunk shows.)  Because of her rapport with the artisans, the creative director and founder of Filip + Inna, the fashion label that popularized traditional and ethnic embroidery and beadwork overseas, finds it easy to field the work from her studio.

Last year, when the left side of her face was left immobile, a T’Boli embroiderer wept and urged Len to rest. The women offered prayers for her speedy healing.

In the most isolated village in Sarangani, a Tagakaolo artisan told Len that if only the designer were around, she would prepare remedies and nurse her.

The mission of Filip + Inna goes beyond engaging the services of artisans. Len has been working hard to build a relationship of trust, respect, and partnership. “I work with them as an equal, as they are a key part of the brand,” she tells TheDiarist.ph in an interview for this story.

Before the quarantine, Len visited regularly the artisans and tribal groups to establish bonds and understand their priorities. Such personal ties have strengthened her relationship and communication with them. She braved challenges just to meet them.

Len recalls that growing up in Iligan City, close to the Mindanao conflict, she had gotten used to hearing gunshots and seeing soldiers on the streets. She herself never felt the impact of the clashes between the Muslim rebel groups and the military until a trip to Marawi in late 2008.  A failed peace agreement between the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and the government led to renewed fighting and displacement of over 390,000 people in Mindanao.

Back then, Len and her three sisters had a home accessory line, Two Mahogany Road, named after their address in Iligan. Len wanted to meet the artisans in Tugaya, a town in Lanao del Sur, which specialized in brass and inlay crafts. The province was also the MILF stronghold in central Mindanao. The atmosphere was tense in the capital of Marawi, a 45-minute drive from Iligan.  She rode a jeep, owned by her aunt Geni Hofer, to Tugaya. To keep up appearances, the driver picked up four soldiers from Camp Amay Pakpak for security. Her aunt’s friends joined to make it appear that the vehicle was a passenger jeepney. After meeting the artisans in Tugaya, Len and her aunt rushed back to the Mindanao State University before 3 p.m. As they approached Marawi, gun-toting men in fatigues held a motorcade around the city.

Len and her aunt had a late lunch on campus, slept in the dorm overnight, and returned safely to Iligan City. The accessories business eventually folded up, as the sisters followed their separate individual paths. Len started to build Filip + Inna.


Len Cabili travels to far-flung areas in Mindanao to visit weaving and artisan communities. Credit: Lenora Luisa Cabili/YouTube

The social entrepreneur never tires of retelling her first meeting with the T’Bolis. Tagging along with her mother to Lake Sebu, South Cotabato, she met Benjie Manuel, a teacher from the T’Boli Senior High School, who introduced Len to the artisans and their cooperative. Len gave five pieces of A-line garments and threads to Evelyn Cafon, an embroiderer, and said, “Bahala ka na.” After a long wait of four months, Len received the most exquisite embroidery she had every seen.  She knew right then and there that her new venture showed great potential.

‘When their creativity is acknowledged, they feel empowered to do anything with it’

Len says that during the initial contact with the artisans, she upheld their creativity and tradition by giving them a blank canvas and letting them do what they pleased. “When their creativity is acknowledged, they feel empowered to do anything with it,” she says. “If you ask me what my goal is, it’s not what I need to achieve, but how to nurture what’s in front of me. I usually end up where I want to go. Setting a goal can be a pressure. We build on a dream,” says Len.

Once the camaraderie had been sealed, the artisans became open to new ideas. “It took years before we could finally create our own patterns, which were inspired by their traditional designs. When we give them free rein, the pieces become one-of-a-kind. Sometimes we stick to a certain number of colors and they are free to mix them up. One uses more blue, another favors yellow. When you look at a design they had done, they follow the same central pattern but vary in the stitching. We keep the communication lines open. They send text messages when there are problems,” she says.

Aside from recognizing talent, one must also respect customs. One day Len looked at the payroll and noticed that a T’boli group had no output. She was told that an uncle of one of the members had died. Work, including embroidery, was suspended during mourning.


The country’s proud heritage of weaving, handembroidery, artisanship blends with contemporary Filip+Inna fashion. (Video submitted to TheDiarist.ph by Len Cabili, founder Filip+Inna www.filipinna.com)

Since the artisans have always worked at their own pace, Filip + Inna cannot follow the conventional deadlines set by stores. “It’s important for the brand to share how we do things,” she says.

In the brand’s first year with Aerin, the boutique owned and curated by Estee Lauder heiress Aerin Lauder, Filip + Inna delivered 30 pieces of tunics, shorts, and separates which were quickly sold out. “We usually double the order so that we can deliver when the store reorders. If Aerin ordered 30 for June, we produced 60 so that the 30 pieces would make the second delivery in July. The pieces were sold out again, but by then, we ran out for August, but we could meet the September schedule.”

Len explained to the buyers that the production time was long because the embroidery and beadwork were hand-stitched and originated from far-flung places.

“The store adjusted to us, and this is rare. Suppliers usually have to adapt to the stores,” says Len.

Whenever she travels around the country, Len always brings friends along. The trip to Lake Sebu is always welcome, as they stay in resorts and their villages are accessible. The most remote T’boli community is a two-hour hike from the town. “I bring people who can witness how we work and interact with artisans,” she says.

Art patron Mercedes “Dedes” Zobel hopped on a bike around Lake Sebu and polished abaca with the T’boli.

‘The store of Aerin Lauder adjusted to us, and this is rare. Suppliers usually have to adapt to the stores’

One of her most challenging trips was a seven-hour trek to meet the Tagakaolo tribe in the mountains of Sarangani.  In 2015, Gov. Steve Solon tipped Len off about the Tagakaolo, known for nature-inspired embroidery and mother-of-pearl beadwork. The first two encounters took place on a mountain close to the city. Patricia Araneta, a London-based educator specializing in traditional arts, came with Len to meet the Tagakaolo in 2015. The following year, she returned with Dedes Zobel and her daughter Ava. In that meeting, Len decided to return soon to visit their village.

Months after, she took a 90-minute ride from the town proper to the mountain top in Sitio Dalamuan. Len thought she was near her destination, but the guide told her that taking a car was out of the question. The 15-km journey to the Tagakaolo started from the top of the first mountain, and crossed other mountains to reach Sitio Laginan, Malungon, which was largely inhabited by the tribe. “You go up and down, up and down, up and down until you reach the village,” she recalls. Len didn’t mind the pit stops behind the bushes. “Our trek started at 11 am, and we reached their village by 6 pm,” she says.


Filip+Inna contemporary fashion  (Video submitted to TheDiarist.ph by Len Cabili, founder Filip+Inna www.filipinna.com)

The Tagakaolo welcomed her contingent with tasty meals, among them a chicken dish with vegetables, which Len enjoyed. The Tagakaolo made two rooms available for the team, and gave them beddings and malongs so that they could sleep comfortably on the floor. Because this rural community was inaccessible, it didn’t have electricity for many years. As Len lay down and got settled, her hand suddenly touched something hard and cold, and she realized that it was a gun. Immediately she went to the hosts and asked them to keep the gun.

The next day, the team hiked to the school to charge their mobile phones.

Len was better prepared for succeeding trips. She went to the gym and took up Pilates to build strength and endurance, now that she knew what to expect on a 15-km hike.

Every six weeks, the Tagakaolo would trek down the range and go to the town proper to send their output to Filip + Inna. The trip coincided with the arrival of clothes for embroidery from Manila. Len commends them for not complaining about the hardships of their travel.  “If I didn’t visit their village, I wouldn’t have known why it takes them a long time to deliver. I would have been oblivious to what they are going through.  The trips opened me up to their reality. That guides me on how we do things,” she says.

Stories about how Filip + Inna has given stability to the lives of the tribes often crop up. When her team visited the Mangyans in Mindoro, an intern interviewed an artisan whose husband was skeptical about Len and her team. He thought that the embroidery job would be a one-shot teal. Six months later, the wife continued to embroider, and the husband even encouraged her to get more work.

“He realized that the work was not going to go away. They would get regular income,” says Len. On her visits before the pandemic, the team would bring lunch for the Mangyans, while the visitors were served fresh buko.

She is modest about how Filip + Inna has given livelihood and hope. “When the payroll comes, it makes me smile that the money goes to certain people. Numbers could give you an ego.  In the end, we focus on what is essential, and the results will come in some way. They’ve also brought change to my life,” says Len.

While the ethnolinguistic groups have learned about enhancing their skills, Len has learned from them to be more tolerant of situations. “I was touched by their kindness. I don’t hear them I criticize or complain about someone or something,” she says. “They remind me to be content, to be grateful, and to value relationships, especially when they talk about their family. Contentment comes from accepting.”

Len is modest about how Filip + Inna has given livelihood and hope. ‘When the payroll comes, it makes me smile that the money goes to certain people’

Since artisans have been spending more time at home in this pandemic, they finish their work faster. Sometimes Filip + Inna can’t keep up with providing their supplies and materials. Then there’s the added pressure to sell the inventory during tough economic times. Foreign trunk shows were cancelled last year, yet Filip +Inna met their deliveries to foreign stores and had more sales from the domestic market. Its e-commerce is likewise growing.

While most businesses were cutting back, Filip +Inna managed to include a group of piña weavers from Kalibo, Aklan, on its list of artisans. A common acquaintance told the weavers to contact Len on Facebook. Fortunately, her business had extra funds to buy an initial order of 50 yards of piña; by 2020, the the orders had grown to a total of 500 yards. The brand even managed to create two collections, one which consisted of traditional pieces, and another inspired by the patterns of the San Sebastian Church architecture.

“Throughout this pandemic, people became more appreciative of the work that went into the pieces, and didn’t mind waiting for the clothes. During the lockdown, one client came seven times to our studio in Mandaluyong. She said our apparel made her happy. At the start of this pandemic, I had one prayer for Filip + Inna, and that was to have sufficient sales to keep the artisans busy. God has been granting that prayer,” says Len.


Behind the scenes of Filip+Inna fashion shoot (Video submitted to TheDiarist.ph by Len Cabili, founder Filip+Inna www.filipinna.com)

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About author

Articles

She is a veteran journalist who’s covered the gamut of lifestyle subjects. Since this pandemic she has been giving free raja yoga meditation online.

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