Ben Chan in Ternocon: ‘Allow us to share this part of our history with the world’
More than a century after the terno rose to prominence as the defining silhouette of Filipino womanhood, The Terno: A Century of the Philippine Dress will be launched worldwide in the fall 2026 by Rizzoli, one of the world’s most prestigious publishers of art, fashion, design, and luxury books.
This is part of the landmark effort of Suyen Corporation and its flagship brand BENCH to bring the Philippine national dress to an international audience.
“The advocacy to preserve and promote the Philippine terno is not just for our lifetime, but for every generation before and after us,” says Ben Chan, CEO of Suyen Corporation. “In short, it is never-ending.”
‘Terno’ sleeve and ‘cañamazo’ on the cover of local edition
The Terno: A Century of the Philippine Dress surveys a century of the Philippine national dress, from 1920 to 2020, through archival and contemporary works.
“What is groundbreaking is that it is in partnership with Rizzoli New York, a renowned international publishing house,” Chan says. “Its global point of view is helpful in looking at our subject not only from a national perspective, but from an international one, allowing us to share this part of our history with the world.”
The deal came through his friendship with Thai publisher and bookseller Shayne Suvikapakornkul, who introduced the project to Rizzoli teams in Italy and New York. The connection led to more than a year of discussions across continents before the project moved forward.
‘The advocacy is for every generation before and after us,’ says Ben Chan. ‘In short, it is never-ending’
Chan says the goal is for the Philippine terno to attain the same cultural stature as Japan’s kimono and Korea’s hanbok, representing Filipino craftsmanship, creativity, and identity while reaching a global audience. “Putting together academic research, historical photographs, and archival pieces on this subject in a book is very essential, as there is still very limited published work on the matter,” he says.
Gino Gonzales, author of ‘The Terno: A Century of the Philippine Dress’ and Gawad CCP awardee
That commitment to documenting the terno began with Fashionable Filipinas: An Evolution of the Philippine National Dress in Photographs, 1860 to 1960, by Mark Higgins, former director of Slims Fashion & Art School, and Gino Gonzales, educator and scenographer. It was published in 2015 by Suyen Corporation and the Slim’s Legacy Project. Organized by decade, it explored the garment’s cultural hybridity, the rise of the maria clara image and butterfly sleeves, traditional fabrics, jewelry, and construction techniques such as the shaping of terno sleeves.
The idea for a second book took shape after Ternocon 2020, the design convention and competition organized by Bench and the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP). Gonzales says many significant ternos worn in real life had never been properly documented.
The research team includes co-author Sandra Castro Baker, Isidra Reyes, and photographer At Maculangan, with graphic design by Ace Escote of Suyen Corporation and Studio Olga of Italy.
The Terno: A Century of the Philippine Dress focuses on extant ternos in studio photographs of garments mounted on dress forms, placed alongside archival images showing how the pieces were originally worn at weddings, fashion runways, special events, and the State of the Nation Address.
The Terno will be released in two editions. The international edition is for general readership, while the Philippine edition will have two volumes aimed at the trade, the academe, and serious collectors.
Both editions present historical narratives, with the local edition having a second volume designed like a museum catalogue, featuring mannequin photography, dates, materials, and notes on each dress.
Baker condensed Gonzales’ manuscript for the international edition, while expanding the research base with additional archival leads. She introduced new material, such as rare issues of The Woman’s Outlook, a 1920s magazine, edited by Trinidad Fernandez, sourced from the New York Public Library. The publication, she says, was among the earliest to feature the terno in fashion discourse, offering guidance on seasonal styles, dress etiquette, and even how to handle the cola or train. It also carried advertisements of materials such as the cañamazo, a starched abaca-woven base fabric, often paired with suksuk weaving and burda embroidery.
The research from various sources presented a clearer picture of the terno’s evolution from the baro’t saya or maria clara silhouette to the butterfly sleeves of the 1920s. Earlier forms included two-piece ensemble with the tapis (skirt) and the pañuelo (fichu), while later innovations introduced one-piece constructions and zippers as dressmaking modernized in the 1930s.
“The book starts with the flattening of the terno sleeve and ends with Lesley Mobo’s kukur (as in kurtinahin or curtain materials ) ternos, made from available materials during the early pandemic,” says Gonzales.
The research from various sources presented a clearer picture of the ‘terno’s’ evolution from the ‘baro’t saya’ or Maria Clara silhouette to the butterfly sleeves of the 1920s
By the 1940s and 1950s, the silhouette shifted again in response to changing social roles as women became more publicly active. The butterfly sleeves became lighter and more practical, and detachable designs allowed wearers to remove the terno top and reveal a Western-style gown underneath. A terno bolero, which gained popularity in the late 1940s, offered further versatility, although earlier iterations in the 1930s already featured “two-in-one” ternos with removable sleeves or shawls.
The book also documents ternos worn by First Ladies, including pieces by Christian Espiritu for Imelda Marcos, where the skirt often served as canvas for elaborate embroidery and textile design.
After the 1986 People Power Revolution, President Corazon “Cory” Aquino largely avoided the terno, a silhouette closely associated with Ms. Marcos and the excesses of the Martial Law era. Through the early 1990s, the garment fell further out of favor as political associations and everyday practicality discouraged its use, while global fashion trends moved the Filipino dress toward Western silhouettes.
Abdul Gaffar checks this ‘terno’ by Philip Rodriguez during this book shoot during the pandemic.
However, the terno re-entered the public conversation during activities of the Miss Universe 1994. Joe Salazar’s terno for Miss Israel Ravit drew controversy for its unconventional construction: a hoop skirt that revealed lacy shorts underneath. It was playfully described as resembling a birdcage. Two lawmakers denounced the design as an insult to Filipinos and religion.
In the same pageant context, Philip Rodriguez created a terno for Miss India and eventual Miss Universe winner Sushmita Sen, using silk orchids sewn across the bodice and terno sleeves.
Gonzales also cites writer Gilda Cordero-Fernando’s Jamming on an Old Saya, published in 1995 alongside a fashion show at CCP, which explored how traditional saya materials could be reworked into modern garments and contemporary ternos. The project reflected a growing interest in adapting the national dress for younger generations.
That renewed interest gained momentum in 2003 through Timeless Terno: A Tribute to Joe Salazar at the Metropolitan Museum of Manila. It was organized as both a competition for young designers and a fashion tribute to Salazar, who was fighting throat cancer. (He passed away in 2004.) Spearheaded by prominent figures, including Bea Zobel Jr., Ino Manalo, Ben Chan, and the Congressional Spouses Foundation, the event helped reposition the terno within contemporary design discourse. The book also features notable pieces from that event, such as Irene Marcos Araneta’s terno by Pepito Albert, known for his precise structure, and experimental interpretations by younger designers like Joel Escober, who recreated the terno in denim.
Gonzales notes that by the 2010s, the terno bolero had become more widely available in bazaars, helping reintroduce the garment to a younger generation and making it easier to wear and adapt. “You can stuff it in your tote bag,” he says.
‘Terno’ from the 1990s by National Artist Salvador Bernal
Ternocon became a natural offshoot of Fashionable Filipinas, which Gonzales says underscored the need for sustained attention on the terno. Some designs featured overly small “teacup sleeves” or exaggerated puffed forms that strayed from proportion and structure. At the same time, international fashion was seeing a resurgence of voluminous sleeves, making it a timely moment to revisit the terno silhouette.
The initiative began with a workshop series under Fashioning the Terno, an intensive three-day program held across Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao that brought together regional designers to study the garment more closely. Participants and designer mentors noted recurring issues in contemporary interpretations, particularly in sleeve construction.
The idea of a larger platform took shape in Vigan, Ilocos Sur, in July 2017, when organizers saw the potential of bringing designers together for a unified presentation at CCP. This led to the creation of Ternocon 2018, where finalists presented their collections after the nationwide workshops.
The book expands the conversation through archival and contemporary garments lent by collectors across the Philippines
The Terno also expands the conversation through archival and contemporary garments. It includes ternos lent by collectors across the Philippines, and designs from Dubai highlighting beadwork by Filipino designers based in the Middle East. It also features entries in terno competitions and later works by Lesley Mobo, who produced ternos in his hometown Aklan during the lockdown, using curtain fabric and styling rural women in his province for the promotion shoots. His work was later featured in Vogue Australia in 2021, lauding him for being among the designers drawing from personal histories and reinterpreting traditional dress while moving it into new design directions.
Castro says the terno has always reflected a dialogue between Western influence and Filipino identity. Early versions followed Western silhouettes, but local elements remained through details such as the tapis, and later became more decorative. Over time, the butterfly sleeves became its most distinctly Filipino feature, even as the rest of the design continued to change.
Ternocon seeks to strengthen that identity by encouraging younger designers to define what Filipino design means today, whether through textile choices or culturally rooted motifs. The terno has shifted from the flatter, heavily embroidered forms of the early to mid-20th century to more sculptural, three-dimension interpretations.
One example of the latter is Cary Santiago’s award-winning terno inspired by the Philippine eagle, which incorporated chicken quills sourced from a Cebu market to create a textured, bird-like effect. Photographed by Ronnie Salvacion, that terno will grace the cover of the international edition.
Baker says The Terno comes at a time when fashion is moving away from a long-standing Eurocentric lens that once treated non-Western dress as secondary or derivative. Over the past two decades, there has been a stronger push to document local fashion histories on their terms, alongside a new generation of designers working more deliberately with indigenous materials and cultural references.
She adds that the book is within this wider shift, where various fashion traditions are being written into the global discourse, placing Philippine dress more firmly within the international conversation rather than outside it.
