but traditionally worn by Filipina women with a
pañuelo (neck scarf) over the shoulders and accessorized with a delicate
abaniko (fan). Like the ''
baro't saya, the Maria Clara gown traditionally consists of four parts: a blouse (baro
or camisa
), a long skirt (saya
), a kerchief worn over the shoulders (pañuelo, fichu
, or alampay
), and a short rectangular cloth worn over the skirt (the tapis or patadyong''). The
camisa is a collarless
blouse whose hem is at the waist and is made from flimsy, translucent fabrics such as pineapple fiber and
jusi. The sleeves of the
camisa are similar to the so-called "angel wings", or shaped like
bells. The correct term for the sleeves of the camisa during the mid to late 1800s is a "pagoda" – derived from early Western silhouettes of the Victorian period. The
pañuelo is a piece of starched square cloth (either opaque or made from the same material as of the
camisa) folded several times and placed over the shoulders. The purpose of the
pañuelo has been related to modesty, used to cover the nape and the upper body due to the
camisa's low neckline as well as its sheer translucency; and also doubles as an accent piece because of embellishments added to it, usually embroideries and the pin securing it in place. The
saya is a skirt shaped like a "cupola", the length begins from the waist reaching the floor. These are usually comprised either of single or double sheets, called "panels" or
dos paños (
Spanish for "two cloths"); some examples are made out of seven
gores or
siete cuchillos (Spanish for "seven knives"). The
tapis is a knee-length over-skirt that hugs the hips.
Tapis designs may be plain, and is usually made of
opaque fabrics such as
muslin and the
madras cloth, and also is used for the purposes of modesty as it keeps the lower body from showing due to the thinness of the
saya. Some ladies belonging to the higher classes (often of the
mestiza caste) consider the
tapis a lowly piece of clothing. It resembled the
dalantal (apron) worn by the lower classes. The upper-class women of the 1880s to the 1890s wore an elaborate ==Modernization==