Barong Tagalog – peasant’s Shirt

The Philippine government has called for clarifications after the organizing committee of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation Summit in Sydney, Australia branded the Filipino’s national costume for men as a mere “peasant shirt.”

An APEC media backgrounder said the “barong Tagalog” is a peasant shirt.

The APEC press release that was disseminated to international media was used as a backgrounder on the gathering’s official outfits from 1993 to 2006.

Barong is actually short for Barong Tagalog, which describes the formal men’s wear of the Philippines. It is properly referred to as the ‘Baro ng Tagalog’ (dress of the Tagalog). Contracting the first two words produces ‘Barong,’ which literally means ‘dress of.’ So, if we want to be correct, we wouldn’t say just ‘Barong.’ But, the slang way of referring to one of the beautiful formal shirts is simply Barong. Yes, the Barong Tagalog is a dress, a garment, a coat in itself. It is not merely a ’shirt’. If it were, then it would need a coat or a jacket over it to qualify as formal wear and would have to be worn tucked inside the trousers.

‘Baro’ = Word for ‘dress’ in the Philippines, Tagalog dialect
‘Baro ng Tagalog’ = ‘dress of the Tagalog’ describes the formal ‘dress’ or upper garment for men in the Philippines
‘Barong Tagalog’ = contracted form of the above
‘Barong’ = literally means ‘dress of’ – but commonly used to refer to the formal men’s wear in the Philippines

Source: My Barong

It was even worn by the leaders of the Association of Sosutheast Asian Nations (ASEAN) member countries and ASEAN’s dialogue partners during the 12th ASEAN Summit in Cebu

And its also being sold at a very high price!

Black ramie linen with white machine and fine embroidery from Onesimus

being sold for $89.99 here

I tried renting a Piña style/woven barong last year.. but i just bought one.. coz they were renting it for P2,000+.

Latest news:

The organizing committee of the just concluded Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Summit in Sydney, Australia has withdrawn a media backgrounder that branded the Philippines’ barong Tagalog as peasant shirt after the Philippine officials cried foul over the mistake.

The APEC organizing committee, however, did not issue an apology, saying the original description came from its “various sources of information” it compiled for the media backgrounder. It also stressed that the “error was not deliberate.”More here: ABS-CBN News