RESEARCH DATA:

The Bugkalot women’s traditional attire is called the agemet, which consists of a skirt and a blouse (The Bugkalot Tribe of the Philippines: History, Culture & Art, Language, Customs, and Tradition [Philippine Indigenous People | Ethnic Group], n.d.). Their wrap-around skirt is locally known as the agde and was traditionally made from bark cloth, secured at the waist with a rattan or wire belt called the kaget (The Bugkalot Tribe of the Philippines: History, Culture & Art, Language, Customs, and Tradition, n.d.). While the Bugkalot do not traditionally weave, acquiring textiles instead through trade, they skillfully create the vibrant and detailed embellishments on their garments.
This skirt from the collection is a tubular agde featuring intricate embroidery of T-shaped motifs. The skirt is heavily embellished with red and yellow pompoms and small coiled brass wires that dangle with tiny teardrop-shaped mother-of-pearl shell cutouts. Brass coils with shell pendants are evenly spaced and stitched near the T-shaped embroideries. At the bottom of the skirt, a continuous row of triangle-shaped fabric is embellished with embroidery—specifically bordered with red and yellow stitching, and red, yellow, and green embroidery of cross-like motifs. The apex of these triangles has brass coils with shell pendants that dangle when worn.