PATAMABA Pinangga

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PATAMABA-OXFAM PROJECT: Strengthening the Marketing Network of Women Workers in the Informal Economy Towards Advancing Fair, Just and Sustainable Trade

PINANGGA (EMBROIDERY)

The brand name Pinangga is an Ilonggo word (local dialect in the province of Iloilo), which means “my love” or “my favorite’. Most Filipinos from the Visayas use the word as a term of endearment to their spouse or their children. The reason for choosing to name the product Pinangga is because all of the producers love their kababayans, the people they want to dedicate the product to. Moreover, the brand also captures their love for their embroidery work.

The brand Pinangga has been patronized by its buyers for the last twenty years because of its classic hand-embroidered designs. It has successfully surpassed being treated as a fad, a tough battle that every clothing line must face. Most of the clothing lines follow a fashion cycle that ends when another clothing style has emerged. Pinangga however has evolved into a distinctive style that has achieved market acceptance, being the only known hand-embroidered line.

The Product Pinangga has 43 different product lines, ranging from children’s dresses, skirts, sleeveless tops, kurtas and polo shirts (for a full list of the product lines, please click here). Within the product lines, there are 3 main variants of fabric used per product:

(1) 100% China cotton which is what is currently being produced;
(2) Cotton Batis, another type of cotton fabric that is thinner than the China cotton; it is similar to the type used for undergarments and it develops creases easily; and
(3) span rayon which has a better “flowing” effect when fitted because it has a smoother texture and it clings better to the curves of the body; it is thicker than the China cotton and is more expensive by P50 on retail.

Although buyers prefer the span rayon, it is currently discontinued due to the prohibitive price of the fabric. The products thus use 100% China cotton and are available in either plain white fabric or colored (black, dark blue, bright blue, light blue, red, fuchsia, green, olive green, katsa/light brown).

Pinangga to date has more than 150 different hand-embroidered designs (e.g. Ifugao Tree design, Bamboo design, Bigas, Geometric design, etc.). In general, there are six embroidery styles that are incorporated in the different designs:

smacking	satin
outline	running
french knot	eyelet

The Producers Pinangga’s main production site is located in the heart of Quezon City. The home of its proprietor, Fe Paduyao, serves as a warehouse, a production area (from cutting and sewing, to finishing and packaging), and a showroom in one. Almost all the production process is done in-house, except for sewing, which is also done by two other high-speed sewers aside from the stay-in cutter/sewer, designing, and all of the embroidery work.

All the embroidery work is done outside the main site and is distributed among home-based women embroiderers all over Metro Manila. Since the products are all hand-embroidered, the only tool used for production is needles, which the women just buy on their own. At present, Pinangga has four main embroidery sites:

(1) C-3 Camarin and Bagong Silang, Caloocan City;
(2) 120 Malvar St., Bagong Barrio, Caloocan City ;
(3) 1197-B Meding St., San Andres, Malate, Manila and
(4) GK (Gawad Kalinga) San Andres Village, Cainta, Rizal.

The total number of regular embroiderers is 48 and an additional 15 women can still be tapped if there is still embroidery work to be done.

Embroiderers are comprised of both old timers who have been doing the work for more than 20 years and a younger group that had been doing the craft for 4-5 years. The original embroiderers are the women in San Andres, Manila and Cainta, Rizal, who have already been involved with Pinangga since its inception in the 1970s.

Most of the women are also engaged in other livelihood activities aside from doing embroidery work, except for the women in Cainta, whose main source of income comes from Pinangga. The women from San Andres, Malate are into selling native snacks like ricecakes and sweets; embroiderers from Camarin also make rags and flower decors; and the women from Bagong Barrio earn extra income by providing services such as laundry washing and ironing.

Production Process, Costs and Marketing All the materials needed for production such as the sewn fabric and DMC threads for embroidery are all supplied by Fe Paduyao. She is involved in almost all the stages of production, from the purchasing of raw materials, to cutting, to transporting the work-in-process to the sewers and the designer, to distributing the DMC threads per item, to again transporting the goods to the embroiderers and computing their wages, to finishing, and now even trimming and packaging, on top of marketing the products. Since almost all her time is spent overseeing production, marketing of the products is not given the priority and the effort that it needs to make the enterprise sustainable. At present, she mainly relies on delivering products to outlets on a consignment basis.

The whole cycle is very slow since the critical stages of production are undermanned; there is only one cutter, one full-time sewer and only one designer. These stages are prone to delays and even work stoppage since unavailability of any worker in any of the stages has the potential to put the whole production process to a halt. Even if Pinangga has a strong embroidery workforce that can well produce the output needed (at the maximum of 165-177 pieces per week), the workload do not reach them since the critical stages preceding embroidery disrupts the workflow altogether. Delays in these stages are very costly, since it leads to non-deliveries and consequently, loss of customers. The major reason now why Fe Paduyao can not join bazaars is due to lack of production.

The length of time it takes to finish a piece depends on the embroidery style to be used and the design pattern. On average, the women can finish up to 2 pieces in a day if the style is relatively simple and the design scope is limited. For more complicated styles and patterns, they can only finish a piece in a day or two. Since the product is hand-embroidered, the process is slow and can not be rushed. Thus, the women sometimes deprive themselves of sleep to accommodate sudden peaks in demand or rush orders. To build up stocks, Fe Paduyao tries to ensure that production is continuous throughout the year even during the lean season. Peak months for the product are usually from September all the way to the Christmas holidays. Sales usually drop right after the Christmas bazaars up to the first quarter of the year.

Production costs are not properly reflected either. For example, the cost of detergent, fabric softener and water are not imputed in the cost of washing, while the cost of electricity is also not included in the cost of ironing. Aside from these costs, Ms. Paduyao does not add her transportation costs and her salary for the tasks she undertakes in the production process and in marketing the products.

Working Conditions and OSH Issues The women live in densely populated communities marked by crowded housing and unsanitary surroundings in some parts. They just work in their homes or when the weather is too hot, they pull a chair and work along the pavement in front of their houses. Most embroiderers have adequate lighting because they have electricity in their homes; and they can always work outside during the daytime. For the few who do not have electricity, they just work during the day or in their fellow embroiderers’ houses. Since most of the time they just sit outside their houses to do their embroidery work, they say that they have proper ventilation and ample work space. Among the four embroidery sites, Cainta, Rizal and C-3 Camarin/ Bagong Silang, Caloocan, do not have access to running water and the families have to buy potable water by the container. On the other hand, San Andres, Manila and Bagong Barrio (water access only at night) have relatively better sanitation and the houses have their own access to potable running water.

As a result of doing embroidery work, the women complain of body aches and eye strain, especially when working on colored garments. Majority of the old-timers who have been working for more than 20 years, are wearing eye glasses. The women generally experience headaches, soreness in the neck and nape, shoulders, arms, hands, back, hips and buttocks due to long hours spent sitting and doing embroidery work. There has been very few incidents of needle puncture since all of them are experienced embroiderers already.

Outlook for the Future

Pinangga is now at its maturity stage, wherein sales growth starts to decline. It can be said that it is still in the growth phase of maturity since sales mainly flatten because there are no new distribution channels to fill. Most of the product’s potential clients have already tried the product and future sales are governed by reorders. To increase volume, Pinangga can expand its market by entering new market segments.

The women embroiderers feel insecure about their future because of the irregularity in the workflow that they are experiencing and the drop in the volume of embroidery work they are doing now. There are fears that Ms. Paduyao would no longer produce Pinangga. But they would still continue doing embroidery work in the future since it serves as a means of earning extra income for their families and some even consider it a good pastime for those who just stay at home. The oldtimers, who feel that they are too old to find work elsewhere, said that they have no option but to continue with embroidery. They would rather stick with Pinangga than have no work at all.