Abstract

Despite its place as the most well-known form of traditional dress worn in the Philippines, academic literature regarding the terno’s life since the turn of the 21st century has been rather sparse. While it is not the only form of national or traditional dress found in the Philippines, its recent resurgence in popularity due to events like TernoCon prompts a deeper look into the dress’ contemporary meaning and use. This study chooses to emphasize its use amongst the Filipinx American diaspora by using content analysis on online blogs, magazines, and news articles that discuss the terno and its life amongst the Filipinx diaspora. The sources are then analyzed through a decolonial framework that focuses on Homi Bhabha’s concept of “hybridity” to better encapsulate the terno throughout its history into contemporary society. By placing the terno within its own historicity, we can understand how the terno continues to operate today for transnational contexts and peoples, not as something that remains in anteriority, but as an object that has continued to exist in the lives of many Filipinx as they move through the world. Within the sources used in this study, approaches to the terno take on a wide range of forms, from radical deconstruction of colonial concepts to the upholding of the very same. I will sift through these sources to unpack the various narratives constructed around the terno for Filipinx/as/os today. In addition to the narratives of the terno, I will argue two primary concepts: first, that categories surrounding “traditional dress” in mainstream fashion theory do not adequately describe the terno and are outdated, and second, that the terno provides a look into potential avenues for a decolonial fashion approach.

Advisor

Park, Chan Sok

Department

Religious Studies

Disciplines

Asian American Studies | Christianity | Cultural History | Ethnic Studies | Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies | Genealogy | Race, Ethnicity and Post-Colonial Studies | Social and Cultural Anthropology | South and Southeast Asian Languages and Societies

Keywords

Dress, Philippines, Diaspora, Filipino American, Gender, Religion, Labor

Publication Date

2026

Degree Granted

Bachelor of Arts

Document Type

Senior Independent Study Thesis

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