Lumban Barong Tagalog for Made to Order and Ready to Wear!!!

Special occasions and events usually require guests to don on formal garb. For the lady you can go really traditional and have a baro’t saya Filipiniana gown, while for the men barong tagalog is the top choice. The upcoming President Aquino’s SONA on Monday would be the prime occasion to watch a parade of elaborate and bonggang tradisyonal na kasuotan.  But for us normal folks, usually gowns and barong tagalog are reserve for occasions such as weddings.

You agree? 🙂

Last week Titus and I went to Manila and Laguna armed with a list of must-do items. One of them is to look for a store in Lumban to place several orders for barongs. Lumban and Taal in Batangas are the top two sources of high quality, lovingly handmade barong tagalog in the Philippines. I don’t know if these places have counterparts in the Visayas and Mindanao. Would you know?

Barong tagalog can be hand-painted or embroidered, you can also have yours dyed to your favorite color. Example your wedding motif is blue, you can be bold and go for blue-dyed barongs for your entourage! Although let me say I haven’t seen a groom wearing a colored barong. Usually grooms will go for the traditional white/off-white/plain color and to stand out usually their barongs uses the best fabric (pina as opposed to pina jusi) and comes with intricate, elaborate de calado embroidery. Some grooms will choose the Raya style for more oomph! Raya features elaborate U shape embroidery in the opening, and a strategically place strips of embroidery in the sleeves and at the back. This is price higher though from P5,000 and up.

Calado Embroidery

BARONG PRICES

Raya because of its intricate details can go from P5000 to as high as you can imagine hehe. Price will depend on your customization from tela to embroidery to buttons etc.

DIFFERENT STORES OFFERS DIFFERENT PRICES.

You can buy pina starting at  P3,500; pina jusi at P1,200; lukot mayaman at P500; pina cocoon at P1,200. Prices are not fixed; negotiate with the supplier / vendor especially if you are looking at bulk orders of barong.

Whether you are looking to buy off the shelf or to place an order for customized barong, Lumban is a good place to go to. They really have lots of shops there that make gowns and barongs and wide range of choices too from pina to pina jusi to lukot mayaman to cocoon. Majority of the community are in one way or another connected to the making of barongs.

Embroidered Tela for Barong Shirt

Sample of Hand-painted barong – this one is for women 🙂

The Hunt For Barong!

The men in my family needs formal wear for an upcoming wedding. We have looked around in Cebu and was astounded that rental for well made barong is from P500 to P700! Just a couple more hundreds and that would mean brand new, made in Lumban barong!

*Divisoria is another place where you can go find barong tagalog for sale. But if you want to go direct to source, go to either Lumban in Laguna or Taal in Batangas.

Titus and I know exactly the locations of these stores since both of us are pretty familiar with Laguna area from San Pedro to Siniloan to Majayjay to San Pablo.  We’ve decided that we won’t go search in the stores “sa bayan” or town center in Lumban and instead just shop in the stores a few meters from the welcome sign arch.  1^st reason is that we have friends who have commissioned made to order barong tagalog from the stores in the national highway. 2^nd reason is we didn’t really have the luxury of time since we were going to Paete right after to look for woodworks and handmade crafts. 3^rd reason, we know that we can find high quality materials in the stores at the highway.

*If you are looking for more options, Lumban bayan, just after your cross the bridge has more shops that you can visit. It’s easy to go to Lumban from Manila. Please refer to the direction tips on my first blog post about Lumban.

Check out this first blog about Lumban:

Lumban Laguna Embroidery: Barong Tagalog, Terno, Wedding Gowns and More

We got off the jeepney, looked around at the shops, then decided to enter one. Our hunt was cut short since it turned out we were already very satisfied with the first shop we checked-out. 🙂

ZR Macalagay’s Embroidery Shop

ZR Macalagay’s Embroidery is the lucky shop! My eyes instantly registered that the place is tidy, the display organized, the rtw looks well-made. You can see ready to wear barongs neatly wrapped in plastic to protect them from dust. The selection was varied too, from barong for women, hand-painted ones, simple barongs, pina, pina jusi, lukot mayaman. It’s a barong haven to say the least hehe.

Mrs Nida, the owner, was very accommodating and she allowed us to take pictures of her fabrics. Yeyyy! We didn’t need much convincing to order from her especially after she took piles and piles of tela from the cabinets and showed it to us so we can choose well.

We peppered her with lots of questions and she answered each graciously.  That got our nod, not only does she have high quality embroidered barong fabrics ready to be cut and sewed in her inventory but also for the great customer service. =)  Thanks Mrs. Nida!

How many days to complete a barong if we will order  from her shop? It will only take 48 hours or 2 days to complete the cutting and sewing after the measurements are provided.  (This works perfectly for us!)

My brother wants a chinese collar for his barong, is this possible? Yes, just put in on your order specifications.

Barong for women with chinese collar

I’m also looking for one for my dad and lolo, can you suggest the tela? Eto medyo mature para sa lolo, eto parang mayor para sa tatay.

🙂

Unfortunately at that time we did not have the men’s measurement. We will go back there come September, but to secure the deal we’ve struck with her, we paid the down payment of P3,000. 🙂

 

Update November 2014: TO SEE THE FINISHED BARONG  please check out these pics from our wedding:

Titus: here

Dad and Bro: here

My bridal gown, mother of the bride dress, maid of honor, bridesmaid and secondary sponsors dresses were made in Divisoria, if curious what they look like, check this post about my Divi wedding gown. 😀 

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CONTACT DETAILS ZR Macalagay’s Embroidery

Home of Barongs and Gown Since 1960

 Owner: Mrs Nida Macalagay

Email: zrmacalagay_embroidery@yahoo.com

Mobile: 09175460322

Facebook: ZR Macalagay Embroidery

P.s. you can also order giveaways from her like handmade abanico at P250 each or this jewelry holder with embroidery cover, price is P250. Her shop also makes wedding gowns, and formal gowns for women aside from rtw and custom made barong tagalog.

p.p.s if you contact or visit ZR Macalagay, hope you’ll mention that you read about her shop here on Penfires. Just to declare: Nope I don’t get commission or anything, am just trying to convince her that she should update her shop’s FB account with pictures of her latest barongs. After all, online and social media presence can help a local business a lot.

Let’s support locally made product! Buy local! Buy Lumban Made Barongs!