Image courtesy of www.news.abs-cbn.com
In a video aired on Thursday, Miss Universe Philippines Maxine Medina wrongly said that former First Lady Imelda Marcos invented the terno.
The Filipina bet made the assertion in a recorded video, aired during the live preliminary round of the 65th Miss Universe competition held Thursday night. Her short clip was taken during the candidates' visit to Vigan, where they modeled ternos.
"The terno was actually invented by our former first lady, Imelda Marcos. She invented these butterfly sleeves and they use it to cover their face," Medina said in the video.
However, in "Fashionable Filipinas: An Evolution of the Philippine National Dress in Photographs, 1860-1960," written by Gino Gonzales and Mark Lewis Higgins, women in the country were photographed wearing the modern terno as early as 1910, years before Mrs. Marcos was even born.
In an interview with the Philippine Daily Inquirer published in 2015, Gonzales also argued that no one person invented the terno. "It was a collective effort," he said, adding that not even National Artist for Fashion Ramon Valera can be credited for it.
In the official website of National Commission for Culture and the Arts, Valera is said to have given the Philippines its visual icon to the world via the terno.
"In the early 40s, Valera produced a single piece of clothing from a four-piece ensemble consisting of a blouse, skirt, overskirt, and long scarf. He unified the components of the baro't saya into a single dress with exaggerated bell sleeves, cinched at the waist, grazing the ankle, and zipped up at the back."
The description further says that Valera "constructed the terno’s butterfly sleeves, giving them a solid, built-in but hidden support. To the world, the butterfly sleeves became the terno's defining feature."
"We want to correct some misconceptions, including the idea that Ramon Valera invented the terno; he did not,” Gonzales said. "No one person invented it. It was a collective effort. The removal of the pañuelo, which is usually attributed to Valera, happened way, way before he removed it."
Marcos did have the nickname "The Iron Butterfly" for having the terno, the ones inspired by Valera's rendition of the national dress, as her preferred outfit for public appearances.
Watch the 65th Miss Universe coronation live on ABS-CBN Channel 2 on January 30, 2017 Monday 8 a.m. (Manila time)
