Friday, August 29, 2008
CENTRAL MARKET - SANTA CRUZ, MANILA
This was where my brothers, cousins and I used to buy the fabrics for our shirts and trousers. It was a time when custom-tailored clothing was de rigueur, while ready-to-wear was still at its infancy.
The fabrics used in those trendy clothes worn by our favorite pop stars as featured in teen magazines, or in those glossy Japanese men's magazines, could be found at Central Market -- from Oxford cottons to Indian madras, and from corduroys to denims. And the local tailor could easily make any piece of clothing that you wanted as long as he was shown a picture of it.
When I came back to Manila a few years ago, many of the local tailors and dressmakers had closed shop; the influx of ready-to-wear clothing -- both locally-produced and imported -- had made them extinct. Consequently, many of the fabric and haberdashery establishments at Central Market had also disappeared, to be replaced by the abundance of frame shops and ironically, ready-to-wear and ukay-ukay stalls.
Located at Fugoso Street and Quezon Boulevard in Santa Cruz, Manila, Central Market went through a major renovation during the Atienza administration. However, despite its airy and refurbished setting, it no longer attracts as large a crowd as it used to. But nonetheless, with its wet market, Central Market appears to amply serve the Manileños of the southeastern district.
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I very much appreciate my articles and photos appearing on fellow bloggers' sites, popular broadsheets, and local broadcast news segments, but I would appreciate even more a request for permission first.
Thank you!
*
Labels: central market, Manila
posted by Señor Enrique at 6:19 AM
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