Ilocos Jewelry
Travelling through the Ilocos Region is like entering a living time capsule in the Philippines.
Bound by the Cordillera mountains on one side and West Philippine Sea on another, Ilocos has always been a center of political, religious, and economic power. Goods brought down from the mountains—most notably, gold—were bartered to Chinese and Japanese merchants. Spanish colonizers then used this gold to spread Catholicism and colonial values through devotional jewelry.
But Filipino plateros (metalsmiths) of the region continued to make the craft their own. A closer look at gold filigree jewelry, then and now, reveals diverse influences: local flora and fauna, religious and cultural symbols, and contemporary designs. Our Ilocos Jewelry Collection continues in that tradition.
