More Time Travel via Old Time Photograph Co.

After the Syquia Mansion, we went to another heritage house, Villa Angela, which was converted into a hotel. If you want to really experience living in a grand old house, this is the closest you can get. And surprisingly, the rates are really cheap.

At Villa Angela

While in Villa Angela, we asked permission if we could take photos since the house was nice and old. Then the staff mentioned that she knows of a photographer with a studio with olden costumes and it was just down the street! 🙂

So serendipity led us to Old Time Photograph Co. and it was one of the nicest unplanned activities on our trip 🙂

Old Time Photograph Co. is actually a place where you can rent costumes and props (P150 per costume) that evoke the Spanish colonial era and then they have a small area where you can take pictures but you have to use your own camera. They don’t have a resident photographer nor do they have cameras or photographic equipment. It’s just you, your camera and your camera’s sepia settings 🙂 And the staff will graciously take your photos and help you in your costumes. The place is owned by Lito Perez of Camp Suki fame—the famous costume rental company based in Manila.

They have plenty of Spanish colonial costumes to choose from, especially for the women. It seems that the costumes are cleaned well, judging from the smell of detergent and fabric softener (and none of that old, musty smell of clothes inside cabinets). The staff told us they launder the clothes after each use. It’s really a place where you can dress up like you’ve never dressed up before 🙂

Aissa with the racks of costumes behind her

When choosing your costumes, just keep in mind that the effect will be different in color photos than in sepia/ black and white. But as you can see ,even in black and white, the costumes have wonderful detailing. 🙂

It was really a different experience, to replicate how people looked and posed in those days. For one thing, we know they didn’t smile because they had to keep still for several minutes for the low-tech cameras (if they smiled or moved, the pictures would have been blurred)

Bangs, however, weren’t in fashion in those days!

Do I look believably from the 1890’s? 🙂

Then we also asked the studio’s staff to take our pictures outside and she happily obliged 🙂

But outside, we couldn’t get rid of modern touches such as cars.

And tricycles. People there actually found our costumes surprising . I even saw a girl taking our picture from her car 🙂 The staff told us that you can even borrow the costumes and go walking in Calle Crisologo. However, I’m afraid that day, we weren’t that adventurous or quirky 🙂

All in all, it wasn’t a bad way to spend P150 and a lazy afternoon—to experience a bit of Philippine history through fashion and photography 🙂 But after wearing the heavy and multi-layered clothes (saya, blusa, and panuelo) for some time, it was such a relief to be back to our modern day outfits. It was so hot in those clothes! And we laughed when we realized how conservative our women really looked and felt back then compared to how we dress up today! 🙂 Pinoy men are so lucky to be able to see their women’s legs, that’s for sure! 🙂