Baro't saya is the unofficial national dress of the Philippines and is worn by women. The name is a contraction of the Tagalog words baro at saya, meaning "dress (blouse) and skirt".
This indigenous mode of dressing of the natives of the Philippines was influenced during the Spanish Colonization of the archipelago. In early pre-history, the half-naked style consisting of only the saya (long wrap-around) or tapis (knee-length wrap-around) covering the lower half of the body with bare upper torso, was gradually covered with a collarless blouse called a "baro", which is the Philippine cognate of the Malay "baju". Early Pre-colonial clothing of groups such as the Tagalog and Visayans included both the baro and saya made from silk in matching colors. This style was exclusively worn by the women of upper-caste families, while those in lower-castes wore baro made from pounded white bark fiber. The closest living clothes in the Philippines that still resemble the early baro't saya include the clothing of the Tumandok people of Panay; who are the only Visayan group to have not been hispanized, the clothing of the various Moro groups, and those of the Lumad tribes in interior Mindanao.