Anting Anting Collection

Name: Mahal Kita Crewneck Sweater
Brand: Pinay Collection
Price: 55.0 CAD
Availability: InStock

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A Letter from the Artist

I’ve been thinking about the phrase, “wear your heart on a sleeve” and on love.

It stems from my year of big heartbreaks (2023). I am okay now, I tend to my tender spots still, but that year changed me. Maria Montejo shared with me many things but it was her who told me to keep my heart open and to remain vulnerable. So I followed the path that would help me understand what these meant. What I am about to share are reflections on the wisdom of a broken heart. I share these because I am witnessing us all tending to our own form of heartbreak.

Back to the phrase. I used to have this silly image of what it must feel like to wear your heart on a sleeve. A gentle free spirit wearing a flimsy t-shirt going around trying to connect to people doesn't wear shirts but their own version of armor built up by seasons of past hurt. Depending on who you are or where you are in life, I imagine you would resonate with either type, as I have.

In the process of mending a broken heart, I’ve moved away from this image. I feel now it undermines our capacity to heal and tap into the full spectrum of our human experience. This to me feels harmful.

Instead, I’m finding more similarity in wearing your heart on a sleeve to wearing an anting-anting vest. The ones worn by warriors of old times and new who face their opponents in battle. The sleeve and vest (which is really an undershirt) imply this flimsy cloth like quality and yet, both hold so much power. If wielded right, they can be used for protection and help you get what you desire. You yourself become powerful.

When warriors wear anting-anting, they are able to achieve incredible feats or become somewhat invincible. Do you not feel this when you are deeply in love also?

To wear your heart on your sleeve is to be so open with how you love, how you want to be loved, be seen and to connect to people you have chosen. I think then of the courage it takes to have to wear your heart on your sleeve. It must be the same courage of those with warrior spirit. The courage stems from a profound truth that what you are showing up for is worth exposing your vulnerability–one is your heart, the other your body.

Do you know of the EDSA Revolution nuns? It is them that comes to mind where love and warriorship converge by both being vulnerable and courageous. They took it upon themselves to become the first line of defense against Marcos’ soldiers. The soldiers were trigger ready, ordered to kill anyone in defiance of him. The nuns came ready to lay their life but faced them with only their habits and rosaries for strength & protection. They did it because they loved their fellow Filipino people. This is the same for Land & Water Defenders worldwide, for Palestinians, for our Indigenous and Black kapwa. I think of this everytime we show up and choose life despite all the potential violence (personal & political) waiting for us.

There is nothing more warrior like than to show up with your whole self, bare chest out, for something you wholeheartedly believe in. And there is nothing more loving than to show up with your whole self, bare chest out, for something you wholeheartedly believe in.

When I say wearing your heart on your sleeve now I mean, to love unconditionally because that is what it takes to show up with your whole self. This is enduring type love. The kind that lasts a whole life time. It is the love that heals and invites revolutions. I am rooted in this truth about this way of loving. I feel very much protected and powered by this knowing. It is what makes me unshakeable in how I show up in the world. It is what makes me keep trying.

Some of the lessons I am currently integrating is what inspired my collaboration with Pinay Collections. I created three anting-anting of loving protection to help with embodying these lessons (the wisdom of a broken heart). An anting-anting is made with or holds an intention. There are secret prayers (orasyon) and images made specifically to activate the power held in them. They are also made with divine intervention stemming from a harmonious human, nature and spirit relations and deep faith. From time to time, these anting-anting need recharging or clearing.

The three anting-anting are made with the intention to love and to protect us against the external and internal forces designed to break or hurt us. Each of these embodies the wisdom/ lessons of a broken heart which are simplified into phrases. These phrases rooted in love act as prayers that we can invoke when we need the most guidance. They help us return to our centre. They are: Mahal Kita, Bumalik sa Sarili and Hinga at Pahinga. These prayers are embedded in the design in baybayin. Like secret orasyon, you don’t always see it. To be able to wield the power of these lessons, they must be worn, embodied. Wearing the anting-anting with these intentions will help you do that. The anting-anting amplifies the enduring love that already exists within each of us. That is the energy of these anting-anting. To recharge it requires faith. Faith that you will see that enduring love in yourself and in others. Wearing these anting-anting makes it easier to tap into this power with one another. I do not believe that someone who does not move in the world out of love and liberation will wear these. May you feel ease and reassured in knowing that this power is held and strenghtened not by a singular person or entity but by each other.

Ismatu Gwydolyn was very correct when she said, “Revolution is a faith-based practice” because it requires us to have faith in ourselves and in each other to hold and mend our broken hearts and live that freed reality we all speak about.

Althea Balmes, April 27, 2024

About the Artist

Althea Balmes (she/they/siya) is a multidisciplinary visual storyteller & arts-educator. I carry the Ilocano and Ilonggo lineages and stories of my ancestors. My artistic work focuses on the multiplicity of our experience of migration and diasporic personhood. I tap into the ancestral, the sacred and the intangible cultures of my people. I approach this work like visual ethnographies to connect to past, present and future existence and the Unseen worlds. My work is about deepening our human experience and being a witness to alternative worldviews and realities. For my people, my hope is that the work is healing.

Mahal Kita Crewneck Sweater

$55.00 CAD

Hinga at Pahinga Bucket Hat

$33.00 CAD

Mahal Kita Tee

$38.00 CAD

Bumalik sa Sarili Pin

$15.00 CAD

Mahal Kita Crewneck Sweater

$55.00 CAD

Beyond the Word

The design and anting wanting (amulet) of this sweater is straightforward. It is an image of a person embracing themselves completely with the words, mahal kita around it. The ambiguity of who this prayer is being said to (is it you, the reader, or you the wearer?) mirrors the deep understanding that unconditional love requires us to acknowledge our wholeness and that of others. For extra support, we have added, “sakto lang, hindi nagkulang” on the inner sleeve specifically for the wearer. We want to remind you that you are made exactly right and nothing about you was ever missing. You have always been whole.

In this system, we are taught to focus more on our lack. Systems of oppression will amplify our shadows, the parts of ourselves that are made to hide because of fear, shame, rejection, or whatever else so that we can disconnect from our whole sense of being and instead comply with a false source of a higher power.

This is why to say, “mahal kita”, is such a powerful prayer and spell. The Tagalog double meaning of mahal says, I love you, and I value your wholehearted existence in my life. This is why people say love is revolutionary. It liberates and affirms all our authentic ways of being.

Design and artist statement by Althea Balmes

Product Features

Individually heat-pressed and checked for quality
Beige/ Natural sweater with 50% cotton, 50% polyester
Soft feel and reduced pilling for no loose thread
Set-in sleeves for a relaxed fit
Wash in cold & hang to dry to prevent shrinking and fading
Length is measured from the highest point on the collar down to the bottom hem
Width is measured across the body of the shirt, one way

Size Chart (in inches)

Looking for a size but can't find it in our chart? Please send us an email at hello@pinaycollection.com and we'll try our best to accommodate your sizing requests!

Size	Width	Length
S	20	27
M	22	28
L	24	29
XL	26	30
XXL	28	31
3XL	30	32

Hinga at Pahinga Bucket Hat

$33.00 CAD

Beyond the Word

Hinga at Pahinga translates to breathe and rest.

The design for hinga at pahinga is inspired by the sitting position of one who is practicing mindfulness. It is a stylized illustration of one who is at ease and in connection with their breath. As you look in more detail, the mouth is fully opened, a reminder that we are always whole. The hand comes together to form a heart, an homage to the overall message of self-love, self-compassion in the practice of breathing mindfully.

This figure is created by writing the prayer, hinga at pahinga written in blue in contrast to the peach colour. By intentionally obscuring the prayer from our vision you are invited to feel and embody this prayer instead. Underneath the image is the word pahinga written in baybayin. A direct reminder to return to our breath so we can reset to our natural easeful state of being.

Thich Nhat Hanh said that the path of coming home is with the breath. Breathing mindfully helps us listen to our own suffering. And the act of acknowledging our feelings without judgment is an act of homecoming (in the here, the now, in the present & in the body).

Our own ancestors understood the significance of breath or air. I will always be in awe and in gratitude to them for giving us the code to good relations through our script, baybayin. I reflect on the baybayin HA ᜑ (doesn’t this look like how you would draw wind?). HA is the foundation syllable for any words rooted in air, wind (hangin) and breathe (hinga). Such as ginhawa, the tagalog word for wellbeing. In many Filipino indigenous teachings, the breath is understood as our spirit, our essence. Our diverse teachings emphasize our well-being depends on our harmonious relation to self, nature, spirits and community. Our breathing tells us when we are not in harmony in these realms, so it is good to pay attention to our breath and the air in our body.

To return to our breath is to return to our essence. I see this to mean, reset our nervous system and to realign back to the rhythm of mother nature. The act of rest (magpahinga) is to give attention to our breath so we can reset to our natural harmonious easeful state.

Design and artist statement by Althea Balmes

Product Features

Corduroy style bucket hat
Adjustable
Hat circumference: 22.83 inches
Adjustable strap included inside

Mahal Kita Tee

$38.00 CAD

Beyond the Word

The design and anting wanting (amulet) of this sweater is straightforward. It is an image of a person embracing themselves completely with the words, mahal kita around it. The ambiguity of who this prayer is being said to (is it you, the reader, or you the wearer?) mirrors the deep understanding that unconditional love requires us to acknowledge our wholeness and that of others. For extra support, we have added, “sakto lang, hindi nagkulang” (meaning just right, nothing less) on the inner sleeve specifically for the wearer. We want to remind you that you are made exactly right and nothing about you was ever missing. You have always been whole.

Design and Artist statement by Althea Balmes

Product Features

Made from 100% Heavy Cotton
Color: Beige/ Natural

Care Instructions

Our designs are heat-pressed onto fabric. To ensure they last a long time, please only wash and tumble dry inside out. If you need to iron, only iron on the backside of the clothing.
Wash in cold & hang to dry to prevent shrinking and fading.

Size Chart (in inches)

Length is measured from the highest point on the collar down to the bottom hem.
Width is measured across the body of the shirt, one way.

Unisex Sizing

Size	Width	Length
S	18	28
M	20	29
L	22	30
XL	24	31
XXL	26	32
3XL	28	33
4XL	30	34

Bumalik sa Sarili Pin

$15.00 CAD

Beyond the Word

A broken heart will make us face all our truths. Some of which Jen Maramba calls, “the truth of a lie” because sometimes the world will vibrate in the frequency that tells us, we’re the problem. Due to our own personal reasons we’re going to accept that vibration and believe that truth of a lie.

This is the truth: There was never ever anything wrong with us. We were made perfect as is. So we don’t have to prove this to the world or to ourselves that we are anything but what we are. We don’t have to overcompensate or minimize our light or try too hard.

We just be, be loved. Act like we’re loved. And we will remember and forget this over and over again because life is truly a series of loud challenges and small joys (at least right now). We are so receptive to either because we are creatures meant for connection. Unless we deeply embody the truths of being loved and being whole, our effort will stray us towards these truths of a lie and will make us behave in some whackshit ways.

Our receptivity to how people perceive us is that direct link to our gift of human sensitivity tuned in for connection. It is our embodied truths that are the filtration system to how we will respond to our reality.

The Bumalik sa Sarili anting-anting is about returning back to ourselves and being rooted to our real truth. The ones that stem from a deep understanding of who and what we are in the midst of everything that’s happening around us. It is about cultivating a deep trust in ourselves by being clear and radically honest about our prevailing truths that lead us to do the things we do. The design is a figure who is so connected to themselves that their actions and their words align. The prayer, bumalik sa sarili (return to self), is embedded in the design in baybayin written in purple partially obscured as an invitation to cultivate this through embodiment.

Design and artist statement by Althea Balmes

Product Features

1.5 x 1.3 inch, acrylic pin with rubber lock