What is "rayadillo"

Rayadillo is a blue and white striped cotton fabric used to make the military uniforms worn by Spanish colonial soldiers before and during the Spanish–American War. The term rayadillo is Spanish, which translates to "striped material". In the mid-19th century, this material was referred to as being of hilo listado azure, or "blue striped thread". It was known as dril azul rayado or "blue striped drill" by the end of the century. Early examples of the fabric seemed to have had light blue stripes which were widely separated, while surviving examples of uniform jackets and trousers from the 1890s have thinner stripes of a darker blue, known during that period as mil rayas – literally, "a thousand stripes". Seen from a distance, rayadillo looked either very light blue or blue-gray.

The Revolutionary Army of the First Philippine Republic under Emilio Aguinaldo also employed the same fabric in their military uniforms during the later years of the Philippine Revolution and the Philippine–American War. In 2005, Gen. Cardozo M. Luna, Commandant of the Philippine Military Academy ordered the revival of the rayadillo material in the cadets' dress uniform, discarding the United States Military Academy-inspired dress uniform long used in the PMA.