DAVAO CITY (MindaNews / 19 Aug) — A new generation of young creatives are finally taking up their much deserved space in Davao’s fashion community.
During Kadayawan weekend, eight youths introduced themselves as the Davao Junior Fashion Designers and debuted three-piece capsule collections in a show called “The Southern Weave” at The Annex of SM City Davao.
Their purpose remains meaningful and the same as their predecessors: to honor Mindanao culture through fashion materiality.
“New” perspectives and interpretations of heritage fashion appeared “fresh” on the runway. The narrative about preserving culture and championing craftsmanship remained intact. The state of fashion in the community does not appear to ask for change at the moment; just continuity.
Through their own visions, each designer showcased handwoven textiles, indigenous patterns and traditional crafts by embracing “a bold, forward-thinking approach to design.”
Each exit sought to answer this question: what does a truly progressive, ready-to-wear Mindanawon aesthetic look like today?
Bien Cedric Catubig, founder and designer of Bien Catubig, toyed with pastel hues and orchids in his trio of Sunday dresses. Jane Ponggo, the creative behind Etea, produced playful Mindanawon-meets-kawaii numbers. Red Antipolo, the designer of Poliquit, commanded attention through metallics and fabric manipulation that created volume and space.
Sea-inspired sheer, iridescent pieces from Re L Boyles, designer of the namesake label B.oyles, danced and shimmered through light while black and while otherworldly gowns in black and white by Arthur Andrade, creative director of Maison Andrade, paraded like a religious ritual.
Assi Castañaga of Assisi Studios sent black-and-white costumes that featured corsets, crystals, and cutouts; and Jena Quitoga, creative lead at Nene, assembled eye-catching neutral looks through textures and patterns.
Sittie Guijada Anwar, designer behind Layallah, punctuated the show with maximalist modest fashion in bright colors.
The participation of young designers in commercial platforms like mall fashion shows are long overdue. The success of their works are reflective of the genuine effort put in by Davao’s fashion educators and more established “senior” designers. The diversity of emerging stories in the show easily inspires the local creative scene and highlights a simple message: fashion is exciting again.
But it can’t end there. There are many opportunities to turn the spectacle into solutions. Fashion today needs a collective vision and a shift in mindsets. I am reminded of eight items in a toolkit that I hope the next generation of designers would find interest in.
Fashion Values, a sustainability education program developed by the Centre for Sustainable Fashion (CSF) in collaboration with Kering, IBM and Vogue Business, identifies eight mindsets that are rooted in what today’s world needs from fashion in order to thrive; these can bring new perspectives in fashion design, business and communication:
- Activism: The opportunity to have agency as a wearer of fashion. What does activism look like in fashion today?
- Authenticity: Innovations in traceability, transparency, and technology—alongside traditional systems of craftsmanship and heritage.
- Collaboration: Working across disciplines and other traditional boundaries to share knowledge and experience for a collective, holistic response to a problem.
- Ecological Thinking: A nature-centered approach to design. Considering nature’s systems as our starting point and placing nature at the center of all considerations.
- Equity: Referencing issues such as labor rights in the supply chain, but also larger structures and flows of power that affect the business of fashion and fashion’s role in cultures.
- Resilience: The opportunity to create fashion systems that are strong, stable and prosperous, whilst being ready to adapt to a rapidly changing world.
- Resourcefulness: A positive perspective on symptoms of unsustainable behavior, such as waste and limited access to resources.
- Sufficiency: An antidote to the cultural epidemic of extreme consumption—both in artistic and business practice.
Professor Dilys Williams, founder and director of CSF and professor of Fashion Design for Sustainability, said that our mindsets are directly related to everything we create.
“It is our values, translated into mindsets that shape us, shape the world and in turn, shape our abilities as humans, to look after each other and ourselves in our precious home on earth,” she said in Fashion Values. (Jesse Pizarro Boga / MindaNews)
