8 Pinoy designers debut in Tokyo

She adds, “These urgent conversations have guided us in conceptualizing PHx Tokyo,” in which designers Joyce Makitalo, Jerome Lorico, Neil Felipp, Bagasao, Feanne Mauricio, Jill Lao, Kelvin Morales and Ha.Mu were mentored by experts on Japanese fashion — H3O Fashion Bureau’s Jason Lee Coates and Hirohito Suzuki, and Lit Fashion Consultancy’s Tetta Ortiz Matera — on how to win over the discerning Japanese market.

“For perspective, in numbers, it was two years of preparation, eight months of mentoring sessions and one global pandemic that our eight PHx Tokyo designers had to undergo to produce a collection that reflects the signature diversity of our country’s design tradition,” said Juan.  “And I’m happy to report they delivered.  They tweaked, bent, adjusted, and even practiced restraint to achieve the right fit for Japanese buyers.”

We know our fashion designers are extremely talented. Today it’s time for Japan — and the rest of the world — to find out.

Feanne

Artist and surface pattern designer Feanne Mauricio specializes in maximalist illustrated pattern designs for printed fabrics and wallpaper, typically featuring stylized Philippine flora and fauna. She has been exhibiting and publishing her work since 2006 and producing her own line of wearable art pieces, like silk scarves and reversible kimonos, since 2015.

The keywords Feanne had in mind for her collection were “dainty” and “dreamy.” “I wanted something that was kind of soft and very, very pretty,” she says. “They’re very accessible as well, like the silhouettes are pretty simple and they’re easy to wear. The prints make them stand out.”

Since the Japanese favor light, breathable and soft fabrics, she was advised to cut all her designs from silk and cotton. “My key piece is still the reversible robe, which has really been my favorite. I’m hoping that the Japanese market will find it appealing as well.”

Instagram: @feanne

Jill Lao

After a corporate career, a degree from Parsons School of Design in New York and a year’s immersion in Paris, designer Jill Lao felt prepared to design her own line of women’s wear that is multi-use, stylish but comfy, and meant to last for years to come.

“I really wanted something very voluminous, easy to wear, something that you can quickly throw on,” she says. “I always go back to the concept of a duster, something that feels like second skin and it should be as comfortable as pajamas but you look presentable to the world.”

Thus, she worked with a lot of transparent, translucent materials like lace, eyelet, matte organza, and cotton twill with a sateen finish.

Lao says if she can’t move in a clothing piece, she won’t put it in her collection.

“When I started my development process, I looked at the fabrics: Does it have a little bit of stretch, and if not, is it cut in a silhouette that allows movement? I also prefer to work with light, breathable materials, preferably wrinkle-free or wrinkle-resistant so it’s easy to care for.”

IG: @jill.lao

Bagasao

PHx cofounder Joseph Bagasao, the designer behind the brand Bagasao, trained at the Fashion Institute of the Philippines and was awarded Designer of the Year. After several internships, he landed a job as an embroidery designer for Josie Natori.

Always concerned with environmental and ethical issues within the fashion industry, Bagasao strives towards a meaningful design process, sustainability, craftsmanship and subtlety.

“This collection is more of my personal experience, and I feel a lot of people can really relate because we’ve all been in the same zone of lockdown for quite a while,” he says.

He continues, “I wanted to create something that’s very relaxed, very airy, still very tasteful, but I’ve always imagined this collection to be like in the film of Slim Aarons, a lifestyle photographer during the ’50s, ’60s and ’70s. He had this certain ability to really show the goodness of life, and I wanted to emulate that. It’s really more of like imagining your future, and really looking forward to something that’s positive.”

The mentors advised him that the Japanese didn’t want to show too much skin or have too tight of a neckline, but Bagasao says, “I always had to come back to what is true to me as a designer.”

IG: @bagasaostudios

Neil Felipp

An industrial design student, Neil Felipp San Pedro is very much involved in his family’s three-generation metalworking business in Cebu.

“The first thing that I start off with a collection is a storyline,” he says. Known for his Siren minaudiere with its mermaid clasp, “I had this idea of what would happen if the Neil Felipp siren goes on an adventure in Tokyo? She sees this concrete jungle and wants to check it out, but before she steps onto land she has to bring something from the sea or else she will forget who she is and where she’s from.”

Consequently he did whimsical accessories like a bucket bag with a little octopus on it, and tote bags illustrated with coral. “I grew up loving the Little Mermaid,” he explains.

It’s the first time Felipp is launching soft bags made of twisted leather and abaca that was hand-dyed or infused with metallic thread “to give it this sheen that looks like when the sun hits the sea.” The materials were so new he had to work with three communities of artisans: weavers, quilters, and bag assemblers.

“I balanced out the structure of the bag into something a little softer for the Japanese to enjoy because we were always having this discussion of, there has to be something kawaii.”

IG: @neilfelipp

Ha.Mu

Ha.Mu is an independent local brand founded in 2016 by two designers, Abraham Guardian, who grew up in Singapore, and Mamuro Oki, who grew up in the Philippines.

As Guardian is a maximalist and Oki is a minimalist, there’s always a conversation between the two on how to balance the aesthetics that go into their pieces.

“The inspiration behind our collection ‘Flowers of Youth’ really highlights our childhood and going through the different stages of life, good and bad,” Guardian says.

Ha.Mu got their close friends to send them their childhood photos for inspiration. “We want to try to think like a child, kasi we realized that as a child there’s no limit to whatever they think,” Guardian says.

For Tokyo they decided to work with very familiar materials like cotton, twill and denim “since this is our first legit RTW launch,” he continues. “We tried to figure out how to do fabric manipulation so that there would be different levels of details in the designs.”

“Because most of our pieces are digitally embroidered and some are hand-embroidered, you can call the hand-embroidered stuff kind of one-off,” adds Oki.

One of their main ideas was to deconstruct the idea of a school uniform and apply that simple concept to an RTW collection, where people can bring a Ha.Mu piece with them anywhere they go, to any occasion or function.

IG: @_ha.mu_

Kelvin Morales

Kelvin Morales, who took Fashion Design and Merchandising at College of St. Benilde, started out as a menswear designer with avant-garde leanings who would also do custom pieces for women like Nadine Lustre.

“I’m not just a designer; I call myself an artist also because I translate the energy from my art to my pieces,” he says.

Known for his embroidery, Morales dabbles in digital embroidery but never loses sight of hand-guided embroidery. “We need to support our local artisans,” he says.

For his PHx Tokyo collection he narrates a story: “It’s about future dystopia, where people are getting genetically deformed because of exposure to toxic chemicals,” he explains.

“I took inspiration from that and translated it to futuristic and rugged pieces.” In our human evolution, he continues, we expect to become super-advanced in the future, “but we’re not turning into that, because now we’re exposed to the virus.”

Thus, he made pieces that are all about protection: “We developed techniques so we made water-repellent pleated pieces — medyo PPE pieces — but it’s protection, giving you more luxury vibe. I divided the pieces into outerwear water-repellent pieces that you can use as your protection, and lounge pieces that are semi-futuristic, like going to the future.”

IG: @kelvinmmorales

J Makitalo

Award-winning jewelry designer Joyce Makitalo started her Tokyo collection in June 2020, “and it was life-changing for me.”

Mentor Jason Lee Coates talked about relevance, “so I looked to the ’60s for inspiration, because I sense a similarity between then and now; there’s a strong energy of rebellion that happened back then and movements are cropping up, so I thought to make a collection that married simplicity with the mod subculture.”

As with previous collections Makitalo uses a lot of symbolism, “but this time they have simpler, cleaner, more modern lines.”

Her favorite piece is called Astro Smiley: “Instead of the typical smiley face, I made an alien,” she laughs. Since the Japanese are fond of pearls, she did a modern take on pearls in a pastel palette, and adjustable cuffs.

“One of the changes I had to make was to use more regular-shaped stones, because if ever you get a big order then it’s easier to find the stones,” she says. “I consider that one of the challenges. I love using irregular shapes.”

She also loved big pieces and had to scale them down to a point she thought she was losing her identity as a designer. “But in the end, it was such a great thing that I went through this because I learned how to adapt, to be more flexible and now I feel I can do more things.”

IG: @jmakitalojewelry

Lorico

Lorico is the brainchild of Jerome Lorico, who has been in the fashion industry for over a decade, making his brand a directional creative outlet that includes home, fashion, accessories and art.

“When I was starting to curate my collection for PHx Tokyo, I was really aiming to get something that has the DNA of Philippine culture but at the same time can be introduced really easily to the global market,” he says.

Lorico started from his childhood memory of seeing Mayon Volcano erupt: “I was on my way home and everything was covered in ash fall,” he says. “For a child, it was more like a dream, because everything was gray and covered in a blanket of dust.”

At first he wanted a palette of acid colors like sulfur yellow, but it would have entailed using harmful synthetic dyes, so he opted for earth tones instead, in fabrics like cotton, polyester fiber and abaca.

He wanted to make something different for the Japanese market, so he baked the synthetic fiber to achieve a different texture, and applied a solution to the abaca so it would be waterproof.

“It was a really difficult process at first, but I’ve discovered that you have to keep doing what you believe in to make your concept be seen clearly by the audience.”

IG: @jeromelorico and @lorico_official