Chito Vijandre interprets the disco era's modern upheavals
Chito Vijandre’s The Dawn of a New Age closes the Bench Fashion Week Holiday 2024 shows just this weekend with disco dancing and some food for thought.
“It was all done in the spirit of fun and we lived it so it was a fond recollection of these eras but looking at them from my perspective now,” says the designer, who completed the collection with partner Ricky Toledo.
“I chose the ‘60s and ‘70s because it was an era of newfound freedom,” he explains. “I think it would also reflect in our age now.”
Known as the disco era, it was a time of great change all around the world—just like today. And while the “copium” (or coping mechanism, according to Gen Z) of the 2020s is to doomscroll, back then, they danced like Nora Aunor did in Annie Batungbakal, drowning out the looming sense of doom after a long, hard day at work and ushering in the transformation that came after. The exuberance and optimism in Vijandre’s work shakes even the youngest in Bench Tower’s Playground—when the world as we know it seems like it’s ending, shouldn’t we make the most out of the time we have left and welcome change?
Vijandre divided the show into three eras. He uses chainmail to articulate the futuristic ‘60s a la Jane Fonda in Barbarella (1968) in Retro Futurism as “a vision of the future using new materials and silhouettes,” he says.
“In the ‘60s it was Youthquake that challenged the old guard of stuffy Paris haute couture,” he explains. “Now that we are entering a new era after the pandemic and all the crises in the world, we also have to experiment and find new creative solutions to the challenges we face.”
As dangerously short and deceptively simple as they look, the chainmail and silk jersey looks were the most challenging to create. “It had to be precisely done, requiring skill in craftsmanship,” he shares. “Jersey is a very sensitive fabric where flaws are easily seen. The chainmail also needed a good eye and skilled hands. The beaded crochet was also challenging. It’s not normally done since crochet stretches so it’s tricky to do correctly.”
Geometric earrings in gilded beaten metal and exaggerated faux pearls, like most of the accessories in the collection, were made in-house. Along with the chainmail, paillettes and metal discs are fashioned into vests and dresses that shine enticingly like disco ball as models move to Annie Batungbakal by Hotdog.
The sourcing Vijandre and Toledo do for their lifestyle concept stores Firma and AC+632 is highlighted in the collection, hoarding fabrics wherever they go, but most especially in the Age of Aquarius, where they made the most of the flow and shine of silk chiffon, Chinese and Tibetan brocades, silk saris, Varanasi silk, and silk jersey.
Named after the celestial occurrence that took place around 2020, “The era saw a reaction to the materialistic sheen of pop culture by turning to the spirituality of the East,” Vijandre says.
Many turned to spirituality and a community spirit during those uncertain times, and Vijandre interpreted this time of rebirth and renewal with unstructured pieces and a relaxed silhouette made out of luxurious fabrics from across cultures. Glass beads and semi-precious stone earrings and necklaces are like the amulets many continue to turn to today, grasping these stones to borrow their strength.
Each look is visually and texturally rich and layered with intention—a butterfly-sleeve bolero is layered over a bell-sleeve blouse hemmed with lace and topped with a vest in The Last Emperor’s yellow silk; bell bottoms grazing the runway floor.
This sense of freedom is most palpable in the women who wore these clothes—and will wear them. Disco Glam captures the hedonism and wild abandon of the ‘70s but also the women’s liberation movement. It’s very “Studio 54,” Vijandre says. “More like party clothes for sex, drugs, and rock and roll.”
Disco Glam calls to mind when he started his design journey in 1979, dressing Manila’s most interesting and stylish, mounting immersive fashion shows—its sets showing his inclinations for interior design early on—and representing a global Filipino for the most prestigious events for foreign dignitaries at Malacañang. The maximalism and luxuriousness are there in the bold sleeves, styled with neck rings, but all hemlines are mini. If it’s midi, it’s sheer, bejeweled mesh.
The Dawn of a New Age is a year in the making, completed slowly from research to design and execution as Vijandre and Toledo researched from books and exhibits like the James Bond Exhibit (“Designing 007”) at the Barbican, The India and China sections of the V&A and British Museum, and an exhibit on Spanish ethnic costumes at the home of Victor Hugo in Paris, theater performances, and of course, the film Barbarella.
“Sketches would be made from inspirations then fabrics are sourced but sometimes fabrics inspire new designs,” Vijandre shares. “You also experiment a lot in the final draping and cutting so the design evolves.”
In all of his work, Vijandre is something like a time traveler. As a fashion designer, he distills not only the silhouettes and trends of the era but also the emotions that conjure them with every meaningful accessory and layer. There’s no telling what the future holds, yet we persist—we will survive, dancing in our Saturday night best.
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Watch out for more of Bench Fashion Week in this week’s YStyle, out on Friday.