Menswear in the Philippines is a pretty new industry. Unlike London, New York, Tokyo or Milan where menswear are distinct and are established that they have achieved a specific look imminent to their specific region, Philippines is still experimenting. I have to admit, our menswear culture here are in transition. Being a South East Asian country with rich indigenous ethnic background and various European and neighboring Asian influences, we only started to adapt the Western men's fashion at the turn of 20th century. Though, it is true that there were previous influences mixed with local flavor (like adapting suits but in linen fabric to adapt to the tropical climate), it wasn't until then that we truly competed as a fashion industry in a global sense.
This season's Menswear collections are very diverse. I'm not sure if this is the effect of the youth culture, social media and the internet that the most favored collections are those that echoes Juun J., Rick Owens, A. Wang and the likes kind of designs from young and older designers alike. The more established designers, most of them capable of producing their designs in numerous pieces, are the ones who showed "finer" collections. Fine, meaning, clothes for adult man who are into finer dressing like suits and tie. There are so many factors why our local designers create what they create. For instance, off the runway, attendees during the fashion week were dominated by the under 30's who wore blacks, boys in Givenchy-esque skirts, girls in Balenciaga-inspired oversized sweaters and so on. If the designer wants a fully-packed hall of audience, then his designs should appeal to this demographic. The suit-and-tie designers on the other hand were scheduled on a very inconvenient slot of Sunday noon. Why and how? I have no idea.
Both, the youth-centric collections and the suit-and-ties showed a very well-presented collection this season. But since this blog is for 30-something men, I've chosen 5 menswear designers who topped their game in finer dressing (in no particular order).
Melchor Guinto
Theme: Modern Baroque
Color: The collection started with dark goldenrod, purples and blacks. They've introduced faux-leather biker jackets in the middle that meld with black on black brocade to more opulent brocade fabrics at the end.
I'll be a little biased on this one, as I was hired to style their show, but in all fairness, the clothes are truly bespoke. Suits and pants were well-made and fabrics, as I was told, are truly expensive. I like the military jackets as alternative to regularly lapeled ones. Turtlenecks made the look contemporary, as seen with this season's Gucci. Brocades are the suit-du-jour of the colelction but I personally find them loud for my taste. As I've heard one person said,"Pang-artista!" Translated, "meant for celebrities," as seen on celebs Raymund Guttierez's and Tim Yap's styles.
M Barreto
Color: Black on Black
M Barreto is the go-to designer of many young male celebrities. His modern take on suits incorporated leather on lapels and sleeves added a young and edgy feel to his collection, still keeping it red-carpet friendly. He showed variety in lapels. My favorite and I think was the most underrated is his double-breasted blazer which I would wear anytime.
Frederick Policarpio
Color: Cerulean, Black, Gray, Indigo
Perhaps the most radical (and still wearable) and ingenious menswear to see on the runway this season os the short-sleeved suit. I'm not sure how the Italians would react, though. I like how he took the suit to another level by making them tropic-friendly. I'm in love in his color palette especially the Cerulean + Black combos. It's fresh and well-thought especially when paired with polka-dotted black and white brogues.
Arnold Galang
Theme: Post-Apocalyptic Renaissance
Color: Black and White
Edgy and Sartorial. Probably best worn in pieces than altogether but who cares. Da Vinci's Renaissance Man refers to a person whose expertise spans in different subjects so the idea here is extremism.Galang's man is widely knowledgeable in numerous subject areas that he may well be creative and poetic that he needs an ensemble to represent him.
Jinggo Innoncillo
Theme: Print Abstraction
Colors: African prints
Jinggo's collection seems to be heavily inspired by African ethnic prints with sporty casual swag. It's young and easy to wear. There were no pretensions. The pieces are easy to wear and looks comfortable, too. His printed shirts are good additions to your casual wardrobe if you love colors and prints. I particularly like the varsity jacket and the red suit+shorts combo. Perfect for holidays.
credits: All photos grabbed from Status Mag Facebook page
credits: All photos grabbed from Status Mag Facebook page
No comments:
Post a Comment