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Underrated, Davao Fashion Shines
Davao City-based designers have been winning in international competitions. Yet they are still behind Cebu City in ranking and prestige. Hopefully, things are going to change soon.
By BJ Absin
davaotoday.com
DAVAO CITY -- If you are in Davao City and you feel like slipping into the role of an environmentalist dominatrix, try to slither into one of Garimon Roferos's gowns made of recycled Coke cans.
Or try Emi Alexander Englis's gown, entry to last year's International Young Designers Competition in France, which resurrected beer tabs and corn sheaths. If the day is steamy hot, you can try Roferos's entry to the same competition. Roferos crafted a whole outfit, a head-to-toe ensemble complete with a parasol from dried water lily stems. Both designers and both gowns did well in the France competition.
For sheer glamour, Patahian's trio of house designers -- Dodjie Batu, Aztec and Popoy Barba - will never fail. Be warned, though: "never fail" costs aplenty.
"Davao should have long been on the fashion map of the Philippines had it not been for regionalism," said Aztec Barba. Barba runs the business and creative aspect of Patahian, a dress shop he runs with brother Popoy and friend Dodjie Batu. Davao City has indeed produced a crop of haute couturiers to reckon with. (We will have more of them in another time.)
Davao City-based designers have been winning in international competitions. Yet they are still behind Cebu City in ranking and prestige. Aztec pointed out that local people must learn how to trust local designers first. This should lead to more business, he said.
On the day of the davaotoday.com interview, Aztec was conferring with young clients over a rather expensive wedding gown. Over anecdotes and giggles, he explained that the materials were very special, hence the cost. He told the client the silhouette would be very flattering on her special day.
The young designer does not use the word "in" during conversations. He would tell me later that he is not a stickler for fad or trends. He is more concerned with what will look more beautiful on his client.
Emi Alexander Englis, whose specialty is bridal and formal wear, noted that people are more practical these days, what with the economy not performing as well as it should. Still, Englis will not compromise congruency and coordination. Fashion is packaging and it should be head to foot, he said.
Roferos harks the return of femininity. More lace, more cloth (chiffon or anything soft) and lace on wide skirts for girls.
"This is a time for clothes with more glam, more movement," said Dodjie Batu. "Minimalism is out. Clothes will have more detail work."
Are Davao's young designers poised to put the world's largest city on the fashion map? Not today, perhaps but soon. The doyenne of local artists, Brenda Barba, who happens to be the chairperson of the School of Fine Arts of the Philippine Women's College of Davao, proudly announced that
the school is finally opening a degree course in fashion. This will be the first in Davao.
Barba said that they would train young designers to make clothes using indigenous materials, owing to the fact that Mindanao has more tinalak , dagmay and other indigenous woven materials. All these while silently hoping that Davao can produce a breed of designers who can put the city above the footlights of fashion. (BJ Absin/davaotoday.com)
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