WEAR YOUR VOICES: 2 DECADES OF STREET REVOLUTION
It was an era which you cannot dream up nor invent. It’s tales of red dragon-print dresses, Nora Aunor shirts, and Hello Kitty octopus skirts. It was when fashion shows were as legendary as the off the runway scenes in, say, a hangar, or in a street in malate or an ice plant somewhere deep in the city. It was when the line of status quo of wildly dressed club kids, wayward creatives and young socialites in a glamorous mess were blurred. It was when Mars was a club and not a planet. It was when a new Pinoy op culture was born from the underground and fashion and music was their manifesto. But more than any of those things, it was the golden age of streetwear when the only thing worn twice is the attitude.
Cecille Zamora of Grocery during the 90’s. now known as Chuvaness from her blog of the same name (photo from totidalmacion.wordpress).
There were three houses that took the fashion revolution to the streets, each of them created an army wearing their own specific look: House of Warp created an air of apocalyptic urban style with stuffed cone horns, Kokur/Grocery meld Japanese street style and Pinoy Pop culture to create kitschy couture, and Havoc embraced the dark side with its gothic style of black minimalist pieces and red edging threads.
Adam de Lumen of Havoc. (photo from EddieBoy Escudero)
“Fashion at that time was at the cross roads of severe change, definitely forward-looking along with the rest of pop culture. Music and the scene were hand in hand with fashion, specifically Havoc’s,” shares Adam de Lumen, the man behind Havoc Street Couture who is now part of the creative thinktank of giant European group Diesel S.p.A. It was perhaps the popularity of the rave culture in Manila, the dire need for self-expression and freedom from the norms that pushed these houses to create the clothes they sold.
Brando Umali and Ronald Pasyon of the House of Warp. (photo by EddieBoy Escudero).
In one of our previous chats, one-half of House of Warp, then designer Ronald Pasyon, shared in retrospection that the main reason why they started their line back in 1997 was to fill the hole of edgy and provocative streetwear. “We have something in mind that we wanted to wear but it wasn’t available in the market so we decided to sew our own clothes. When our friends saw them, they realized that it’s the same clothes that they wanted to wear.”
Their designs did not only become an article of clothing, it has become a voice of their generation. Anyone who wanted to say anything wore their clothes and, boy, they were heard.
A decade had passed and the doors of these Houses have closed but the spirit of street wear has lived on. It is perhaps the same fiery soul which ignited the minds of the cultural forefathers (and mother in the case of Grocery as founded by Cecille Zamora) that was passed on to this new generation of independent labels. It is with the same soul that is seen manifesting today, only in a different garment form.
Pat Mosby and Rasos of Proud Race.
Rik Rasos, co-founder of Proud Race, a label now known for their grungy-minimalist designs, said that they started out because of “The never-ending feeling that we don’t have anything to wear.” The same thoughts expressed by Pasyon. When Proud Race was launched in 2007 it only sold T-shirts. The brand received an unexpected favorable response from their fashion clique that when it re-launched the brand in 2009 in a totally new direction, this time as a complete line with well-liked iconic pieces, Proud Race became an instant cult favorite.
Paul Jatayna of OS Accessories in Paradigm Shift.
The dynamics of street fashion has changed at this point. Rave parties were replaced by online fashion communities like Lookbook.nu and Chictopia. The creative melting pot, ABG’s in Pasong Tamo was replaced by streetstyle sites like The Sartorialist and Jak & Jil. The actual streets were replaced with by bandwidths of the information highway. These changes greatly influenced how the youth perceives street dressing. “In the international scene, nowadays you definitely have to be quirky and be visible online if you want to be noticed. There are a lot of blooming fashion bloggers who are so playful and cutting-edge, and because of that, their stylish followers are also influenced with being more unorthodox with fashion,” quips blogger-turned-accessory designer Paul Jatayna of OS Accessories, artisans of now noteworthy vertebrae chokers and bone neckpieces, together with young artist AJ Omandac.
When asked on how he sees the street fashion in Manila today, de Lumen observes that, “Street Fashion in Manila is nonexistent, probably in hiding?”
KarL Leuterio of Paradigm Shift in Proud Race tank.
If Karl Leuterio, an avid Chictopian whose daily outfits receives notoriety among bloggers around the world, is to be believed, street fashion in Manila is in-between the racks of every department stores. It’s not visibly hanging on the hangers but you can see them on yourself. It was that feeling of something has to be done that drove him and his friend Mikael Magallanes to give birth to Paradigm Shift. Their label “challenges preconceived notions of what you think you can and cannot wear,” he said. He added “I see that our label will encourage our generation to further appreciate the unfamiliar elements - imbalance, asymmetry and peculiarity”- exactly the sentiments of their generation. “Raw and offbeat,” as Jatayna would describe themselves. A far contrast from the “aggressive sensibilities” de Lumen would describe theirs.
Nixon Marquez.
The power of everyday street wear is like a modern-day armor. It can be a tool with which to mold your image and can help you present yourself in a certain way. If you think deeply why you are wearing what you are wearing, it is not that you “like” what you are wearing. It is a reflection of your personality. As Nixon Marquez, designer of his namesake label, would put it “people want to buy garments they feel connected to.” Once a jacket is bought from a store, it stops being a mere outer garment to protect you from cold, it becomes an extension of yourself.
These two generations fought the same battle a decade apart. The first inscribed its history and the latter is still writing it. The once young designers had proven that the streets of Manila are a worthy battlefield for fashion and self-expression. The younger ones is threading the same revolutionary road, minus the crazy runway shows. They are, however, fighting in a bigger arena of globalism in which the results we are yet to find out. It will not be an easy fete but it will sure become a sweet story. The only thing that they need not do is stop. If we are to take Rasos’ word on his generation, he said, they are “Unstoppable!”
( ARTICLE PUBLISHED IN THE NOV. 2011 ISSUE OF CIRCUIT MAGAZINE)
Proud Race, Nixon Marquez is available at Myth, Greenbelt 5, Makati
proudrace.tk
osaccessories.com
paradigmshiftclothing.com
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