I have always been a fan of the fashion industry. I love watching fashion shows, I shop clothes almost everyday, I follow influencers with a great sense of style, and I love “mixing and matching” my clothes as well. I’m the type of gal who wouldn’t go out of the house without feeling confident with what I’m wearing. I always want to look my best as much as possible in every occasion. But on the other hand, I am also guilty of shopping in Forever 21 rather than Kultura when I go the mall and having tons of clothes made in western countries but clothes that are made in the Philippines I could count with just one hand. Yes, I was guilty of patronizing western products more than our own. I used to be one of those people who just say “#SupportLocal” but not buy local. But throughout the years, as I grew up traveling a lot of times around the country, I also grew up appreciating our culture more. The more I see the beauty of the Philippines, the more I get to embrace what is truly ours. More than that, I am also surrounded with a diverse environment who values the Filipino culture more than other cultures. Since we patterned our sense of identity with cultures that colonized us before, we have lost our own. With their influence, I also got to see the Philippine culture in another perspective. They shed light to what most of us don’t see and appreciate. We always stick with what is “trending” instead of enriching what is ours. We are more proud of wearing branded clothes made by our neighboring countries rather than being proud to wear locally made fashion pieces up until today. But with the help of social media, we are given more opportunities to appreciate how the Filipino fashion industry is integrating the Filipino culture to modern fashion. Although this started long before, it just began to rise to fame recently. And it fills my heart to see a lot of the young generation to take pride of our culture and cultivate it to what is in today. There are a lot of start-up businesses now who incorporate the baro’t saya, barong, and tribal patterns to casual or formal wear. Other than that, there are also those who focused on other types of fashion pieces such as bags. One of them are siblings Kiana Aniban and Keano Aniban who owns Saya Ph with the help of their mom. They make locally made affordable bags that they cater to the interest of the youth. Their bags are made of different leaves such as “lauhala” and “tikog” that they mix and match with different beads and woods and get them handwoven in Negros. They firmly believe that their product could instill the value of Filipino fashion to the youth. After witnessing several more Filipino fashion pieces throughout the years, I can say that there are a lot of brilliant and creative Filipino fashion enthusiasts that we should be proud of. One is Jose “Dora” Dorado, a clothing technology graduate of UP, Diliman. We asked him, in his own opinion, how does he think we could integrate filipino fashion into modern fashion today, he said: “It is already integrated if you know where to look.” We just have to have a perceptive outlook and not be blinded with western products. If a person like me who used to buy nothing but westernized clothing pieces and only had an eye for western fashion suddenly buys locally made fashion pieces now, then you could also change your fashion sense and embrace what is truly ours. Embrace what is truly Filipino.
Immersing Filipino Tradition Into Modern Fashion 