Asia Society presents Filipino Design Now: Filipino heritage through the eyes of celebrated designers

Asia Society presents Filipino Design Now, a special showcase of top Filipino designers. This special display coincides with Philippine Gold: Treasures of Forgotten Kingdoms, an exhibition of over 100 spectacular works of gold from the 10th to 13th century, highlighting the creativity, prosperity and cultural connections of the precolonial period.

Asia Society celebrates the artistic visions of top Filipino designers in this exclusive showcase conceived by Filipino jewelry designer Federico De Vera. An arbiter of taste, De Vera is a gallery owner of antique objects, curios, and jewelry, and more recently, the author of De Vera Objects andDe Vera Jewelry.

Presented in Asia Society’s lobby, the showcase features exclusive collections by fourteen renowned Filipino designers who have been invited to create products inspired by their interpretation of Philippine culture. Filipino Design Now provides an opportunity to experience the rich culture and heritage of the Philippines, promoting appreciation of and inspiring pride in Filipino design, material and craftsmanship. Signature pieces from these talented designer’s collections have been selected for inclusion in the display, with the balance of the collections featured for sale at AsiaStore and online at AsiaStore.org.

Featured designers include:

– Maricris Brias, home textiles. Brias and her local artisans are committed to reviving the native artistry of Mindanao’s ethnic tribes, manufacturing textiles and home accents created from local abaca and banana fiber, handwoven exclusively by T’boli and Mandaya natives.

– Lenora Cabili, fashion. Cabili’s designs are inspired by tradition, mixing the past with present, creating unique garments that incorporate ancient techniques of weaving, embroidery and bead work from indigenous Filipino groups.

– Federico de Vera, jewelry. De Vera strives to find new lives for old things that have been discarded, and reinterprets them from a different point of view. Today his pieces are comprised of antique elements, often simultaneously organic and baroque, each unique and one of a kind.

– Ian Giron, home accents. Giron creates home accents using coconut shell as his base and combining traditional methods of sanding and bleaching before applying gold leaf to achieve color and patina, a process that has been widely used in Asia for thousands of years.

– Jewelmer, jewelry. Golden South Sea pearls are the centerpieces of the brand. Through a highly selective process, these elusive gems inspire artisans to create finely crafted jewelry to fulfill Jewelmer’s celebration of beauty in harmonious symmetry with nature.

– Josie Natori, jewelry. Natori’s iconic, global brand, the House of Natori celebrates Asian aesthetics with the spirit of Natori’s adopted home in America, effortlessly melding the visual best of both the East and the West.

– Tina Ocampo, evening bags. Ocampo’s luxury brand Celestina,is comprised of a collection of evening bags, handcrafted by Filipino artisans, practicing age-old techniques and using exotic materials that can only be found in the Philippines.

– Ditta Sandico, fashion. Sandico transforms indigenous fibers, such as banana, pineapple and abacca into a fashion art form, designing wraps that follow the movements of the body.

– Wynn Wynn Ong, jewelry. Favoring stones in their organic, untouched states and incorporating materials not often associated with jewelry, Ong combines unexpected elements into her meticulously hand crafted jewelry designs.

– Anne Saguil, fashion. Saguil combines her passion for craftsmanship and fashion, designing clothes, handbags and accessories using hand embroidered techniques and indigenous handwoven materials.

– Rafe Totengco, minaudières. Totengco’s signature minaudière evening bags, featuring indigenous Filipino materials, blend uptown sophistication with a downtown edge.

– Bea Valdes, jewelry & accessories. Valdes takes inspiration from various cultures, sourcing materials, patterns and ideas from around the world for her high-end accessories while continuing to shine a light on the Philippines as a design hub as she supports local artisans and their craftsmanship.

– Natalya Lagdameo, novelty textiles. Drawing on work as an interior designer and inspired by heirlooms and artifacts from around the archipelago, Lagdameo creates textile designs utilizing local Filipino materials.

Filipino Design Now is supported by FedEx Express.

Grasse

The Healing Garden.  Rosessences!

 During my last journey, I felt the need to experience being on my own and to contemplate on what my life was leading me to. I have visited Francois and Helena's farm in Grasse, in the South of France a few times before, but this time I knew it would be different. Lo and behold! My friends have transformed their eco-farm into a beautiful rose garden, complete with a distilling plant to extract the oils from the delicate petals of the flowers.

It was harvest time for the farm. So I jumped right in, and helped out in plucking roses from the bushes.  Well, it was quite an experience not knowing exactly what I would get myself into. Back bent and my hands full, I managed to pluck the flowers everyday for several days. I allowed the images to speak to me and this is how it went.

At that time, I was nursing a heavy heart. As the days passed, I noticed how immersing myself with the beauty of nature and the rose essences have opened my heart and allowed me to feel more joy and happiness in my life. For a while there, I thought I was simply in denial of my feelings. But as the days grew longer, I knew then that my heart was ready to love my innermost self and accept the life I now had to live.

The time in the farm went by slowly. I guess it was all I needed to mend the brokenness. I soon realized that after going through the major battles of my life, I felt an ocean of love was pouring through me like gentle waves on a warm sunny day.

With this, I have the deepest gratitude to the Lord for allowing me the freedom to get back to myself and to my life’s journey. Sometimes, we need the quiet moments like these to be away in silent contemplation and just be in tune with our Almighty Father, either back in nature or alone to ourselves.

"Give up all the other worlds

except the one to which you belong.

Sometimes it takes darkness and the sweet

confinement of your aloneness to learn

anything or anyone

that does not bring you alive

 is too small for you."

-David Whyte

Sustainable Fashion Designers Spotlight: Ditta and Abaća (banana fiber) silk

It's Banana Week here at The Future King & Queen, so we are exploring and celebrating all the amazing things that are made from Banana Fiber - because it's a Future Fabric with a lot of good qualities, as we discovered in our earlier post explaining what it is, and why it has so much potential as an eco-friendly fabric.

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DITA SANDICO ONG

All of these gorgeous items in this post are made by Ditta, an accessories label based in the Philippines, which is the creative outlet for Dita Sandico Ong.

As a fashion designer with almost 30 years experience, Dita Sandico Ong was one of the earlier designers working with alternative fabrics.

She designs wraps & soft bags made from Abaća fibre, which accentuates the beautiful lustre of the fabric. It's breathable and therefore perfect for the tropical conditions of the Philippines, where the Abaća fabric comes from.

ABAĆA FIBER IS MADE FROM BANANAS?

Abaća is a species of banana native to the Philippines. The fruit is not edible, but the stems are made into multiple items. The inner part of the stem yields the silkiest fibres, which are woven into the beautiful fabrics used by Ditta for their wraps.

Handbags are made from both the silky fabric and the thicker woven Abaća leaves.

“Be daring, be different, be impractical, be anything that will assert integrity of purpose and imaginative vision against the play-it-savers, the creatures of the commonplace, the slaves of the ordinary.”

— CECIL BEATO

Bale Mi

Fernandina "Ditta" Sandico, stilista filippina all’Expo 2015

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Milano – 12 maggio 2015 - Le Filippine non partecipano a EXPO 2015 a Milano, ma questo non impedisce ai filippini di esserci con il loro talento e la loro creatività. 
 È il caso della stilista Fernandina “Ditta” Sandico Ong, invitata all’esposizione da una ditta che espone nel padiglione francese. Così ora può promuovere le sue creazioni in fibra di banana, piña e abaca. 
 

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All'inizio non ci credeva. “Sono cose che non accadono così, è davvero un privilegio essere stata invitata alla mostra al Padiglione francese",  ha detto Ong ad Akoaypilipino.eu. Poi però si è messa al lavoro e non si è fatta sfuggire questa occasione. 
 
Il linea con il tema di Expo 2015,  "Nutrire il Pianeta, energia per la vita", nel padiglione francese il tema è anche "Textifood", fusione tra tessuti e cibo. Proprio come nelle creazioni di “Ditta”, che sfruttano materie prime naturali e spesso commestibili.
 
Ong sottolinea, in particolare, l’importanza dell’abaca. “È una delle fibre più resistenti del mondo e per questo i filippini, che ne producono l’85% di quella presente sul mercato, devono esserne orgogliosi. Penso che sarà la fibra del futuro”.
 

Filipino designer’s local weaves featured in Amsterdam museum

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Filipina fashion designer Ditta Sandico is a featured artist of the Tassen Museum in Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

Sandico’s collection of handbags is on display at the museum from Nov. 4 to Jan. 25, 2015. The Tassen Museum houses the world’s foremost collection of bags.

The Embassy of the Philippines in The Hague, in cooperation with the Philippine Honorary Consul General in Amsterdam, together with the Tassen Museum, organized the exhibit opening on Nov. 3. The mini fashion show had models carrying samples of Sandico’s products and performing a traditional ceremonial dance clad in her famed wraps.

Philippine Ambassador to the Netherlands Jaime Victor B. Ledda described Sandico’s designs and products as clear illustrations of the marriage between concept, innovation and the use of indigenous materials. He added that what was truly groundbreaking was how plant fibers can be converted into an array of bags, wraps and clothing accessories. “But that is what Ditta has done and continues to do: innovate in the world of fashion,” Ledda said.

For years Sandico has embraced an ecologically friendly design and production process. She has continued to make use of and transform natural plant fibers such as banana and abaca—banaca—into fashion art forms. The Sandico design is considered both innovative and timeless and is noted for its elegance.

Her advocacy on the use of local materials has helped elevate natural plant fibers and inspired an appreciation for the use of these materials in the fashion industry. This has generated the needed support for the weaving industry in the Philippines, where a considerable number of operations are located in the provinces.


 

Ditta Sandico Holiday 2014

Ditta Sandico makes her runway debut as she reinterprets the classic barong for the moden filipina with shift dresses and checkerd patterns. 

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Dita Sandico’s ‘banaca’ is the new eco-chic

Once used to make common products such as slippers and ropes, the abaca is repurposed into a luxury eco textile.

A pioneer in the local eco-fashion movement, designer Fernandina “Ditta” Sandico sustainably produced her signature fabric from the exotic plant musa textilis. She christened it “banaca,” because abaca belongs to the banana family called Musaceae.

“I’m leveling up the look by adding more embellishments and coming up with bigger wraps,” she says. Sandico is underscoring her forte as the “Wrap Artiste.”

In the shoot with Anna-Maria Heidorn, the spouse of the German ambassador, Sandico shows how her garments could be twisted, scrunched and rolled into bulbs, rosettes, petals, scallops, cabbages, butterfly wings and other interesting shapes. The shirred and gartered capes can be worn like a column, puffed like an onion bulb or fluffed like a tutu.

“That’s our new story. We’ve come a long way,” says Sandico, who redefined contemporary Filipiniana. Unfussy and low-maintenance, the wraps are designed for the busy career woman who wants to wear local without looking too traditional.

After graduating from Tobe-Coburn in New York, Sandico worked as a fashion merchandiser for the now-defunct, family-owned C.O.D. Department Store. Meanwhile, she also started producing her line of clothing using inabel from Ilocos Sur. These native handwoven cotton fabrics were used for bed sheets and towels.

She gave the inabel a new fashion spin. She also developed other fibers such as piñalino or pineapple fibers blended with Irish linen.

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MINAUDIERE made of kamagong,mother-of pearl and ethnic patterns by the Mangyans

“A few years back, I realized I wanted to focus on the local. We were doing linens and cottons which had to be imported. The supply for pineapple fibers was limited. On the other hand, abaca is abundant. We’re one of the top three producers of abaca in the world,” she says.

She credits weavers Elisa Reyes for showing her the possibilities of abaca.

Another weaver and entrepreneur, Virgilio Apanti, showed her samples of abaca fabrics produced by Tupas ng Baras Multipurpose Cooperative in Baras, Cantanduanes. Unlike the rough abaca used for ropes and slippers, the artisanal abaca exudes a sheen and softness. It is stiff enough to hold unique forms, yet pliableto follow the movements of the body.

Since 1995, the designer has been working with this cooperative. “I wanted to help them. So we started from scratch. I didn’t know how the plant looked like. We stripped off the trunk to get the yarns, knotted them from end to end, bleached and dried them. Although it is very labor-intensive, this is how we keep the tradition.”

The weavers were trained in natural dye extraction and advanced weaving techniques for abaca.

“Instead of migrating to Manila to work as domestic helpers, we’re giving them jobs. Even the out-of-school youths learn this craft. This will encourage them to stay. That’s the social entrepreneurship aspect.”

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MINAUDIERES made by Mangyans are part of Sandico Ong’s livelihood program

Sandico Ong admits she had to establish a rapport with the abaca. “I couldn’t cut it like most fabrics. The fall wasn’t the same,” she recalls. “I had to think out of the box. I commanded, ‘Perform! Do what you want.’ I asked for divine help. With His guidance, the design just flowed. I shaped and reshaped, wound it around, according to how it draped the body. I never went against it.”

In keeping with the spirit of eco-friendliness, she recycled the scraps by making them into visors, tiny scarves and pouches. When she wears her uniform of a linen tank top, dark slacks and thongs made of banaca and mother-of-pearl, she coils a scarf around her neck or covers her shoulders with these easy-wearing scarves.

Sandico’s clients include ABS-CBN president Charo Santos Concio, actress Chin Chin Gutierrez, the Friends of the Cultural Concerns of the Philippines, and the diplomatic corps.

One of her patrons is Madame Heidorn, who googled the designer after receiving a banaca purse as gift.

Her wraps are sold in major department stores such as Takashimaya in Japan, the Banyan Tree resorts in Thailand, and high-end shops in Singapore.

She recently went on a tour to promote her fabrics and wraps in Amsterdam, Paris, Berlin, Abu Dhabi and Dubai, sponsored by the Philippine embassies and on a grant from the National Commission on Culture and the Arts.

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THE VERSATILE banaca can be used to wrap presents.

The collection included her Mariposa line, which consisted of the modified wraparound panuelo; the Mori, the long banaca tunic with slitted armholes; Mira, which is distinguished for its pleated fabric. Mira Nila is cut on a bias and worn like a bolero or jacket.

“This is the way to go in the international market. Banaca is easy to maintain. You can travel with it and it will stay in shape. And it’s unique to the Philippines,” she says.

To the designer, the banaca is a metaphor of the Filipino. “It’s resilient. Our people have been through a lot but they bounce back.” Just like the banaca, it will always retain its original shape after all the manipulating.

Ultimately, Sandico debunks the perception that the fashion world is all about appearances: “It’s about working with materials that can sustain the environment and communities.”

Read more: http://lifestyle.inquirer.net/98257/dita-sandico-ongs-banaca-is-the-new-eco-chic#ixzz44f82cZBM 

That’s a wrap: In vogue

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A new creation that is set to make environmentalists happy and the fashionistas curious is emerging from the Philippines and is slowly making its way across Europe and the UAE.

The wraps, made from the natural fibre of abaca (known globally as Manila hemp), has been trending in the Philippines for the past years with local women celebrities, as well as, diplomats abroad wearing them.

A brain-child by Dita Sandico Ong, a well-known Filipino fashion designer and owner of Cache Apparel, the “pieces of fabric” can be wrapped around like shawls and used as accessories or as complement to an outfit.

“They are very versatile you can wear them in several ways. One piece of wrap can be worn in six to eight different ways, or even more, depending on your own creativity,” explained Ong.

She was in Abu Dhabi and Dubai this week to present her signature creation after a promotional trip to Paris, Berlin and Amsterdam, where she held several fashion shows.

Speaking to Khaleej Times about her aspiration, Ong said: “I would think that this fabric is now getting its place... It’s now getting into high fashion and looks like eventually reaching the (European and UAE) markets.”

“And I think it’s pioneering because we are really trying to break through the market just now,” she added.

The banana-like plant, abaca, comes from the banana family and is indigenous to the Philippines. Abaca fibre is obtained from the leaf sheath and considered three times stronger than cotton, and its fat content more resistant to salt water decomposition, making abaca suitable for the production of specialty papers (such as currency paper and cheques), ropes, furniture and textile/fabrics.

“I’m probably leading the pack of designers who can actually experiment and draw from this fabric so much potential,” stated Ong who has worked with powerful Filipino women that included broadcast journalists Mel Tiangco and Corina Sanchez, and Filipino amabassadress.

The idea to create a wrap out of the abaca fabric came out of “desperation”. Ong related how she fell in love with the fabric and couldn’t bear the thought of cutting it for apparel.

“So I wrapped it around myself, looked in front of the mirror and I danced. I was just making it run through me, feeling the energy. It felt very soulful,” she said.

What makes the banana-abaca wrap different?

“It is very unique; quite exotic, because not everyone has seen this fabric. It has its own sheen. If you notice, the fibre is silky silvery and has its own structure,” Ong explained.

Through mix and match, or combination, the wrap also creates that “new look”, evolving the Filipiniana (traditional formal wear) style into the twenty-first-century fashion.

“This one has more edge and can be worn on formal or casual occasion. And it comes in different colours (through natural dyes),” said Ong.

And because of its natural composition, the fabric “breathes” making it ideal for tropical climates. “It is nice to actually have air moving around you,” Ong pointed out.

“On the other hand if it gets too cold, you can wear thermal underwear and long sleeves. You can top it with a pretty scarf and you’re off to another country,” she added.

Another important element of the wrap is that it can be worn by everyone.

“We don’t have a size, it fits all sizes. No limitations in terms of who can wear it,” the designer pointed out, adding that because it is lightweight, you can easily pack or roll this in your suitcase or hand bag when travelling.

It is also very easy to maintain. You can handwash it using a mild soap and water, hang to dry and press using a flat iron. It doesn’t require dry cleaning. And because it doesn’t get brittle, the lifespan of a wrap can go down generations “as long as you care for it and you don’t cut,” cautioned Ong.

However, with price tag ranging from €100-500 (Dh470- 2,350), Ong’s creation is not for everybody.

“It has a niche market; it’s the upper crust, and mid-level too, because a lot of women in the offices and a lot of balikbayans (overseas Filipinos), the diplomatic corps and celebraties like to wear these things,” she said.

And that’s for a very good cause too, as the abaca textile gets woven the traditional way, thus creating livelihood and sustainable income for the villagers in Catanduanes, a province in the Philippines’ Bicol Region. The use of abaca also helps spur the fibre industry and bolsters the country’s cultural heritage through the conventional weaving process.

Ong said this is her way of giving back to the community.

Grace Relucio-Princesa, Philippines ambassador to the UAE, underscored the importance of creating job opportunities in distant provinces that could impact the financial status of the family.

She said that local economic development would help minimise the outflow of Filipino migrants and potentially “make migration by choice” in future.

“These are dreams that we are weaving together and hope to help humanity in future by giving more livelihood projects,” said Ong.

In additon to banana-abaca, Ong also works with a combination of other natural fibres in her creations. These include pineapple and linen or “piñalina”, and pineapple with silk or “pinyasilk”.

Asked if she would consider designing apparels suitable for Arab women using natural fabrics, “I’m sure we can toy with some ideas,” Ong simply said.

For now, she is looking at tying-up with other designers here and perhaps hold a fashion show in future.