Maroons go green for fashion

By Wayne Agramon, Olesa Arellano, Christine Barrete

(Photo by Kriss Milan)

Product Design students of the University of the Philippines (UP) Cebu made a statement as they debuted their punk harajuku collection made out of recycled materials at the Green Fashion Revolution (GFR) last August 3 at the SM City Cebu’s Trade Hall.

Finishing off at fourth place, UP Cebu’s intricate and dark designs portrayed rebellion. “Our designs showed that we need to rebel because of the degradation of the environment due to capitalism,” says Van Oscar Tabaloc, one of the participating designers. 

UP Cebu was being represented by the twenty-six Product Design students under the supervision of their instructors, Aya Ng and Palmy Tudtud. 

Organized by the Ramon Aboitiz Foundation, Inc. (RAFI), the GFR project aims to promote and improve mother earth's well being with the use of raw and recyclable materials. By using ones’ creativity, the group had to come up with unique designs made out of tarpaulins, flour sacks and x-ray sheets, which were provided by RAFI.

This project is held annually, encouraging the participation of fashion design aspirants from various universities in Cebu that offer product design courses. In turn, it is a means to develop the students’ resourcefulness and creativity.

According to Bethel Pena, 2^nd year Product Design student, there was very limited time to finish the designs. They were only given at least two weeks to finish and the only method allowed to use was the traditional one instead of the modernized sewing machine.

Despite finishing at fourth place, GFR coordinator Palmy Tudtud said that she is not satisfied with the results. “Not happy with the results. We deserved a better ranking.”

Riva de los Reyes, one of UP Cebu’s models, feels the same about the result. On a text message she said, “I’m not saying that UP should be the winner. In terms of marketability and material manipulation I’ll go for UP.”

But even if the result made the whole team upset Miss Tudtud is still open to join next year’s GFR.

“I will continue to encourage and motivate students to join the contest again but they have to decide if they are still interested.”

                Dawn dela Torre, Jun Lee Casipong and Rish Marion decided to use the given materials to come up with a “skater boy” concept because it reflects the personality of their chosen model. The designer trio came up with a remarkable piece with a two-layered top with a grey three-fourths sleeved shirt for the inner and a shimmering white-and-black vest for the outer. His lower apparel was a porcelain white tattered shorts and his shoes showed had spikes, which portrayed rebellion and punk in a fashionable way.

                When asked how she felt during the whole competition dela Torre laughingly said, “Confident mi nga ma best male model si Gelo. Nya confident sad kaayo among model. (We were confident that Gelo would bag the best male model award. And he was even more confident than we)

CNU bagged the top prize bringing home Php 20,000 and another Php 40,000 for the implementation of an original environmental project for the school’s barangay of choice. Following CNU is University of Cebu-Banilad (2nd place), University of San Carlos (3rd place), University of the Philippines-Cebu (4th place), University of the Visayas (5th place), and Banilad Center for Professional Development (6th place).

This year’s Judges for Green Fashion Revolution were Dexter Alazas, a Cebu City fashion designer; Maria Gigante, Miss Cebu 2013 2nd runner up; Chad Africa, AboitizLand, Inc. Assistant Vice President, Branding and Marketing; Cristine Cabatingan, Aboitiz Equity Ventures, Inc. Talent Retention Manager; and Augusto P.I. Carpio III, Aboitiz Foundation Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer.

Sustainable Fashion

GFR 2013, one of the Aboitiz Foundation’s sustainable projects that advocate the improvement and well-being of mother earth, has reconciled environmental issues with creativity and art. Now on its second year, the organizers have adopted sustainable development as a theme.

In line with this theme, the goal of this event is to promote sustainable fashion –fashion trends that are self-sufficient, productive and diverse over time. Instead of using machinery that utilizes electricity to produce fabric, the participating schools were encouraged to make the most out of traditional techniques. With more earth-friendly of producing materials, sustainable fashion also points toward social change by advocating fairer employment models, and empowering community projects.