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Monday, November 07, 2005
Mais, pawis, and Paris
By Edgar Dignadice Cadiente
Live Pen (Lithe & Velvet Pen)
"I'VE made it. Paris here I come". This was Emi's text message to me on the eve of October 21, a few minutes after The Philippine Fashion Design Competition 2005 Finals Night in Glorietta Makati. Just imagine the elation I felt when I got the text message. Emi Alexander Legario Englis, a brilliant fashion designer from General Santos City, along with four others, to represent the Philippines in a highly prestigious international fashion competition -- how's that for an elating news?
Organized by FDCP in cooperation with Saga Events, Metro Magazine and Ayala Center, the competition is held annually, with young designers from all over the country as competitors. This year, from a hundred or so who submitted their silhouettes, only 23 made it to the final selection level and Emi, solely representing Mindanao, made it to the top five slots. The elite winners will bring their winning entries to the Concours International des Jeunes Créateurs de Mode Apparel in Paris, France this December, to compete with more than a hundred designers from Europe, Asia, Latin America and other parts of the globe.
Emi's entry is unmistakably a statement on its own. If I may add, a SarGen (Sarangani-General Santos City) pride as well -- a fabulous haute couture oeuvre made of 1,650 pieces of canned soda tabs, 8,000 pieces of ringlet fastenings, 200 pieces reblown bubblets from busted fluorescent lamps, 15 meters kasway (a woven cotton and abaca fabric), and 5 sacks of corn husk.
Yes corn, as in mais. Now, only someone with an artistry of stunning caliber can craft a magnum opus from these seemingly futile wastes. That, dear readers, wowed even the most discriminating judge during the contest.
His painstaking and passionate ingenuity gave birth to a dramatic handiwork. I was fortunate to have been privy to his creation's progress -- from its inception to the stages of formation, until it gradually took form like a glorious butterfly that came out of its cocoon. He challenged himself to integrate the corn husk and solid waste recycling industries of General Santos City and the indigenous crafting techniques of the B'laans in Sarangani Province.
Imagine this: "His visual art inspirations combined the cubist works of Pablo Picasso and Ang Kiukok and the sensual gilded compositions of Gustav Klimt. Given the official BARO AT SAYA silhouette, he reworked the traditional garb into a robe volante and a manteau de cour treating the surface with dyed, crimped, stuffed, embroidered and twined corn husk with kasway as base. An inner sheath, made of chromed soda tabs and reblown bubblets from busted fluorescent lamps, doubled as an accessory and a corpiño". Indeed, from indigenous materials to ingenious masterpiece, a piece apropos for the international theme: Fashion, Arts and the Industry.
The integration was a grueling process. His many nights of sleeplessness combined with the literal sweat and blood, splendidly gave him a priceless prize. Let me share with you a glimpse and voice of this designer-extraordinaire who will bring SoCSKSarGen to world. This was my exclusive interview with him upon his arrival from the competition.
What gave you the idea of using corn husk as a predominant material in your piece?
"I already had an intention of joining again the Philippine Fashion Design Competition this year after my first attempt last year. Originally, I just want to work around coil tab skeletons from canned beverages which were already widely recycled to make wheelchairs. In February, the Philippine Selection Committee emphasized on the use of indigenous materials for this year's theme Art, Fashion and Industry. I was suddenly frantic. I was in search for local and indigenous materials that would be a breakpoint for fashion's innovative rush for the NEW. God's will I believe, when I joined the Region XII delegation last April for the WOW Philippines in Intramuros I had my serendipitous encounter with corn husk, which was our star handicraft product in the exhibition. I had a soulful talk with Tita Norma Ting and Rue Ramas, both of the GenSan Corn Husk Industry, about the possibility of the material for fabrication and explored on the techniques that would translate it into an art-to-wear. From then on, Tita Norma Ting was enthused as well to help and offer her resources - everything fro free. She was already into arts and crafts long before her new corn husk venture. She taught me how to dye and crimp. Our first experimentation of the material was as appliqué for my collection at the Mindanao Trade Expo International which came out to be very promising. I was so inspired. I told myself why not make it the fabric itself. So it begun there. Maize and Paris never left my musing since then.
What's the inspiration of your creation?
The women of creation. I'm so intrigued by their mystery and their power to create. In their wombs we were formed. Through their hands we were led to walk in the open. From their hearts pulsate a humane sensitivity and an empathy. Through their minds we were motivated to express a will, a genius, a power to move the world. That's why they say "mothers of invention." In my growing years I have been surrounded by women: my relentless mother, Mila, who birth me: my two grandmothers, Ignacia and Adelina, who taught me how to talk and sew with fabrics; my high school mentor, Nanang Ruiz, who made me high with ideas; my artiste mother, Brenda, who made me look a colors, never the same way again; my friends, friends and friends who opened my sensitivity to the woman and man in me. Designing is about them. I, the designer, am among the few of the men who understood that experience with them. As you can see, the cornhusk-made robe looked like it births a woman of steel will and power.
What are your expectations in the Paris competition?
To win, of course -- God willing. This is the first for SocSKSarGen and I want to take this opportunity to show the world that ours is a global local. We have so much potential, resources and ideas. We have proven it already with Manny Pacquiao, our tuna industry, our silent art community, our cultural renaissance in Lamlifew in Sarangani and soon our corn husk industry which traverse GenSan, South Cotabato and Sarangani provinces. The technology has been spreading elsewhere around the country now. Thanks to our enterprising women Rue Ramas and Norma Ting for their vision and dedication to make this big -- thinking and doing BIG time.
With your winning entry, how do you think it will elevate our corn husk industry?
I'm confident it will open doors to yet many more innovations. I'm collaborating now with the industry for accessories that will surely go places. A lot of ideas are still lying dormant in the sea. They are just waiting to be fished by fertile hands and passionate hearts. This endeavor I hope will break that surface.
How do you see the Mindanao fashion industry utilizing organic materials?
It's very promising. That sets us apart from the rest of the country. And the world is starting to notice that. Last year, the entry from Mindanao, Garimon Roferos of Davao, using water lily vines placed second in the world standings. He is helping me now with my accessories.
How was the national competition like?
It was very inspiring and challenging as well. After all these years, I realized that designing is not just about talent and sheer creativity. It is about hard work, persistence, and God. It's not about us. It's about God's creativity working through us, touching lives and healing our conditions with colors and shapes that reveal his power and grace.
How will your winning impact your designing profession?
It propelled me to make better my last endeavor. I'm so challenged now to surpass what I had achieved. On top of it all, is my gratitude to God who made all of these possible. He has provided me with artists around who inspired me to do big time and become one myself. My father who is an eccentric artist himself but made use of it in public service; designer friends Popoy and Aztec Barba, Garimon Roferos and my Fine Arts Chair Brenda among others who also had their achievements to boot; and writers Egai Cadiente and Bernardita Ruiz who are so passionate with words inspired me to draw these ideas [into words]. My earnest prayer now is how to stay as grateful for everything that will come my way and how to remain humble with both my feet on the ground. I want to share these blessings to many out there who are also dreaming for the oases. I want them to reach also for the stars even if they have to stand on a cactus.
How do you prepare now for Paris?
A friend in the church is helping me with career branding. She has been guiding me all along since that Manila competition. I also had sessions with my colleagues who had been in the competition. They were helping me condition my mindset with the pressures of the competition and the sudden change of the environment. It will be my first winter in a foreign land. Wow! The competition there is entirely different. Very international, very professional. I have watched the show last year on video and I'm really awestruck. Pierre Cardin was there and these world-renowned designers I just saw on cable and read on papers all these years. The event will be held at the Louvre Museum where Mona Lisa is. I was just discussing her with my students in Art History during the past five years at the Fine Arts School of the Philippine Women's College of Davao. Soon, I'm going to have a different revelation the "Da Vinci Code" missed. I'm just so excited to walk on the runways of the world and wave the Philippine flag and say "Pinoy Ako!".
Go, Emi! With what you have made out of our mais through your blood and pawis, I am certain, you will make it to Paris!
Comments and suggestions are welcome. You may send e-mail to my_eyeview@yahoo.com.
(November 7, 2005 issue)
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