THE biggest fashion gig in Northern Mindanao has finally opened with this year's Higalaay Festival. Top designers in Mindanao flocked together to show off their masterpieces in the three-day Mindanao Fashion Summit at the Limketkai activity center from August 3.
Being a core event of the Higalaay festival, the Mindanao Fashion Summit was launched to highlight fashion designers here in Cagayan de Oro and in different points of Mindanao. According to its head organizer, designer Ann Semblante, it is to let everyone see what Mindanaoan designers can do in the world of fashion design.
"I believe that fashion is supposed to be a part of a universal language which we can use to construct our identity," Semblante said.
Some of the principal designers in the fashion show include Mindanaoan brand names such as Ann Semblante, Angela Soriano, Alma Mae Roa, Benjie Manuel, Joshua Guibone, Juniel Doring, Gil Macaibay III, Mark Christopher Yaranon, and Mavy Copper De leon.
The Mindanao Fashion Summit is a three-day event composed of sub-categories such as the Mindanaoan collection, the Menswear collection, and the Ororama orange collection, and the Fashion Institute of the Philippines collection.
Aside from Mindanaoan Fashion designers and their patrons, other people such as students, fashion enthusiasts, photographers, and artists from Cagayan de Oro as well as Davao, Butuan, Iligan, and Bukidnon have come to witness the event.
"Now on its sixth year, we have indeed witnessed the Mindanao Fashion Summit become a vital part of the Cagayan de Oro festivities," Semblante said.