Beauty and Fashion

[ad]

Here’s a great story found at Channel New Asia – it quite interesting that the fashion is showing off our love for the Philippines! I think its quite outstanding that the people are finally waking up and trying to do something about it!! This is such a great story…and do pass it on…

Nationalistic fashion gains popularity in Philippines
By Channel NewsAsia’s Philippine Correspondent Christine Ong | Posted: 30 January 2010 0024 hrs

To check out the video go to – Fashion in Philippines

From t-shirts, to bags, to pillows, and even wall clocks, Filipinos just cannot seem to get enough of nationalistic yet fashionable items.

“We are an all-Filipino brand,” said Rhett Eala, creative director of Collezione C2. “Hundred per cent of our products are made in the Philippines. So we wanted a symbol representing Filipinos. So we decided on the (Philippines) map, put it on the shirt. We decided on a gold map first and then it just snowballed from there to an entire collection.”

Also flying off the shelves are trendy shirts bearing the face of the country’s national hero, Jose Rizal.

Mon Punzalan, founder of Team Manila, said: “We made a design where Jose Rizal is wearing aviator shades because he represents the modern Filipino. The sunglass-wearing Rizal is an icon now.”

The huge popularity of these iconic apparels are also attributed to the millions of Filipinos working and living abroad.

Joey Qua, chief executive officer of Collezione C2, said: “When Filipinos are living abroad for many, many years because of their work, they want to have something that will remind them of where they came from and their roots, and they want to represent our country well, in wherever location they are around the world, and they want to let people know that they are Filipinos.”

Designers refer to this growing pop culture trend as fashionalism. By combining fashion, art, and nationalism, designers hope that they would be able to inspire a young generation of Filipinos to do their share for the country.

With the 2010 elections just around the corner, Filipino designers said that it is crucial to inspire nationalism and pride in every Filipino.

“If you see some of the t-shirts in our store right now, we have designs like ‘Protect the Ballot Boxes’, ‘We Need More Heroes’, something related to the upcoming elections,” said Punzalan. “We are very concerned about what will happen next year about the elections.”

By incorporating current nationalistic issues into fashion statements, Filipino designers are ensuring that fashionalism will be more than just a fad.