Process. I drew inspiration from ‘work in progress’. I’ve always been fascinated with the unfinished look where certain details are exposed. I like the idea of stopping at a point where things are still yet to ‘peak’. I think it gives excitement and somehow gives the viewers space to imagine.

Model: Tomoe

Dress and Photographs: RJ Santos

Make-up: Anna Santos

Crown: Sasa Blancaflor

Sugar, spice and everything nice aka special thanks to: Pat Vasquez and Ivy Baldazo

My sister and I just graduated from the University of the Philippines. I finished the degree BS Clothing Technology and she finished BS Food Technology, both of which are programs of the UP College of Home Economics. My original plan was to make her dress and just buy my barong. However, 3 days before the graduation, I still was not able to find a nice barong. So, I decided to just make my own barong! Haha

Here is my sister’s dress

It was my first time to use fabrics such as soft tulle, Jusi and Organza. It’s definitely a challenge because these fabrics were insanely hard to work with. I don’t usually make torso fitting dresses/corset, but I knew that that kind of dress would look good on my sister. I used Italian cotton, boning and layers of Gauze and Soft tulle for the corset, Italian cotton, curtain fabric and soft tulle for the skirt and Jusi (Banana Silk) for the cropped barong.

… and here is my Barong Tagalog (formal garment of the Philippines)

Again, it’s my very first time to make a barong and work with Jusi fabric (Banana Silk) … I almost gave up, but then my motivation for finishing it was the barongs that did not fit me well.

I decided to give my own barong a twist by using raglan sleeves and having my own print silkscreened on the barong, instead of having it embroidered. The barong was not perfect, given the lack of time and the difficulty of the fabric, but I still think it’s pretty good haha

One of the reasons why I wanted to make my sister’s outfit for her graduation was because I wanted to see if I’m now able to really create clothes for people to wear, which is one of the main principles of being a Clothing Technology student. I wanted to challenge myself by stepping out of my comfort zone and use fabrics I was trying to stay away from because of their difficulty. The clothes were not perfect, but they weren’t bad as well ;-)