Creative Rebirth
Homegrown brands reimagine heritage at 70th Manila FAME
One feels instantly transported to what seems like a haven for designers, craftsmen, and enthusiasts of creativity upon entering the World Trade Center. Natural elements such as wood, abaca, rattan, and many others come in various forms, radiating both warmth and elegance.
Such is the look and feel at the latest edition of Manila FAME, Asia’s premier design and lifestyle show.
For years, local designers have been actively looking to the rich and diverse culture of the country to create works in fashion, furniture, pop culture, and other creative industries that not only showcases Filipino talent, but also celebrates national identity.
It’s exactly what the latest show of Manila FAME highlighted. With the theme, “Heritage Reimagined,” the 70th edition of the bi-annual, threeday show exhibited modern interpretations of time-honored traditions of Filipino craftsmanship from over 300 home and lifestyle brands.
“In recent years, there has been an outpouring of nostalgia and reimagining of iconic and heritage design pieces,” says Pauline Suaco-Juan, executive director of the Department of Trade and Industry-Center for International Trade Expositions and Missions (DTI-CITEM). “It is through this yearning for creative rebirth that we highlight the inherent beauty and distinct creativity of Filipino culture.”
As a number of participating heritage brands are from the same family, this edition also means carrying the design legacy that has been passed on from long-time participants to the next generation of creatives.
“For over 30 years, Manila FAME has shared the journey of excellent artistry with these esteemed brands,” Juan says. “In commemoration of this cultural feat, we seek to narrate their stories and showcase their unique craftsmanship throughout the years.”
Legacy exhibitors who showcased their collections include Shell Arts (houseware), Cyprea International (fashion), JB Woodcraft (furniture), Acento (lamps and lighting), Larone Crafts (fashion), and S.C. Vizcarra (fashion).
FRESH CONCEPTS
Consistent with Manila FAME’s thrust to highlight exquisite and world-renowned artistry in product design as well as mastery over raw and unique materials, this edition’s flagship feature was only fitting.
Called Design Commune, a curated exhibition space displayed all the products from the merchandise development program of the same name.
From this community of creative prime movers’ inspiring collaborations are 57 participating brands with 350 newly-developed products between them. Design Commune’s veteran product development team is composed of Stanley Ruiz (home and lighting), Nix Alañon (furniture), Andre Chang (fashion), and newcomers, junior product specialists Kitty Bunag and Mia de Lara (home).
With sustainability being a breakout theme and advocacy this 2019, Manila FAME also introduced a special area highlighting standout homegrown enterprises from the country’s green and eco-sustainable sectors.
Eco-Lifestyle Pavilion exhibited green business practices such as sustainable materials and processes, and the products in furniture and home, fashion, gifts, and beauty and wellness that came from these methods.
Among returning show features included the Artisans Village which brought the spotlight to distinctive regional products. This time, in partnership with the Design Center of the Philippines, exhibitors from Antique and Marawi showcased their local crafts and weaving traditions that portray their cultural identities and a sense of place deeply rooted in history. Live demonstrations during the exhibit showed their use of native materials, as well as how it was processed, crafted, and fashioned into end products.
Following a successful first run, Fashion E-tailers was back for another showcase of the online fashion marketplace, the country’s rising fashion entrepreneurs, designer commercial brands, as well as the latest local trends taking the Internet by storm.
A KATHA ABOVE THE REST
In recognition of Filipino artistry, creativity, and ingenuity, Katha Awards named the edition’s best designs.
A hallmark of Philippine product design excellence and innovation since 1990, Katha Award gives distinction to original designs and skillful exploration of new materials or processes to produce market-responsive products. It has also served as a challenge for exhibitors to raise their design standards for export products through constant creation.
A board of judges, chaired by AA Patawaran, lifestyle editor of The
Manila Bulletin, include Suzy Annetta, founding editor of Design Anthology; Ma. Lourdes Lacson-Pineda, senior vice president of Rockwell Land Corporation; Marga MontemayorNograles, founder and owner of Kaayo
Modern Mindanao; Liza MoralesCrespo; and Alicia Colby Sy, executive editor of Town & Country, have chosen standout items from this edition of Manila FAME.
Winning Best Product Design in fashion was “Shield,” a backpack made of rattan and leather by Rita Nazareno for
S.C. Viscara Inc.
‘In recent years, there has been an outpouring of nostalgia and reimagining of iconic and heritage design pieces. It is through this yearning for creative rebirth that we highlight the inherent beauty and distinct creativity of Filipino culture.’
“It comes in a plethora of different weaves,” Nazareno tells Manila Bulletin
Lifestyle Home. “Everything is handwoven, so this is where our workshop and the skills of our team come out.”
On what has inspired the piece, she says it’s from looking at “everything from Wonder Woman to the works of American painter, sculptor, and photographer Cy Wombly at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York.”
“I’m glad and really excited,” Nazareno says about receiving a Katha Award again. “It’s always nice to be acknowledged [and] recognized.”
Topping the category of Best Product Design for festive/ seasonal decor was “Animal Ornaments,” a selection of miniature farm animals and wildlife made of buri by Klassy Collections and Design Co.
“All of these are handmade,” Ruben
Orillaza says, co-owner of the Lagunabased enterprise. “When the use of indigenous materials became a trend, we happened to be in Bicol where we saw buri, an abaca-like material. We thought of what we could do out of it, a product that can also help the people of Bicol. After a few experiments, we decided on the animal ornaments.”
Designs of these export-only items come in a wide variety of animals such as owls, tigers, squirrels, panda, rabbits, among others.
As one of the only two makers of such products in the country, Orillaza feels that they carry the Filipino pride every time they exhibit in other countries.
“Others can’t seem to recreate this because buri can only be found in the Philippines,” he says. Orillaza says this material grows from the sides of what he describes as a tree that resembles that of coconut.
“We also put in a lot of work in this tiny piece,” Orillaza says. “The two winning designs, for instance, took an hour each to make.”
In the furniture category, Mandaue-based Finali Furniture and Home Accessories’ “Fiori Chair” won Best Product Design.
“If you look closely, it’s a flower in the form of a chair,” says Angelo
Cadungog, designer of the piece. He makes use of rattan and velvet in his winning creation.
Cadungog also reveals that Fiori, a design he has come up with in a rush to have something to complement his nature-inspired collection, is a way for him to play around with materials and ultimately, to bring natural elements into a home.
Schema’s “Hush Hush” lamp, meanwhile, won Best Product Design for lamps and lighting. For their standout piece, this company stuck to what it knows best, metal weaving, while adding something they have never done before.
“Normally, we only do one weaving style and color for our lighting fixtures’ interior and exterior,” says Celia Jiao, founder of Schema. “For this product, however, we used two different kinds of weaves and colors in one. That’s what sets it apart from the many designs we’ve done in the past.”
Jiao’s son and the piece’s designer,
Jerby Jiao, has taken the concept of a yolk and has reimagined it into Hush Hush, putting and diffusing the light at and from the center.
Dominating the home and decor category for Best Product Design was Oricon Corp.’s Stone Collection, which highlights the natural beauty of stones.
“It was the designer who gave me the idea,” says Giselle Magcalas, president of Oricon Corp. and exhibitor at Manila FAME since 1993. “He told me that the stone itself is very beautiful, unique, and organic so it should be mounted in a really simple base like
palochina wood.”
Magcalas says the stones in the collection, all from the rivers in the northern part of Tarlac, are regular in shape but one-of-a-kind in their natural state.
For turning trash into a useful material, Masaeco Inc.’s “Pebble Bowls” got a special citation on eco-design.
“At Masaeco, we buy our own packaging for our products. We buy full sheets of carton and when we wrap up products, there are always scraps thrown away,” says Wataru
Sakuma, president of the Japanbased company. “What we did was we recycled them, brought them back to pulp, and molded them into different products.”
With all the innovative products gathered in one place, it is now time for these to “go out” of the world in order to be appreciated, and ultimately, to be produced and used.