PH designer's impressive Central Saint Martins grad collection
TWO years after he first made waves in the international fashion scene with his stunning Central Saint Martins (CSM) BA Fashion Design graduation collection, Batangas-born fashion designer, Jessan Macatangay, brings another pride to the country by being the first Filipino designer to win the L’Oreal Professionnel Womenswear Creative Award.
The said award is bestowed only to CSM’s MA Fashion Class graduates with the best collection. Past winners include Kim Jones, Grace Wales Bonner, Christopher Kane, Mary Katrantzou, Molly Goddard, and Craig Green. This year’s judges include British Vogue’s Fashion Director, Julia Sarr-Jamois; WWD Market Editor Tianwei Zhang; and I-D Fashion Features Director, Osman Ahmed.
CSM is the same art school that legendary designers Stella McCartney, John Galliano, and Alexander McQueen went to.
The said award is the second international recognition Macatangay received for his work. In 2020, he took home the Gold Prize for the Yinger Prize Global Womenswear Emerging Talent Contest for Graduates by the Yinger Fashion Group.
Macatangay’s MA graduation collection, entitled “Sculptural Sensuality,” draws inspiration from the restrictive norm that hinders Filipinas from expressing their sensual side.
The designer noted, “These outdated restrictions are not only thrown at regular women. From celebrities and influencers to models, Filipinas from all walks of life oftentimes find themselves being subjected to bashing, unnecessary judgment, and being told to cover up when they post photos of themselves wearing clothes that do not conform to conservative standards of generations past. In fact, growing up, I even saw women wear t-shirts over their bikinis while swimming just to cover up. This is where my project started — from the fear and discomfort of showing skin. Could there be a way to make women let go of this fear?”
Sculptural Sensuality is composed of eight pieces in total — six of which made it to Macatangay’s MA Fashion Show.
For each piece, Macatangay combined various types of jerseys that he stretched using wired frames to mimic a swimsuit’s outline. The results are nothing short of amazing — clean lines and silhouettes that accentuate the wearer’s body in colors that border between bold and muted. The collection itself is very feminine and sensual yet avant-garde.
“I really want to create pieces for women who adore sensuality without fearing sexuality; and for women who long to relax on the beach with her swimsuit, legs and arms sun-kissed, and exposed for all the world to adore, not judge. She does not want to cover up with a t-shirt while on the beach. She wants to be free,” the designer finally noted.