A RetuRn to the RunwAy
The Cebu campus of the Fashion Institute of Design and Arts (FIDA) held its graduation fashion show last February 10 at the City Wing Atrium of SM Seaside City. Billed “Gayak 2024: The FIDA Gradshow”, the runway event was top-billed by the graduation collections of Rea Jarina, Ayka Lim, Sam Lim, Franz Mckillip, Aaliyah Nicole, Franz Mckillip, Erwin Paler, Leel and Jad Solito – eight up-andcoming designers who are set on making waves in Cebu’s everevolving design circuit.
Fineries by FIDA mentors Edwin Alba, Valerie Alvez, Ia Coca, Angela Dado, Mara Dado, Maria Navarete, Yorena Tabar, Mel Maria and Philipp Tampus – as well as pieces by FIDA alumni Eva Aguspina, Rachel Rama, Yoko Sato, Sheena Si and Jeanom Ursua – were also showcased during the event.
“Gayak 2024: The FIDA Gradshow” was FIDA’s first in-venue graduation show after the pandemic – the last being the 2019 iteration of the show which featured the graduation collections of ten designers.
More than the usual culminating activity of a fashion design school, this year’s “Gayak” was different in that it drew all “Efflorescence” by Aaliyah Nicole Aaliyah Nicole’s “Efflorescence” largely embodied what efflorescence means as the process of developing and unfolding – hinged on the transformation of Game of Thrones’ series’ Daenerys Targaryen from a vulnerable to a formidable character.
Botany refers to it as the period or state of flowering, and the collection dishes on this definition by plying on the idea that fashion is in a state of malignant flux – always in the process of blooming; not necessarily set on blossoming. .
“Regaliere” by Ayka Lim Ayka Lim’s “Regaliere” largely espoused the concepts of royalty and nobility in wearable tenses and terms through distillations of designs and regalia that’ve traditionally been associated with European monarchs and nobles.
“Dolls and Bows” by Sam Lim Arguably the show’s most straightforward line in terms of thematic moorings, Sam Lim’s “Dolls and Bows” was a reflection of the designer’s playful side – a side which was drawn to form by amalgamations and parallelisms of the dopamine dressing, barbiecore and quiet luxury trends.
sights to the outputs of students who learned via hybrid inperson-and-online learning modes.
This aspect to the show implied that its presenting designers learned the ins and outs of fashion design with integrations of the Gestalt theory of learning – a learning mode which underscores that a deeper level of learning can come from critically thinking about the whole picture and how the summation of the parts that create the whole interact.
Though the theory is mostly applied in tests that gauge for problem solving and perception skills, it largely charges learners to think for themselves and employ practical applications of what they’ve learned.
This was very much shown – not just talked about – in the show.
More than a show that focused on clothes and designs, “Gayak’s” production gave each of the event’s pieces a sequential storytelling slant that accented their creative score – a quality which alluded to the creative implications of the tagalog term “gayak”, which loosely translates to to adorn, to ornament or to festoon.