Green Couture in Philippine Fashion

Philippine Fashion goes green as famous Philippine Fashion Designers launched “Green Couture”. This Fashion Event featured gowns and designs from 11 of the country’s top designers. Aside from spreading eco-awareness, the event also raised funds for the Manila Waldorf School’s faculty training and development program.

The renowned fashion designers create masterpieces from recycled materials such as bubble wraps, plastic bags, straws, sacks and bottle caps. All of these were personally collected by the parents and students of the Manila Waldorf School.

Check out some of the fascinating designs on the runway.

Shredded dress

An estimated 25 sacks of rice were used in creating this yellow and white masterpiece by Tippi Ocampo. All sacks were shredded to a million tiny strips and sewn into this dress and vest number.

The big pink dress

Karen Mijares recycled used burlap sacks for this pretty-in-pink number. With the help of an old tool and used organza, Mijares dyed all materials and put them together to create this amazing dress.

Another design from Mijares is a green creation from old tablecloths. From the lining to the actual textile, a green patterned tablecloth was used. The tablecloth offers a plastic finish to it.

Mijares’ third design was the greenest of all green.

This eco-bag gown was created from recycled eco-shopping bags, which were previously created using recycled textile. Now that’s “recycled” to the second level!

Wrapped up in a bubble

James Reyes was also a big hit with his bubble dresses made from used and printed shower curtains, and overlaid with everybody’s favorite--the bubble wrap. To add gloss, a giant necklace made entirely of used plastic is worn on top.

Golden black

Ivarluski Aseron’s creation was also a crowd favorite. This black and gold piece is made from over 100 plastic garbage bags and tons of flattened bottle caps (tansan) spray-painted gold for that classic look.

Flour sack gown

Dennis Lustico created a wonderful number from flour sacks, which are essentially cloths already. Lustico also made use of the sacks’ print (of brand name) to accentuate the gown.

The event not only showcased the Filipino’s love for the environment, but the Filipino’s creativity and resourcefulness as well.

“Just shows off the Filipino talent as well, to work with something like this, using garbage (for the masterpieces),”.

Other designers who participated in the “Green Couture” event are Jojie Lloren, Kate Torralba, Michi Calica-Sotto, Patrice Ramos-Diaz, Puey Quiñones, and Rajo Laurel.

Now we know what happens when garbage falls into the hands of Philippine fashion’s best—magic on the runway.

Photos courtesy of Green Couture and ABS-CBN