Maybe Toronto Life meant it’s the world’s only Philippine Fashion Week outside the Philippines.
But yeah! Philippine Fashion Week is already ongoing in Toronto and it’s looking like a solid event. “The turn out tonight was insane,” Rambie Lim of Ancestral Crafts tells Coconuts Manila over FB messenger “both from the Filipino community and the local Toronto fashionistas.”
This is the second time that the city of Toronto is hosting a Philippine Fashion Week. It’s a six-day fashion feast spread over three venues with 25 designers showing their collections this year. “We’re looking forward to the polished aesthetic of Roland Alzate, the head designer of Philippine lifestyle brand Bench and creator of London label Alzate Londres,” writes Jean Grant on Torontolife.com.
There are a lot of events happening: Apart from runway shows and exhibition booths, there is also the model-of-the-year competition tomorrow night, as well as a by-appointment-only pop-up shop from Filipino designers on Saturday, June 14.
Rambie says people are pretty excited for returning designers like Francis Libiran and Kim Gan, and “then Mama Rene Salud, Frederick Peralta, and there’s so much more,” she gushes. Rambie is there to showcase our rich weaving heritage by way of the Habi fair, the same one that held at Greenbelt late last year.
READ: Why don’t more people know about the rich Philippine textile tradition?
“I did interviews for Pinoy, local and international media,” she relates, “and they were in awe with the fact that everything I brought was handwoven. There’s this girl who wanted to buy the Hablon for her mom, who is from Iloilo but hasn’t gone home in forever. There was a local designer naman who liked the Inabel because it looks embossed, just like his designs. It’s pretty amazing actually.”
If you want to follow this week-long event: Instagram.com/cpfwto.
