metro magazine feature: jayvee fernandez, saab magalona, lissa kahayon

FEATURE

Cult FollowingsINQUISITORS CONSTANTLY SEARCHING FOR THE WEARABLE, HUNTERS OF FASHION TRENDS

BEFORE THEY HIT THE STORES AND STREETS, STYLE CURATORS RAISING OUR BAR OF TASTE, CRAFTSMEN EXPLORING CROSS-CULTURAL AESTHETICS, VOICES RAISING OUR CAUSES TO THE WORLD,

AND FIGURES CHANGING THE WAY LIFESTYLE IS CONVEYED ON-AND-OFFLINE— THESE PEOPLE ARE REDEFINING WHAT CULT FOLLOWING MEANS IN TODAY’S MANILA

BY G EO L E T T E E S G U E R R A / TEXT BY N A N T E SA N TA M A R I A / PHOTOGRAPHS D O C M A R LO N P ECJ O (ARTISTS), B R A D V I L L A L O N (ADVOCATES AND NETIZENS), AND R OY M ACA M (AESTHETES, STYLE HUNTERS, AND POSTMODERNS)

STYLING E L DZS M EJ I A / MAKEUP E M M A N U E L C O N C E P C I O N (KAHAYON, LUNA, OPOSA, FERNANDEZ), D O N D E J ES U S (D’ABOVILLE, MEJIA, PEÑAFLORIDA, AND TAN), BY R O N V E L AS Q U E Z ( IGNACIO, WATARU, CANELA, BUENSUCESO, AND SANTOS), K A R E N SA N TO S (MAGALONA, GUISON, CONCEPCION, AND YABUT), P O N G N I U (SINGSON AND CO), A L D E L EO N (SYJUCO, DARYLL, AND PINEDA), IYA CALATA (ESTRADA, LOTHO, LEUTERIO), G E RY P E N AS O (MAGALLANES, GONZALES, AND LOE), A L L FO R M . A .C. / HAIR M A RY G R AC E CA N A L ES, ZA N I Z Y N

M A N R I Q U E , AND EST E R B E R N A D O S (ARTISTS, NETIZENS, AND ADVOCATES), M A N LY B O H O L , AND I A R U A L BA N U (STYLE HUNTERS, AESTHETES, AND POSTMODERNS) FO R V I V E R E SA LO NSHOT ON LOCATION AT ENDERUN COLLEGES, BONIFACIO GLOBAL CITY / SPECIAL THANKS TO GEISER MACLANG, YELLOW CAB PIZZA, AND KRISPY KREME

THE AESTHETESBang Pineda, Rossy Yabut and Bong Rojales of Heima, Michelline Syjuco, Thysz Estrada, and Mano Lotho

ME TRO 154 JU N E 2012

THE STYLE HUNTERSJP Singson, Carlos Concepcion, David Guison, and Camille Co


FEATURE

AS SOCIAL MEDIA CONTINUES TO CHANGE the shape of publishing, so does every personal-ity behind every username and profile picture stalked by online Manila. Traveling, whether for the world’s fashion weeks or for business trips, has never been close to our home headquar-ters, demanding real-time updates and reviews before runway trends are even on print. Our independent fashion labels watch their pieces fly off their online racks and they’re counting new stockist fast across Southeast Asia. High end designer brands are refurbishing their pieces in our boutiques as collections expand into Pre-Fall and Resort increments. Our artists are becom-ing increasingly multi-disciplinary, raising the

craftsmanship and price points on what once were largely utilitarian or decorative. Our social advocates are reaching wider in exchanging best practices and in gaining home support from the international circuit. There has never been a time when lifestyle is so enmeshed with per-sonal branding, and the means of subscription is practically free. There is no shroud covering the cult leaders—designers, stylists, merchandis-ers, marketing minds, artists, activists, and technopreneurs—changing the code of Manila’s beliefs.

THE AESTHETESMANO LOTHO“It takes a while to build up to a taste level,” Mano Lotho is referring to the refinement of H&F, from which Manila owes its access to the globe’s designers du jour, “and it also takes a while for people to commit to buying items.” Lotho came into the marketing of the H&F group—Homme et Femme, Fred Perry, Univers, recently Comme des Garçons, and latest Y-3—only in the last two years after putting together a curated art show as the culmination of his undergrad thesis. But instead of working in a fine arts gallery, he chose to deal with racks of fine clothing. “I think taste is encompassing. Regardless of what you do, it manages to creep up and show in your work,” he says. So while Lotho’s fashion background is rooted in streetwear—the wonders of collect-ible sneakers, which crept up to trousers, and then to shirts instead of the expected silkscreened hip-hop or punk tees—he traded in some of his pieces for button downs, selvedge, and most recently, a skirt. “I like playing with people’s minds—to make them say ‘Why is he wearing it?’ and to and make it digestible,” he says. From the way the company is expanding, Lotho looks braced to let their customers eat sweeter cake.

BANG PINEDAIn the first installation of the Ayala Malls Style Origins last May, Bang Pineda presented quite a striking collection instead of the classic suits expected of menswear. Well, there were suits, but they had straps at the back and studs on the shoulders. Think Thom Browne S/S 2012, which featured strong shoulders with goth spikes. “It’s something not an ordinary man would wear, and I don’t care if they won’t,” Pineda con-fidently says. “I have my own market.” If only to don the colors Pineda used, these men already need not care for stares. And to appreciate the volume and the space with which people will be willing to get close, it takes a mind eager to discover not only a different aesthetic pleasure but also an insight into human behaviour. He meets many of these peo-ple when they’re behind the camera—actors, hosts, show people who earn for showing extraordinary personas. Aside from being a veritable designer for clothes and even shoes, he is also an in-demand fashion stylist for the likes of actor Jake Cuenca and singer Sarah Geronimo.

He makes them look camera-ready from head to toe, building their superstar images from the ground and up.

MICHELLINE SYJUCOWhen National Artist for sculpture Napoleon Abueva asks you to get started on making jewelry, you do it. The man was so pleased with Mi-chelline Syjuco’s first cuff—a miniature sculpture, which she attached on a bracelet—that he asked her to join an upcoming show, Anitos y Otros. “I did it for an entire year, non-stop, like I was possessed. I made 88 pieces for the collection. I couldn’t give it up,” she recalls. While some artists shy away from fashion, she considers it part of her art. Each piece is unique, and she makes everything by hand and by herself. She is only honoring her parents. She listens to her mother, Jean Marie, who gave a challenging dictum: “Dare to be different.” She follows the creative footsteps of her father Cesare, pioneer of experimental art in the Philippines. The eccentricity began at home as they had furniture in the ceiling, making some fanatically religious parents think they worship the devil and hence banning their kids from playing with them. “But now that I’m older, people come to me and say that’s cool,” she sighs. And cool she is. Come July, she slides back to the gallery for another exhibit where she’s producing six guardian figures, part-native myth and part personal creations, expanding a world that’s pure Syjuco.

THYSZ ESTRADAEverybody knows Thysz Estrada as the marketing figure behind the success of Moonleaf, a formerly standalone Taiwanese tea shop, which he began championing to his friends and, in the last 2 years, has expanded into 21 branches and counting, its social media buzz courtesy of his network, mainly fashion people but also counting stu-dents, businessmen, and all sorts of creatives. “I’m driving on a road paved with my big mouth,” he says, now also co-founding DGNTY, his own design and digital marketing/PR company. He was actually a Linguistics student at University of the Philippines, but his interests and connections span wide. He says, “The more you do the things that you really love and find all the right excuses to do it, the more you find yourself being really good at it, enough to make a living.” Dressed in his choice of Don Protasio dresses and Miadore statement accessories, or Paradigm Shift drapes and Bosquejo hardware, some variations on these, he is crazy in-the-know. They’ve started taking design and social media management work for DGNTY, and soon, they will be accepting fashion representation. The goal: Transform “crazy drunken-night ideas to global phenomena worn by the coolest kids from Cavite to Helsinki.”

HEIMA (BONG ROJALES AND ROSSY YABUT)For three years now, Heima has served as the design shop for the cool-savvy. From starting at its small shop in Cubao X, they’ve now taken in a more mature image as a peddler of a designed lifestyle in Makati’s LRI home furnishings hub, but they still maintain both spots—the first one an incubation of ideas, a place to try new things, a venue to introduce new artist or collaborations, and the new one catering to the upscale, the professional interior decorators and home owners. Brought together by Lomography, Rossy Yabut takes care of the design and Bong Rojales contributes his knack for marketing the brand, specifi-cally to their niche of creatively disposed clients. That’s why they’ve been championing artists to do their first exhibits at Heima. There are the watercolorists Valerie Chua, Soleil Ignacio, and Tokwa Peñaflorida, the multimedia collective Folk Superlative, and they even tie-up on events with the design brand Punchdrunk Panda. “We love the thrill of finding indie music early before a lot of people have heard them; the same, I guess, with some visual artist,” Rojales says. When they opened, they had Encounters With A Yeti perform after just releasing its album, and now, they’re supporting the electronic duo Tarsius. The


acoustic siblings of Outerhope gigged for them back in 2006. This year, they are doing a couple of celebrity homes through their interior de-sign firm, Heim, and they continue to expand their product selections down to magazines, bags, and bicycles.

THE STYLE HUNTERSCAMILLE CO While the followers of Camille Tries to Blog want to be like her, Camille Co wants to be like Kate Moss, and so far, she has already leveled with her idol in endorsing Mango, at least in Manila. And last December, the Spanish clothing brand proclaimed her as their “It” girl for Summer 2012, so she was flown in to the Mango headquarters in Barcelona—an international project just might be brewing. “Anything she touches is

automatically cool,” Co gushes about Moss, and the same thing could be said about her. Every start-up young ladies’ brand that wants to be introduced and even established ones wanting to stay cool go to her. Whenever she, herself, thinks about staying relevant and making good busi-ness, she looks at Rajo Laurel and praises him. “He knows how to merge design with business, with management. We lack that here. The brand can go on even when he’s very old, even when he’s no longer the designer.” Thats why, this year, the now 24-year-old Co says, “I want to have more slashes.” She’s now open to being a stylist, like how she tried starting a blog just last year after having been comfortable managing her own fashion label, Coexist. When girls come to her saying “I want to be like you,” she doesn’t tell them what to wear. She writes posts saying, “This is how my design process goes.”

CARLOS CONCEPCIONCarlos Concepcion has only two styling rules: 1) go with your in-stinct 2) keep things clean. That’s how he designed clothes for the premium denim brand Viktor’s younger line, Vik, which consisted of the label’s signature jeans, some tees, tanks, and variations on the James Dean jacket. Not like some celebrity consultant, he punched in his 10 to sevens, five times a week, did marketing for the brand, and when clients came in, did the fittings himself. So when more styling gigs came in while he was doing a fashion column in the newspaper, he decided not

to spread himself too thin and neatly transitioned into being a full-time stylist. Despite not being a die-hard follower of any other stylist’s career, he’s just very good at figuring it all out. Sometimes, he thinks, “What if people are like ‘That’s shitty!’ but at the end of the day, it’s my work,” so he takes charge. “A lot of the shoots I produced are memo-rable ones because I have control over the whole outcome,” he says, insisting on booking every talent himself and being involved, down to post-production. Come September, he cannot be more ready for his new stint as a student at Parsons in New York. With a promise to go back, he says, “It’s my starting off point.”

DAVID GUISONWith all of David Guison’s partner brands, he has now allotted a room just for his clothes. Think of it as “The Closet,” where he has a rack for the last season’s pieces, for a few staples, and for the freshly delivered

THE NETIZENSLissa Kahayon, Saab Magalona, and Jayvee Fernandez


samples. If you think he’s just another boy who blogs, consider this: He practically doesn’t shop anymore. He has successfully converted dressing up and photo-graphing himself into a lucrative business. “I read this article, which says that bloggers lose their personalities because they’re all sponsored,” he shares. “When I’m asked [to wear clothing by a certain brand], I ask them if I could choose the pieces so they’re incorporated into my style.” His associations are diverse—from the British prep-to-punk label Topman to the mass market department store section SM Youth. But he’s willing to let some of his brands go as he prepares, this summer, to launch his own clothing line. “I think it’s worth the risk,” he says. What’s to lose anyway? Brands are now comfort-able with seeing their clothes worn by endorsers with many other labels. It seems to be the obvious step after he graduates this com-ing term; that or doing PR, as if he hasn’t been the PR wonder all throughout his college years, yet.

JP SINGSONJP Singson has always been one to follow only the beat of his own drum. In a fashion industry landscape filled with overzealous magazine title ambassadors, he dared to work as a one-man team, a literal editor-at-large in the most prestigious fashion weeks throughout Europe—from the runways of Paris to the tents of Copenhagen. JP on Fashion Speed, his blog, which documents these adventures, includes tales of com-ing across rainy music festivals and, yes, even days as a European farm boy. He is a current-day Marco Polo. His coming home is marked not only by his toting new loot from faraway lands but also by the introduction of obscure brands and many pieces for his uniquely cu-rated store, Unisex, an access offer to his androgynous style. The items are not the easiest to carry, and they demand a specific kind of confi-dence. “With hard work and persistence, hopefully, the market becomes more open to new things,” he says, having just opened this venture as an actual store, Unisex Rewind. “Confidence is the most essential ac-cessory to any outfit,” continues Singson, daring in wearing men’s heels (Rad Hourani, mind you) and comfortable in wearing draped garb in the tradition of Rick Owens and Damir Doma. Adding Seoul and Ber-lin to his fashion itinerary this year, he needs that forward cool and, of course, his fashion speed.

THE NETIZENSLISSA KAHAYONSurprised at the influx of event invites, “gifts,” and collaborations, Lissa Kahayon is very conscious of how bloggers should deserve their positions. “I think that’s the reason I lasted for three years,” she says, on her toes, in heels, which she sees to have become a superficial sign of doing the fash-ion blogging business and making it. “It’s not for everyone,” she insists. “Many do it because they think it’s about the events, freebies, and collab-orations. I always tell them that they need to prove themselves. I started because I’m so passionate about it.” It has been a hot topic for print media—how bloggers are earning their front row seats and brand en-

THE ADVOCATESAna Santos, Anna Oposa, and Mark Tan


FEATUREdorsements—but marketing people and brand managers aren’t awarding it for nothing. Kahayon, with her 6,000 Twitter followers and her traffic of 10,000 clicks a day, is a person of influence. When she rises at 6:30 in the morning, her breakfast signals the start of her business—checking out about 50 blogs bookmarked for information and inspiration. The rest of the day isn’t even just dressing to be photographed in her signature shorts and dresses. She manages Love Vintage Manila, her own clothing brand and its online shop of reworked thrifted items. She worked for one of the country’s top stylists for about a year, so she sure knows her ropes in the industry. For whatever it means to be one of the top 20 blogs in the Philippines, she’s earning it, and she’s just acting herself.

SAAB MAGALONAThere’s no denying the drama of being Saab Magalona, daughter to the hiphop legend Francis M, granddaughter to the iconic actors Pancho Magalona and Tita Duran, and siblings to a new generation of the family’s actors and musicians. And while there’s no camera following them around in the house, creative writing graduate Saab shares a lot through her blog, Spell Saab. “Imagine sibling rivalry times the whole dramatic gene that we have,” she says. Her sister Maxene has been in the entertainment business since the ‘90s, her brother Frank is getting into it with his fine arts background and an electronic music project on the side and, while other brother Elmo is making tweens scream for his singing and as part of a young love team. It is a blessing that she’s living absolutely independent from them now. “I like being in my own mess. I know where everything is,” she says. Her life revolves around being an actor, taping her soap, My Beloved, and being an all-around indie scene girl at the same time. It is a busy but very simple life. For someone who was uncomfortable with people staring at them as a kid, she has bloomed into a sweetheart who’s glad just to have her named spelled right on her coffee cup.

JAYVEE FERNANDEZJayvee Fernandez has been blogging for a decade, maybe even more, but unlike today’s mostly clickthrough-motivated bunch, he now seeks a different kind of challenge. While there are only a handful of reputable tech blogs in the Philippines, he has chosen to break the optimization rule of sticking to one subject. Nowadays, his legendary blog, A Bugged Life, serves not only gadget reviews beyond the specs but also bits of his new passion as a scuba diver as well as occasional geekery about coffee. It may sound like a retirement plan, but Fernandez is not one to stop at this point. After co-founding BlogBank and Philippine Blog Awards (PBA) in 2007, deciding that the ad model is over after gaining 600 bloggers and now taking the backseat as PBA’s new officers work on projects like Tech Tanod, social reporting for daily life, he just started working on ID8, an online publishing network tapping niches ranging from advocacy and travel. “We need to retake our heritage as an island culture. We seem to be stuck up on malls,” he says and jokes, “I still want to make cats relevant online in the Philippines,” but he’s on a new level now. Well, that and publishing his photo of a cat on upcoming book by Mary Higgins Clark.

THE ADVOCATESANNA OPOSA“I can say, with confidence, that the Philippines is the most beautiful country in the world,” Anna Oposa proclaims, making her the perfect poster girl not only for promotion but also for environmental conser-vation. Having an environmental lawyer as a father, she was always taken to the mountains, and when a coral ransack case erupted as she was working for her dad’s office on a break from a leadership program

in Japan, that’s when her organization Save the Philippine Seas was born. “I always say that it was like a breakup, but worse because boys are replaceable; marine resources are not,” she says. So while the for-mer English major has been into theater for a decade, working with Repertory Philippines and Trumpets, she took the cause first, and she has so far been to 22 countries while advancing it. She was nomi-nated by journalist Karen Davila as one of 11 Filipino Young Global Shapers of the World Economic Forum, and they’re now setting up libraries all over the Philippines. Last year, she was named by Yahoo! Philippines as one of its admirable Pitong Pinoy. The 24-year-old, who has been a diver since she was 15, is now a staunch protector of our seas, the center of marine biodiversity in the world. “I’m not anti-government, anti-corporations, and anti-treehuggers. I try to work with all of them because I think we all move forward that way,” she says, now involved even in legislation cases. Last month, she got the Future for Nature award in Netherlands and got 2.8M pesos to do her dream conservation project, a shark sanctuary. She is moving to Malapascua, Cebu to finish it in six months.

ANA SANTOSAna Santos just accepted an international activist award in New York—for the work in her online publication, Sex and Sensibilities, and personal blog, Happy Even After. Aside from being co-founder of Writer’s Block Philippines, she is also the Associate Editor of Illustrado magazine, and she long moved on from writing sex columns in men’s magazines back in 2004. “I always get that asset question, but I’m not into that,” she says. “I’m also not a Margie Holmes; she’s got the pedigree for that.” In the middle ground are women like her who simply need advice on relationship and self-esteem. It has been a difficult message to relay in a conservative country like the Philippines that she could already make a dictionary about her euphemisms—“knockin’ boots, getting to know each other in the biblical sense, the love glove.” Sexual health advocacy has recently become a hotter topic because of the RH Bill debate, but Santos admits, “I didn’t have any strategic message. Don’t let a hot date turn into a due date; it’s that simple.” Things got real when a couple of friends became HIV positive and when her youngest niece became a mother at 14. “Sex is the vehicle by which I send out my message. At the end of the day, I want young girls to have a dream for themselves,” she says. “All those old-fashioned things that your mother used to tell you—you work hard, you study—that’s the best form of contraception.”

MARK TANBefore he became a marketing officer for Enderun Colleges, which aims to produce students competitive in the international field, Mark Tan was a journalist, so in 2007, he was asked to write about the advocacy group Yabang Pinoy. By the time he was done with the article, he himself has become a volunteer for the group. The job is to inject national pride into the Filipino lifestyle, especially to that of the younger generation. It simple took that assignment for him to be conscious that he can do more, and more he did. They have been going to schools to organize promotional events, to set up workshops, to facilitate seminars, and even to launch exhibits. In his beat as a former journalist, he has also helped launched the organization’s magazine MAG YP, which has so far counted five issues. “We think that until Filipinos need to be reminded that they need to be more Filipino in the way they think and what they do, then we will not stop.” The reasons to be proud of natural resources and human values are everywhere, but the mind shift is their work. And while there is a general culture of criticism in media, they are on the side of optimism. One of their projects is the Global Pinoy Bazaar, which is organized for consumers to support local brands while they help the brands to feel like they are Filipino. The pride comes right away with their question: “Anong maipagmamayabang mo bilang isang Pilipino?”


THE POST-MODERNSGeof Gonzales, Aram Loe, and Darryl Reciña of RabbitHole Creatives; and Karl Leuterio and Mike Magallanes of Paradigm Shift


THE POSTMODERNSPARADIGM SHIFT (KARL LEUTERIO AND MIKE MAGALLANES)For Paradigm Shift’s Karl Leuterio and Mike Magallanes, seasons are irrelevant. They don’t bother with spring or fall colors and fabrics. All the clothes they make are simply what they fancy, possibly momen-tarily, but also easy to mix with their other collections’ pieces. There is always something new that they incorporate. This season, it’s mirror-like textiles. The last time, it was a geometric study on cutting and draping. Oh, the number of ways a single piece of theirs can be worn! This is exactly the kind of possibility one can have whenever meeting the duo. One day, Mike is a modern-day warrior from Shibuya while Karl is an android from 2046. The next, Karl is Lady Gaga’s little monster designing shoes for the custom footwear label Gold Dot while Mike might as well be an Icelandic performance artist styling a runway show for Human. Their design decisions rely on a very simple question: “Will I wear this?” They design separately, and then comes the exciting process of fusing their ideas—possibly bipolar—and only then does the search for materials begins. It makes brilliant answers to what-ifs. Down to the lookbooks, managing their online shop, and marketing it through their social networks, it’s a duo effort. Combin-ing Magallanes’ industry know-how and the followers of Leuterio’s cult avant-garde fashion blog, Inkarlcerating, they have fueled the shift on what’s possible to wear on the streets.

THE RABBITHOLE CREATIVES (GEOF GONZALES, DARRYL RECIÑA, AND ARAM LOE)Two years ago, en route to a shoot, The Rabbit Hole Creatives’ car flipped over along the impossibly smooth SCTEX highway. It was obviously an accident, and no one was severely hurt, but if you look at their production design, styling, and makeup work for pre-nuptial shoots tailor-done for the most adventurous couples, you’d see that they thrive even in conceptual accidents. That upside down car, in fact, could have been their instant set. “The chaos theory of nature is in full swing our core,” they say. They are improvised jazz. They are a cross-processed photo. They are, as the collective’s name suggests, residents of Alice’s Ad-ventures in Wonderland’s rabbit hole. When they take the lead, couples open themselves to a thousand tricks—their shrinking to fill giant pink heels or to wear a blanket-length necktie, their weight’s suspension to ride a newspaper boat, a reunion with the dusty chest of their child-hood toys. And yet the job isn’t all wabi-sabi. The couples get to wear serious designer labels like Prada, Miu Miu, and Lanvin. The group frequently works with arguably Asia’s best wedding photographers, the MangoRed brothers, counting among their clients the model Sarah Meier and husband Banjo Albano, the actors Kristine Hermosa and Oyo Boy Sotto, from celebrities to advertising agency creatives. The business of love has never been quite the adventure.

THE ARTISTSOLIVIA D’ABOVILLEIsland girl Olivia d’Aboville, raised between their home in Puerto Galera, their Manila base in Parañaque, and the city of Paris, special-ized in textile. Her mother has a collection of fabrics from all over the Philippines; that includes those from the Mangyans they are support-ing in Mindoro, but after finishing her Duperré education in textile, woven but flat, she ventured into the sculptural. Her first solo show, Chasm of Fantasies, put together with the grace of Nina Baker, the woman responsible for the curation of Ayala Museum’s fantastic gold relics, was presented last 2010. But instead of pulling materials out of nowhere, d’Aboville collects mass-produced objects, something that

FEATUREmay be considered waste. For example, she gets all the plastic cocktail stirrers from Manila’s nightlife triumvirate—Republiq, Opus, and Privé. These she melted to produce a show of coral-like installations in Singapore. For these art objects, d’Aboville has used plastic nylon string, plastic spoons and cups dispensed as garbage but preciously saved for her ecological advocacy. She has worked with such estab-lished artists as sculptor Agnes Arellano, photographer Neal Oshima, and furniture designer Kenneth Cobonpue. In June, she is flying to Paris for the biggest news of her career so far, to create for one of the designers in fashion week. She is also awaiting a big group show in the City of Lights in September.

JINGGOY BUENSUCESO“I couldn’t buy diamonds,” Jinggoy Buensuceso cheekily says, “so why not make my own wedding ring.” His perfectly imperfect metal vow symbol is just one of his hardware constructions—counting a line of accessories, his painting that use metal sheets as canvases, and even furniture for the recent Manila FAME. Buensuceso is a hardcore creator that he designed even the pants he’s wearing, and now, he’s finishing the house of his dreams—a modern black house in Cavite, harboring his artist’s studio-gallery underneath. He was born to a fam-ily of artists in Bataan; his uncle, Rico Lascano, is a painter, and his brother is a violinist, some other relatives are graphic artists. Formerly based in Singapore, he recently came back with his wife Mutya, also his manager, and his little daughter, Mayumi. He has also been around the world, having held a show, Tryst, in Manhattan, and, for two years, lived there and Tokyo. “All that vibe I absorbed, I used them as gasoline, inspiration to create something,” Buensuceso says, his images full of masculinity—fire, metal, weight. Some furniture pieces he made were supposed to be lamps but were too heavy to install that they were re-purposed as planters. Last month, he showed this lamp decorated with ethnic braids—abaca fiber dyed to look like hair. Currently, Buensuceso is setting up his line of functional art.

NIKKI LUNANikki Luna takes her art and life, the academe and the gallery, very seriously. A feminist, she became active when she did art workshops for families of the victims of the Maguindanao Massacre. “I think I’ve always had it in me,” she says. “I was just not able to funnel it the right way.” In Luna’s recent show, Menagerie of Bursting Lilies, an audio-visual installation incorporated with metal bars between the projection and the viewer. It was based on a letter given to her by a woman who had to struggle on her own in raising a child. Now taking her master’s degree in Women’s Development Studies at University of the Philippines, she brings art and advocacy together. She works on art programs for victims of armed conflicts and human rights violation. In “Leaf Cuttings,” she set up memorabilia of five women victims—two of them missing because of doing what Luna does now in the conflict areas. She has done the same outreach to as far as Sierra Leone, alone, and she has put danger aside. She remembers her artist-in-residence period in New York: “It makes you really ag-gressive, confident of what you want to do. Right after my New York stint, that’s really when I went all-out with a lot of things.” All she wants is to put the message across. In her upcoming show at the Lo-pez Museum, she is making more installations, and that includes real gold, soil, and bone china (like porcelain) about land and mining, only amplifying her voice of protest.

WATARU SAKUMAWhen Wataru Sakuma was spending his time in the New York Studio Program, he hated design. He scoffed at students who took design, but in his last show as co-founder of the group Epoch Collaborations,


FEATUREhe presented lamps. Having lived in Dubai and India, aside from his homeland Japan, and having been a student of painting at the Memphis College of Art, he has now been living in Tagaytay. In Cebu, he started work-ing in his furniture pieces together with other cross-culturally influenced artists. The one he made is a flexible lamp. “I like to have options. I’d like to be able to make my own shapes, and I’m hoping that more people can relate to that feeling. They can experience a bit of the creative process, so they can enjoy it,” he says, still very much leaning to his art background, which began with working on large-scale 5x5-meter paintings, inspired by expressionists like Pollock. Similar grains are still visible in his current work using paper. Japan has a long history of papermaking, which continues in his work in a paper factory, and he combines that with indigenous materials like pineapple and banana fibers. Yet instead of him simply drawing on it, he draws the paper out of pulp—making webs, hives, and even maps. This September, he is having a show in Hel-sinki, 2012’s design capital, to present pieces that incorporate weaving and the indigenous material capiz.

THURSDAY ROOM (ELDZS MEJIA, FOLD CANELA, SOLEIL IGNACIO, AND TOKWA PEÑAFLORIDA)All the members of the Thursday Room collective—Eldz Mejia, Fold Canela, Soleil Ignacio, Tokwa Peñaflorida, Kris Abrigo, Jill Adolfo, and Chi Jihan—have their own nich-es as independent creatives, but a lot of them work mostly in fashion. Mejia and fashion instructor Canela have been working together as a stylist-videographer duo. Former maga-zine art director Ignacio has worked with fashion publications and clothing brands. As a young bunch, they are hyperexposed to influences and are more daring to push new media. While there have been fashion films for a while, the group is putting its name out as it ventured into regularly making motion editorials for the local titles—the first one they did initially available only for the iPad application of Metro. Chris Diaz’s Spring/Summer 2012 video, which premiered during his show at Philippine Fashion Week, gained a lot of buzz. It is a collaborative effort of styling, art direction, editing, sound design, motion graphics, production design and il-lustration, which Thursday Room does, the same talents that went into the first locally produced television commercial for Keds sneakers. This season, Ignacio created prints for a designer’s upcoming collection. They’ve been doing a lot every month for different titles already, with plans of launching an on-line magazine soon.


THE ARTISTSJinggoy Buensuceso; Soleil Ignacio, Tokwa Peñaflorida, Fold Canela, and Eldzs Mejia of Thursday Room; Olivia d’Aboville, Wataru Sakuma, and Nikki Luna


metro magazine feature: jayvee fernandez, saab magalona, lissa kahayon

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