FASHION designer Kyna Gem Sy is the first in the country to mass-produce high-end clothes for pets, as her love for elegance and pets roused her to indulge domesticated animals in luxury outfits.
Designing and making avant-garde clothes for her own dog, rabbit and parrot since last year, Sy sees people take delight in dressing their pets as stylish as they can be.
At times, the pets are even more fashionable than their owners but they don’t mind, the 22-year-old Filipino-Chinese said. People so love their pets that they are willing to pay the price to indulge them in luxuries that money can buy, Sy added.
She noted the current boom of local pet businesses, as hotels and spas for dogs are sprouting in key business areas. Some pet owners even make their dogs sleep in an air-conditioned room or even give them the best foods and health-care products available in the market.
Dressed pets
SY said animals draw the smiles out of people and paint a shining joy on their faces as they cuddle or walk their pets in a park or a mall.
“I think I’m going to make people happy,” she said. “It’s something funny; a cute happiness. Who would not want to see a dog dressed up in style?”
The sight of a well-dressed pet can trigger the brain chemicals for happiness to surge, Sy said. Even non-pet owners are happily amused to see a dog walking around in a stylish outfit, she added.
As long as pets are comfortable with the outfits, and the owners do not put clothes on them against their will, nothing is wrong in dressing animals, Sy said.
Aside from luxury clothes for pets, Sy is also musing on designing and making high fashion bags and other accessories for owners, matching their pet’s clothes.
The increasing awareness on animal welfare and the growing number of pet owners in the country provide Sy’s high-end pet brand with confidence.
“The market is growing,” she said. “It’s visible in the way my relatives and friends love to get their pets as fashionable as they can be.”
Regain self-respect
SY said she admires an American TV host who supports at least 50 charities and foundations. She said she also likes a French-Filipino video jockey and fashion designer who had created designs for shirts made out of recycled bottles to raise funds for the construction of classrooms in public school across the country.
Inspired, Sy bared her plans to establish a nongovernment group tied with her luxury brand for pet animals. Her group, she said, will work to help teach and encourage the marginalized sectors, like farmers, undercompensated workers, out-of-school-youth and the homeless.
“I really wish to create a social enterprise to benefit the marginalized communities here in the Philippines.”
But helping the less fortunate, like sharing with them money or food, should not be just an act of easing the conscience’s guilt over the sad condition of others, she said. Helping is not by spoon-feeding, but by empowering and motivating them to find opportunities to provide their own needs.
Sy said she plans to train farmers and workers to empower them to become more efficient at work. She thinks it is unjust that farmers cannot set their own prices for their produce, as coconut dealers always dictate the prices ever since.
Aware and sensitive to the conditions of farmers and workers, Sy will also seek legislation of bills that support them and other marginalized sectors.
According to her, the “homeless needs to appreciate human dignity again and realize that, despite their present condition, they can still rebuild their life.” They should regain self-respect and see that they can do better than begging and scavenging on the streets, she added.
Right now Sy is building a partnership with lawyers, environmentalists and other people she met at the United Nations who similarly espouse empowerment of the underprivileged.
Engaging society
SY said she became aware of the conditions of the underprivileged after hearing stories from their household workers and conversation with undercompensated shop helpers and guards.
“At Divisoria alone, some workers do not [receive] the minimum wage,” Sy said. “I want to help them, but it should come from the government. I’m thinking about how laws should be changed in such a way that they support the underpaid workers.”
There are existing labor laws that require employers to compensate their workers properly, but the former do not comply, she said, alleging these employers bribe authorities to circumvent the laws. She didn’t name names.
“The system itself is the problem.”
Since changing the system is extremely difficult to achieve, Sy said it is wiser to create an NGO dedicated to the welfare of the marginalized sectors.
“I saw injustice—and it’s big,” she said. “We are taught in Ateneo [de Manila University] to do something if we see an injustice, to not be indifferent and just watch [from afar] just because you have a luxurious or a comfortable life.”
Sy said she wishes to tell people, especially the underprivileged, to do something and not just watch at the sidelines when they see an injustice. The farmers and the undercompensated workers are not doing anything to address their concerns because they think they are powerless, she said.
“They think their opinion will not be regarded as compared to people above them,” Sy added. “If they wish to change something, they should do it. And do it now.”
An Information Technology Entrepreneurship graduate, Sy is happy for having friends who possess the same compassion she has for the underprivileged people.
Sewing skills
SY carries on and enriches her forebears’ well-preserved tradition of elegance. Her mother, who owns a garment business, is a designer like her grandmother.
“I feel like I was able to hone the skill of fashion designing and dressmaking because of them,” she said.
She recalled being relentless, asking her parents’ seamstresses to explain everything how garments are pieced together. Sy prefers to call them “sewists,” the more hipster reference to somebody who sews and regarded as an artist.
Sy said she was a high-school student that time when she constantly pressed sewists to show her how to sew. The haranguing paid off after sewing a pair of black shorts, her first ever, when she was a high-school senior. From then on, she designed and made more avant-garde clothes for herself and her pets. Usually, her pets’ outfits match hers.
She painted her clothes, usually with social undertones, like feminism, societal love.
The youngest of three all-female children, Sy and other younger generation Filipino-Chinese women advocate feminism. This, she said, has been less appreciated in the old Chinese culture, where women are expected to be submissive to men.
“I want to promote feminism for peace and love,” she said. “Feminism is not just about equality in terms of gender, it’s also about peace and love among women.”
Social enterprise
SY thinks making society better is difficult for the authorities, much more for citizens like her who wish to do their part in improving the lives of others.
She believes that through social entrepreneurship, citizens can do their part in empowering the underprivileged.
“I super love fashion and my advocacy for the marginalized sectors here in the Philippines is strong,” she said. “So I’m trying to merge them together by creating a social enterprise.”
Sy currently attends the Fashion Institute of the Philippines to further enrich her knowledge and skills for the thing she does best. She is also eyeing to design and make clothes for other animals—big and small alike.
She wishes to design outfits for turtles; even trying to contact Avilon Zoo so she can dress their orangutans.
“The world is full of negativity,” she said. “The news and the stuff on social media are very toxic. [That is] why I made clothes for pets, in the first place, because I was thinking of a way to shine a little positivity.”
Image credits: John Jinky Sy