WHEN the whole world seemed to have stopped, fashion designer Pablo Galicia Mendez III adapted and turned on his rebellious streak by venturing into a new creative territory.
“There’s fear and uncertainty all around. We just wanted to bring back the joy of dressing up, and for us, the joy in creating,” Mendez, 44, said of his team at his eponymous house. “I’m coping up with this pandemic by being optimistic and productive, personally and creatively. In a span of five months starting in June, I produced four capsule collections.”
A design wunderkind, Mendez was one of the five winners in the 2002 Philippine Fashion Design Competition, ultimately awarded the best Philippine representative at the International Competition for Young Fashion Designers in Paris, France. He won the grand prize at PFDC in 2007. He has dressed beauty queens such as Janine Tugonon, Pia Wurtzbach, Christi McGarry, Patch Magtanong and Katrina Llegado.
For his Holiday 2020 collection, Mendez made three gender-fluid coats, each with a distinct silhouette with looks that can morph depending on your mood and how you wear them.
“They can be worn snug and closed up. They can also be loose and slouchy—like the roller coaster of moods we are all going through during this lockdown,” he shared. “We chose bold, happy colors as well as warm and familiar neutrals in the mix.”
All three designs were influenced by the ease of putting on a kimono and the craftsmanship that goes into a tailored overcoat. The high-grade micro-fiber designs are called Apricus (P4,150 in saffron, ink stone, steel gray and ecru), Genji (P4,580 in cerulean, magenta, olive and saffron) and Onyx (P4,995 in truffle, white alabaster, saffron and sandstone).
The Apricus coat is a take on the European trench coat mixed with a bit of oriental flair. The collar style is Mandarin but mixed with pointy peak lapels. The coat fastens like a kimono robe but with utilitarian cargo pockets and a flared storm patch at the back—a common feature on trench coats. The hem is cut like a classic shirt to give it a casual, everyday-coat kind of vibe. While the squareness of its collar and coat body is taken from the kimono, the Genji coat is a nod to the bold shapes and sleeve cuts of Cristobal Balenciaga in the 1960s. The cut of the collar was designed in such a way that it can be worn high and closed up, or wide and spread out depending on how the robe is fastened using the D-ring belt. The detachable (button-on) shawl/capelet gives this coat a refreshing silhouette and also emphasizes the macaroni shape of the sleeve.
The Onyx is the farthest that Mendez pushed the envelope. “We experimented with a three-dimensional sleeve cut that resembles the European leg-of-mutton sleeve and we tried to merge with that the squareness and flatness of the kimono pattern. We kept the seams minimal and we didn’t use any fusible interfacing for the collar. The result was a supple voluminous coat that almost feels like a warm hug,” the Romblon-raised designer explained.
“During our fittings in the design process, we always made sure that we had fun wearing the coats and playing with different possible looks per coat. We were also mindful of making designs that people can still wear five or eight years from now, like a classic trench coat but with a bit more spunk,” Mendez said.
His loyal clientele was a huge inspiration in the making of the coats. With the new designs, he hopes to entice those who are “strong-willed, who know what they like and what they don’t like. They have colorful personalities, and they have a positive outlook in life. They care about how they present themselves even when going out for basic errands.”
Courage, adaptability and light were the driving forces behind his latest collection, Mendez emphasized. “It is called ‘Beyond Hierarchies’ because while there are systems and situations that put us in ranks with limited options, we can start to break free by flipping a switch in our minds.”
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Fashionable even during COVID times.🥰