SIX years ago Reynier Abello left Cebu and moved to Phnom Penh to work as an events and entertainment executive for the biggest casino hotel in Cambodia. It was a life-enriching decision that led him to become a celebrated fashion designer in Indochina.
“My fashion journey started when I joined the Phnom Penh Designers Week Young Designers Competition. I won along with two other Cambodian designers, and I was able to launch a collection. From there, I started to dress local celebrities and was able to develop a clientele. In 2015 I joined the Lao Fashion Week as one of the pioneering designers,” Abello said.
I met Abello in November last year at the Malaysia Fashion Week in Kuala Lumpur, where he presented an impressive collection for his label, Armada.
He confided that he always had this vision of taking his brand far and penetrate Southeast Asia.
Determined, ambitious and driven, he has been thinking of launching his label in the Philippines but didn’t know which platform to pursue.
I told Abello about the Manila Fashion Festival and endorsed him to designer Pablo Cabahug, who is involved in the production with fashion director Jackie Aquino. “I decided to join [the now] Panasonic Manila Fashion Festival (PMFF) because I saw the benefit this platform can give me to advance my label business-wise, and to increase brand familiarity in the Philippines. PMFF has this fresh and vibrant approach that attracted me and as an artist, I can identify myself in the vision and goal they have,” Abello, 30, said.
His collection “The Hidden Fortress” evokes medieval Japan. “It is a postmodern, reductionist take on the films by Japanese master Akira Kurosawa [including Seven Samurai and Throne of Blood], by marrying several concepts into a mash-up of shapes, silhouettes and styles. Special graphics are highlighted in conjunction with more sedate tailored pieces. I showed 19 looks with more than 80 separate pieces composed of jackets, shirts, shoes, bags, pants and skirts,” Abello shared.
For the opening look, he set the emphasis on the sartorial techniques he used for the pants: “We wanted to set the mood of the collection and convey a very strong masculine vibe. Model Ifeanyi Pascal wore cotton twill hand pants with a cow leather bag and belt, and digital-printed scarf with a Daido Moriyama photograph. The finale look, modeled by Bee Sotheary, Miss Universe Cambodia 2017, is a tailored masterpiece. It’s a re-envisioned Japanese manga schoolgirl uniform of cotton twill jacket with a geisha print at the back.”
The standout looks were the long-back oversized cotton twill shirt printed with samurai sketch, accordion pleated skirt and cow leather hand bag worn by Nico Fowler; the red and black tailored dress coat of cotton blend with polyester and faux leather red boots worn by beauty queen Emma Tiglao; and the Kabuki printed shirt and thigh-high boots worn by Binibining Pilipinas 2018 Second Runner-Up Samantha Bernardo.
What’s his approach to designing for clients in Cambodia, Lao PDR and the Philippines?
“Laos and Cambodia are emerging markets in fashion. That makes these two countries a perfect starting point for young brands like me. Clients from different countries vary. That’s why the aesthetic of my collection varies depending on the countries that I’m launching it in and which market group I want to target,” Abello explained.
“For Cambodia and the Philippines, I usually do fashion-forward streetwear and mostly separates. This is because my clients in these countries are more daring and mostly those who are usually outside the cultural mainstream,” he added. “On the other hand, my clients in Laos are mainly from the diplomatic corps and the business community.
So my collection there is concentrated in eveningwear and gala outfits.”
Abello is beloved by his supporters that they all cheered for him during his segment at The Marquee Tent of Edsa Shangri-La. His Lao guests were Pany Saignavongs, Souk-prasay Sithimolada and Sudiana Von Rimska of Lao Fashion Week and designer Ess Vee Ar. The Cambodian guests were Romyr Abello Libo-on, the national director of Miss Universe Cambodia; and Rern Nat, Miss Cambodia Universe 2018.
How will you cater to clients from the Philippines, being based abroad? “This is in the works. There will be an online shopping platform that’s now in development. Meanwhile, clients can contact me directly through my Facebook page and put orders,” Abello said. “We usually ship products to our clients within the Southeast Asia.”
Image credits: RUNWAY PHOTOS BY GEORGE BUID