My research in Philippine fashion history began with organizing fashion shows.

In addition to the artistic work of styling, modeling, and performance, I community-sourced garments, built an organization system to keep track of all garments and models, ran individual fitting sessions as well as collective runway rehearsals, and conducted styling research for distinctly Philippine garments like the Maria Clara or traje de mestiza, the terno, the balintawak, the kimona, the malong, the barong tagalog, among others.

After this work, I learned from researcher-activist Ben Barry that fashion shows can be powerful research sites to “enable participants to create, wear, and perform their lived experiences.” I hope to imbue this fashion activist framework with my event organizing experience in future research.

Photography by Savannah Cole.