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The Philippines is a little known yet happy hunting ground for savvy design goers and retailers looking for handcrafted design objects made from natural materials. A craft-led creative culture has deep roots in island communities while furniture manufacturing is big business in the capital, Manila, and next largest city, Cebu in the Central Visayas region. Last month’s 70th edition of Manila FAME brought locally-made home and lifestyle products together at the World Trade Center in Pasay.
“Though not familiar to many, Manila FAME is already one of the best-kept secret sourcing hubs of big global names in the industry,” said Pauline Suaco-Juan, executive director of fair organiser, the Center for International Trade Expositions and Missions (CITEM).
After losing the price war with China and Vietnam, the Philippines creative industry is fighting back with artisan-led designs, at a time when handcrafted objects are highly desirable. A new generation of designers and social entrepreneurs are engaging traditional weavers and crafters with contemporary designs and pushing their collections via social media and E-commerce.
Companies like West Elm, Williams Sonoma and Crate and Barrel have all sourced and developed product in the Philippines while lighting and furniture by leading Filipina designer Kenneth Coponbue have been imported by Australian businesses like Ke-Zu and Hermon & Hermon for more than a decade. Then there are handcrafted fashion accessories, stocked by Scanlan & Theodore and Lucy Folk, who have tapped the accessories flair of Manila makers Aranaz, S.C. Vizcarra and Zacarias 1925.
“The creative economy is viewed as a laggard in terms of total Philippines exports,” says Suaco-Juan. “But it’s a sector that gives back. It provides a lot of opportunities and publicity. It’s a soft power.”
At the invitation of CITEM, Yellowtrace visited Manila FAME to find the innovators and head-turners looking to break through on the international design stage.
DESIGN COMMUNE.Left: Lozenge pendant is a collaboration between designer Stanley Ruiz and local manufacturer Schema. Ruiz worked for Jonathan Adler in the US and also West Elm. His scaled-up rattan light shades are variations on existing Schema products. “I just squished it a bit and elongated the shape.” They come in white, black and natural rattan. Positioned beneath the Lozenge pendant is the Orion Cabinet by Nix Alonon, made by Artesania Manila Furniture Inc. It features the traditional “Solihiya” open weave using the skin of the rattan palm.
Right: Rattan Chair, designed and made by Obra Cebuana Furniture Designs. Sinamay and Buri Sticks Leaf Lamp by Kitty Bunag and Mia de Lara made by Cagayan de Oro Handmade Paper Crafts. Palawan Driftwood Side Table designed by Nix Alanon. Made by Goltrio Inc.
Braided Rings Tub Chair designed and made by Obra Cebuana Furniture Designs Inc, a furniture company founded in 1990.
Woven Pandan Divider designed by Kitty Bunag and Mia de Lara, manufactured by My Souvenir Banig De Basey.
Left: Abaca Carpet by Stanley Ruiz, made by Natural Craft Connections; Buri Basket by Kitty Bunag and Mia de Lara. Manufactured by P1 Handicrafts; Woven Pandan Wall Decor by Kitty Bunag and Mia de Lara.
Middle: Woven raffia Basket designed by Kitty Bunag and Mia de Lara, manufactured by P1 Handicrafts.
Right: Lion decoration – a whimsical weave attached to a raffia woven child’s swing, made by My Souvenir Banig De Basey.
Solihaya Round Table designed and made by More Than A Chair Inc. Woven SudSud grass mat (beneath table) designed by Kitty Bunag and Mia de Lara. Made by Tagolwanen Women Weavers Association Inc. The Association was formed to protect and promote the traditions of weaving in indigenous life and the customs around it. As more people have used and enjoyed the mats (banig) the women weavers have been able to supplement their family income.
Poufs woven from sudsud grass designed by Stanley Ruiz, manufactured by Tagolwanen Women Weavers. Photography by Kris Ryan Zara./ KriZara Photography.
This year’s Fair was the first directed by Pauline Suaco-Juan, the former editor-in-chief of Premier magazine. Her influence was seen in the Design Commune exhibit which paired designers and stylists with manufacturers in a merchandise development program.
Product designers Stanley Ruiz (Home & Lighting), Nix Alanon (Furniture) and Andre Chang (Fashion) – along with junior product specialists Kitty Bunag and Mia de Lara – collaborated with 57 companies to produce 350 Design Commune pieces. Creative Director Vince Uy tied the collection together at the Fair with ceiling-hung strips of blush-hued fabric.
Rita Nazareno designs these architectural bags and accessories fashioned from wicker under her brand Zacarias 1925. (The inside is just as cool as the shell).
Nazareno is also creative director of S.C Vizcarra, the Manila company started by her grandparents and continued by her mother Vicky Vizcarra Amalingan-Sales.
One of the earliest Filipina trading companies, S.C Vizcarra, was founded in 1925. It began as a hand-embroidery studio, evolving into a retailer selling various locally-made products to locals, US servicemen during the war, and tourists. The company invented those giant wooden fork and spoon sets that hung on kitchen and dining room walls in the 70s!
S.C Vizcarra’s creative director, Rita Nazareno, now guides artisans in the workshop started by her grandparents 93 years ago to produce a contemporary accessories collection under her brand Zacarias 1925. Last year Rita and her mother, Vicky Vizcarra Amalingan-Sales, opened an S.C Vizcarra flagship store in Paranaque, where Rita’s contemporary wicker handbags and home furnishings – including collaborations with other artists – are displayed alongside her mother’s classic designs. Zacarias 1925 has global stockists, including Scanlan & Theodore in Australia.
‘Phage’ abaca weave is a recent contemporary design from the Weave Manila brand. The mats, rugs, wall art and even wall-to-wall carpets are woven from a sustainable natural fibre, abaca and come in various thicknesses, patterns and shapes.
Social entrepreneurism ventures that pair artisans with communities practising traditional Filipino crafts is paying dividends for numerous local companies and savvy designers. Projects are tapping into available local materials and weaving methods (which, along with the dialect, can differ from island to island) to provide an income source for provincial village weavers while ensuring their crafting traditions are preserved.
“Every island is unique and there is something that ties them together but there’s not one thing that singularly represents the entirety of the Philippines,” says Noni Agulto from the tourism and trade arm, CITEM. He is heading up a project that pairs Taiwanese designers with community crafters. The designs will be displayed at Manila FAME in October 2020.
Junk not! designs include the folding Beach Bummer chair and Ikaw at Ako chairs along with rugs made from scrap carpet and bags made from old jeans. Creative director Wilhelmina S Garcia sells the designs in her Manila store. Each Ikaw at Ako chair uses 4kg saved plastic, collected, cleaned and manually twined. The base is an industrial steel bar made from recycled materials.
When interior designer Wilhelmina S Garcia joined a pilot project to re-form recycled plastic waste from households on Taal Volcano, Batangas, she could hardly have imagined it would blossom into a community project involving 80 island women. Today the community is paid for the materials generated and receives 5% from end-product designs sold in Garcia’s Manila interiors store Junk not!. The plastic from 300 households and sari-sari stalls would otherwise have been burnt or thrown in the lake.
Hacienda Crafts is an Envirosocial Design Company run by architects Joey and Ina Gaston. By engaging sugarcane workers between harvests they are providing many rural villagers with a new source of income. “We focused on the skills people had and the locally available materials,” says Joey. The same hands who make fishing nets and crab pots are now weaving lamp shades. “The Philippines used to produce dirt cheap stuff. We’re now starting to make products that are not throwaway. People are now more conscious of what they buy. The new generation appreciates the hand-crafted, natural products.”
Left: Lambat chair by E. Murio. Right: Dog House was part of the Filipina collection that showed at Maison & Objet Paris in September.
Left: Capsule Lamp is a simply constructed bamboo design set in a concrete base.
Right: Yakap chair by E. Murio.
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https://www.yellowtrace.com.au/manila-fame-2019-highlights-filipina-design/