“When we encountered that situation, we thought, sure, it would be nice if we could just link the artisans to the market or provide them with some training,” Ferdinand-Ruiz recalls. “But what would be really life-changing would be to have a company that can do that for a long time because that is the essence of a livelihood. You need a livelihood for a whole year, every year.”
In the decade and a half since, Rags2Riches has re-envisioned the manufacturing of apparel in the Philippines, collecting scrap fabrics from Manila’s many textile factories and sending them to hundreds of urban artisans, many of whom are stay-at-home mothers living in the country’s poverty-stricken neighbourhoods. In working with these artisans, the brand has also revived the popularity of the artisans’ decades-old basahan-tela technique, where scrap fabric is quilted together into new products, like bags, wallets, and home goods.
During the pandemic, however, Rags2Riches had to pivot away from its cult-favourite bags and accessories. “When the pandemic happened, the demand for bags was really small,” Ferdinand-Ruiz explains. “But fortunately, people still needed to dress up, even if it was just for Zoom or working from home.” The new line, On Repeat, takes the same resourceful sensibility inherent in its basahan-tela accessories and applies it to garment design. The result is a collection that is proudly multi-functional, designed to be worn in a variety of ways and for multiple occasions. Take, for example, the Sayaw dress, which can be worn 10 different ways courtesy of its detachable skirts and straps. With more material necessary, On Repeat also prompted Ferdinand-Ruiz to rethink her manufacturing techniques. The garments are an amalgamation of upcycled textile waste, organic materials such as linen and cotton, and woven fabrics sourced from Indigenous tribes – a true showcase of the low-waste options found across the Philippine fashion industry.
“We’re really just happy that fashion could be this force of good,” says Ferdinand-Ruiz. “When you make something of value and create a design that people absolutely love, you could carry a lot of advocacies in the product. You can carry the lives of people with that product
Toqa
“Fashion always had an outsider’s vision of the tropics,” explains Toqa creative director Isabel Sicat. “It was this superficial mimicry that lifted the aesthetic without any grounding or skin in the game for people here.” Aiala Rickard, her co-founder and fellow creative director, adds, “It was always cruisewear or resortwear from a tourist’s perspective – never from an islander’s perspective.”
