Voices · 5 of 7
New Voices in Fashion
Some of the Filipino clothes we love most started on a handloom in Abra. Others came from a sneaker collab with adidas, a Parsons graduate collection, or a rack of deadstock barong on Escolta. These are the designers, makers, and dealers DIWA is watching, and next to every name is the piece we’d reach for first. Some you’ll already know, and we hope most will be new to you.
Labels with a point of view of their own, from a Project Runway winner in New York to a Manila studio that took its beadwork to Milan.
Featured in Designers & Labels
Veejay Floresca
New York, NY
Veejay Floresca spent 12 years in California before moving to New York. In February 2026, at the Ritz-Carlton NoMad during New York Fashion Week, she staged her first solo U.S. show. It followed her win on season 21 of Project Runway, where she became the first Filipino and the first trans woman to take the title.
She studied at De La Salle–College of Saint Benilde in Manila. Her womenswear mixes feminine and masculine lines, and her runways cast trans, nonbinary, androgynous, and curvy models. The prize came with mentorship from the CFDA, which also put her on its fashion week lineup, and she is opening a shop in Manhattan.
Start with her spring 2027 bridal collection.
Also in Designers & Labels
- Yana KalawPhilippines
Yana Kalaw’s MNL Fashion Week 2026 show took on Catholic girlhood and queerness, with queer and trans women walking her runway. @yanakalaw
- Ched StudioManila
Christian Dalogaog took his Manila label, Ched Studio, to Milan in 2026 as part of the FASHIONPhilippines delegation. Start with the beaded organdy shirt. @chedstudio Website
- Micah WongUnited States
Micah Wong graduated from Parsons in 2026 with Ugat, a collection of floor-loom regalia finished with foraged feathers, shells, and beads. Read about Ugat. @micahwong
- HabiléPhilippines
Habilé, the label Nikki Torres runs with her mother, named its second drop, Mangingisda, for Filipino fishermen and embroidered it with jellyfish. @habileph Website
Who made the cloth: inabel, the Ilocano handloom cloth.
New work on Filipino formal dress: the barong, the sheer embroidered shirt men wear to weddings and state dinners, and the terno, the gown with butterfly sleeves.
Featured in Filipiniana
Kelvin Morales
Manila
Palacio de Memoria is the last prewar mansion still standing on Roxas Boulevard. In October it hosted the first Fashion Week Asia, and Kelvin Morales showed Celsius there. He set the grid of heritage weaves in cobalt blue and mustard yellow, cut traditional suits down into short sets, draped blazers over the shoulders, and added floor-length translucent capes to nearly every look, working with local artists from Rizal.
The Manila designer is known for the modern barong. His barongs move between menswear and gender-fluid dressing, and they sell at Rustan’s. In August he showed Aura, his first womenswear collection, at MaArte Fair.
Start with Celsius.
Also in Filipiniana
- Peach GardeIloilo City
Peter Gagula of Peach Garde won TernoCon’s gold award for a collection drawn from Leandro Locsin’s architecture, shown at SM Mall of Asia through June 12, 2026. @peachgarde
- Bryan PeraltaMakati
Bryan Peralta’s TernoCon silver collection, cut from tea-dyed jusi and inspired by José Joya’s New York Series, went on view at SM Mall of Asia in May 2026.
- Daryl MaatPhilippines
Daryl Maat’s Pad Paper series turns childhood doodles into embroidery on the barong. @darylmaat
Graphic tees, lace button-ups, and sneakers from Chicago, Daly City, and Manila, most of them priced for everyday wear.
Featured in Streetwear
ABAKADA
Chicago, IL
Arvin Boyon and Calvin Calma started ABAKADA in Chicago in 2018 as a Filipino streetwear label. This October their clothes reached stores in the Philippines. PENSHOPPE chose ABAKADA as the first partner for PENSHOPPE Designer Lab, its new platform for outside designers, and timed the launch to the retailer’s 40th anniversary.
The 23-piece limited collection previewed at the PURVEYR Fair in Pasay in September, then went on sale in October through the PENSHOPPE app and select stores across the country.
Start with the PENSHOPPE Designer Lab: ABAKADA collection.
Also in Streetwear
- Kill Joy StudiosPhilippines
Eugene Malabad made his runway debut at MNL Fashion Week 2026 with Kalye Trez Mixtape, drawn from his own street and his grandfather’s Air Force service. @killjoystudios_official
- ProudraceManila
Vogue Philippines called Rik Rasos’s Proudrace the first Filipino brand to collaborate with adidas, on a Jabbar Low sneaker nicknamed Choc Nut. @proudrace Website
- Enter NostalgiaDaly City, CA
Jaden Yo-Eco’s Daly City label was one of three Bay Area brands chosen for the NFL’s Origins collection ahead of Super Bowl LX. Start with the Cream Barrio Lace Button-Up. @enternostalgia Website
Clothes made from Philippine cloth, from piña, woven from pineapple-leaf fiber, to binakol from Abra. Some of it comes off handlooms in Leon, Iloilo, and La Paz, Abra, and some is blended with cotton, silk, or polyester.
Featured in Fabrics in Fashion
Randolf
Philippines
RJ Santos lost his grandfather four days before his niece was born. He turned those days of grief and waiting into The Waiting Room, the 35-look collection his label, Randolf, showed at MNL Fashion Week in September.
The fabrics are blends of Philippine fibers, many of them piña: abaca-cotton, piña-poly, piña silk, piña shifu, and powerloom cotton-piña. The Manila Times named him one of three designers to watch in modern Filipiniana, for barongs that mix Filipino textiles with pop culture and hand-drawn images.
Start with The Waiting Room.
Also in Fabrics in Fashion
- Ram SilvaIloilo
Ram Silva’s custom Filipiniana for Rep. Kathy Gorriceta at SONA 2026 featured appliqué drawn from Iloilo’s rice fields. @ramsilva.ph Website
Who made the cloth: the Baje Rara weavers of Leon, Iloilo, and Segundo Distrito artisans.
- bagoLos Angeles, CA
Brandon Comer’s HABI Shirt has a binakol panel woven by the master weavers of Mang Abel Ti Abra in La Paz, Abra. @bago.la Website
Who made the cloth: the master weavers of Mang Abel Ti Abra in Bulbulala, La Paz, Abra, sourced through ANTHILL Fabrics.
- Chris Gomez Design StudioCagayan de Oro
Christopher Gomez of Cagayan de Oro was one of 12 brands chosen for FashionPhilippines New York in September 2026.
Who made the cloth: inaul, the handwoven cloth of the Iranun and Maguindanaon peoples.
Old barong, archive designer pieces, and the Manila dealers who find them.
Featured in Vintage, Archive & Resale
Glorious Dias
Escolta, Manila
When Jodee Aguillon was four, his family moved to Sherwood Park, Alberta, where they were the only Filipino family in town. Today he runs Glorious Dias out of HUB Make Lab in the First United Building on Escolta, in Manila, with vintage and deadstock barong on the racks.
He also reworks vintage tela, or fabric, along with old curtains and tablecloths, into new pieces, and his latest collection, Award, pays tribute to queer excellence. Old Filipiniana stays as it was made. “If it’s vintage Filipiniana, I don’t touch it,” he told Vogue Philippines.
Start with the Award collection on @gloriousdias.
Also in Vintage, Archive & Resale
- Give Me The Loot!Makati and Quezon City
Drex Araña started reselling sneakers in 2014 and now runs Give Me The Loot!, a designer and archive thrift shop with stores in Makati and Quezon City. @giveme_theloot
- The Archives VintageTaft Avenue, Manila
The Archives Vintage began as a garage sale in a Baclaran basement and now has its own store on Taft Avenue near De La Salle. @the.archives.vintage
Keep exploring New Voices
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