Dama Ko Lahi Ko is a community-organized campaign calling for the use of the five senses to strengthen nationalistic pride and instill a collective sense of belonging in the local cultural context. This campaign revolves around the concept of soft power in steering the way the Filipino narrative is being told globally. It is said that culture is seen, heard, smelled, tasted, and touched, and it is advocated by the movement that our national identity is experienced through these sensory dimensions to fully express the depth and color of Filipino culture.
In line with this campaign, Wear Your Story is a joint effort of several Filipino independent brands and labels — spearheaded by Esme Palaganas, Jowee Alviar, Maj Veloso, Mong Feliciano, Marvin Conanan, Mikki dela Rea and Rik Rasos — to showcase the verdancy of local fashion along with its communities and subcultures. This t-shirt exhibit appeals to the visual segment of the sensory pursuit of the campaign being a visible representation of the brand’s direct relation to consumers. The installation will feature homegrown brands at the R1 Level, Power Plant Mall, Rockwell Center on June 11 to 13.
Participants include established and starting brands and labels Café City Club, Coziest, Daily Grind, Don’t Blame the Kids, Enimal, Episodes, KLTRD, Medium, Nick Automatic, Proudrace, PURVEYR, Randolf, Revel, Royalty, Salad Day, The Sinner Collective, sleekshy, Sober Kids, SWASH, Team Manila, Tenement, Thank You, Tropical Futures, The Twelfth House, and We Drool.
Developed in the nineteenth century, the t-shirt is a revolutionary clothing piece as it simplifies daily wear, removing the sartorial need for buttons, zippers, and other hardware to be put together. Decades have gone by, giving variation from one cultural context to another, the humble t-shirt transitioned from casual wear to a tangible object that follows nuanced movements and niche subcultures.
T-shirts signal the wearer’s involvement in the respective communities, subcultures, and niche following the brands and artists cultivated. Over the years, t-shirts have evolved from the simple everyday garment to an empty canvas, a product, and a “medium for a message” (New York Times, 1973). Interest groups, advocacy organizations, and events have utilized the t-shirt as a medium to act as a souvenir and a way of storytelling. High fashion and streetwear labels alike found interest in t-shirts as it became a way to showcase their art direction and creative outputs to onlookers and customers unfamiliar with the brand.
From the shores of Laguna Beach where Shawn Stussy produced t-shirts to attract customers, to the streets of New York where James Jebbia encapsulated the skate culture into the globally-recognized box logo, to the islands of the Philippines where the t-shirt is an everyday wardrobe fixture, the t-shirt is arguably one of the most impactful clothing articles available in contemporary times.
In the PURVEYR Insight Paper “The Role and Value of T-Shirts in the Filipino Creative Industries” written by Sai Villafuerte of Cultural Learnings, the t-shirt’s importance in Filipino creative industries is examined through a combination of quantitative and qualitative studies. The editorial team gathered a shortlist of Filipino creatives and asked how the humble t-shirt played a role in the development of their brands and labels. Some of the key findings are that product quality and design matter the most for Filipino consumers and the country’s absence of a four season calendar gave way for buyers to purchase t-shirts quarterly since it’s the most popular clothing article in the country.
To learn more about the role of t-shirts for Filipino creatives, visit PURVEYR shop for the insight paper or buy it from the directly from this page through the buy button.
Looking at the bigger picture, this exhibit also presents an opportunity to keep the morale of the industry players and the creative culture at large. It is important that the community maintains solidarity and an optimistic outlook to not just survive the times but to paint a favorable future for creatives and the general creativity of Filipinos.
Visit the Wear Your Story exhibit at the R1 Level, Power Plant Mall, Rockwell Center on June 11 to 13, within mall hours 11:00 AM to 9:00 PM. In addition to the exhibit, Wear Your Story in partnership with PURVEYR and Bunk Collective is hosting two digital discussions about Manila’s streetwear scene in the 2010s, and the business of t-shirts. The discussions will be released here on the website and our YouTube on June 12.
