Rod Malanao on Knitwear's Intimacy and Versatility

We can all agree that there were days when it felt like there was no end to the pandemic, and as a natural result of this, you may have temporarily lost touch of what makes you feel the most like yourself. Psychotherapists such as Esther Perel have written about how appealing to your sense of touch serves as a solution to this momentary stagnation. We need touch to feel safe and to establish secure attachment, she once wrote, adding that satisfying this need can come from an act as simple as feeling your favorite textures against your skin. This can mean anything from putting on a silk dress one afternoon to wrapping yourself in your favorite knit scarf. It is from these experiences that you realize that touch in itself is a language of its own.

“With knitting, there is a sense of intimacy because I can take part in the process of making the textile. Creating your textile from scratch allows you to dictate the fiber, the color, the density, and to play around with different manipulations. I fell in love with the craft, and how knit is, ultimately, a labor of love,” he starts. To him, the duality of the textile—how it can both obscure and highlight the body—allows for more room to play. “I wanted to explore knit as a textile—how it is able to stretch and conform to the body,” he adds.

Currently, Malanao is releasing a series of Knit Studies, which is a deep dive into what the texture is capable of and the emotions that they manifest. The pieces come in bold yet wearable cuts and colors that tease the senses—from sorbet hues that you can almost taste to head-turning neons. “What I’ve been releasing is a series of studies, which is an ongoing exploration of the self and of expression. These studies are set at a similar pace—that feeling of tension. It’s a careful chaos. The pieces are somewhat abstract but nameable objects, which highlights the correlation of the body and the spaces in between,” he explains. Knit, when placed in the right hands, does things that you would never initially imagine the textile could do, and here, he is able to showcase to us its versatility.

While his pieces certainly embrace and highlight the bodies of its wearers, there is a sense of comfort that comes with it too. “Additionally, knit has always been connected to the idea of comfort, the way it is able to instinctively adjust to its wearer. The malleability of this textile allows itself to exist in different forms—whether it be a trusty pair of leggings or the quiet, reaffirming presence of a sweater. Much like our bodies, knit expands and shrinks,” he explains. True to his words, putting on one of his pieces is like sinking back into yourself. Both comfortable, yet sensual. Grounded, yet fluid. An air of reassurance in the middle of a cloudy day.

It is this sensitivity and regard for human emotions that allow his work to speak to many individuals. It certainly helps that he is eloquent in explaining all this too, imparting truths that make you forget that the young designer is still in his 20s. To Malanao, pursuing fashion design has been a long time in the making, starting from his natural interests at a young age.

“I was just naturally drawn to design. I remember watching my father wear brightly-colored dress shirts and reading copies of the fashion magazines my sister left all over the house. As soon as I understood the concept of what a fashion designer is, I knew that’s what I wanted to pursue,” he reveals.

Through this journey, he shares that he has learned things about himself as well, most of them centering around his instincts or gut feeling. “I’ve learned to prioritize my ‘feeling body,’ to listen to my instincts, and to allow myself the time to materialize ideas,” he says. Through the way his pieces tell these kinds of stories, wearers are inspired to strengthen that muscle of being in touch with themselves as well.

When asked about what the future of fashion might look like, Malanao admits that it isn’t exactly easy to describe, as things are ever-changing. He does have one thing to say, though: “I’m hoping it will continue to move in a kinder direction—for the consumers, for the designers, and for the environment.”