FILIPINOS have certain associations when it comes to Filipiniana clothing: that it is stiff, strictly for formals, quite old. In a fashion show on Nov. 16, Happy Andrada subverted all these with a thoroughly wearable Filipiniana collection that was Pinoy without all the kitsch.

The show started quite early (when she said 6 p.m. on the invite, she was not kidding), Ms. Andrada’s show was one segment at the Pinoy Playlist Music Festival 2024, held at the BGC Art Center in Taguig. This being part of a music festival, Ms. Andrada’s clothing presentation was accompanied onstage by Dyandi Percussion Djembe Ph and Anima Tierra.

Not 15 seconds after we were seated, actress Glaiza de Castro flounced onto the stage in a puffy Filipiniana look.

The show also showed amazingly youthful looking menswear pieces such as a bomber barong with pinilian (an indigenous fabric resembling a cotton brocade) stretch pants. Other menswear looks we saw included a hybrid barong-guayabera (a Latin American shirt), worn with a stylish salakot (gourd or woven hat), a pinilian jacket for men, binakol pants (a fabric whose pattern has an op-art effect) with an embroidered piña (pineapple fabric) jacket embroidered with Filipino symbols like palms and Jose Rizal’s silhouette.

A baro (a woman’s blouse) was shown on the runway, its sleeves flouncy and soft, worn with a very now woven visor. Another look was a cream jacket with extra-wide lapels worn over a barong (a traditional embroidered shirt, usually formal)topped with a luxurious straw hat, and then a barong with a largebow. A baro’t saya (a traditional blouse-skirt combo) was made with several layers of cloth, creating an effect like book pages. A find we envy was a chore jacket-barong hybrid, paired with a glittery dress.

Beauty queen Nicole Cordoves closed the show with a pageant-ready blue gown dyed to look like waves.

While using fabrics like t’nalak, piña silk, knotted piña, inaul, abel Iloco, Yakan, jusi, and piña calado, Ms. Andrada’s imprimatur is still evident. Think a preppy girlish cleanliness with just a hint of editorial excess, reflected in sheen and iridescence. In an interview backstage, Ms. Andrada said, “It was so much fun just collecting the fabrics.”

Make no mistake, however: Ms. Andrada is no softie, and despite the girlishness of her clothes, there’s some steel there. The finale dress is named “West Philippine Sea,” alluding to the Philippine territory that China is claiming as its own. The dress was featured in the Fashion Art Biennale in Seoul last September. “I was the only representative of the Philippines,” she said.

“I got inspired by our country, and I think we should be proud (to be) Filipino.

“And we own the Philippines.” — Joseph L. Garcia