In the Philippines resides talented individuals, who strive to make a name for themselves. These young gifted people need to be recognized. The Hot Young Designers Marketing Company (HYD) has that goal. HYD, for those who were asking me is a local partnership started by yours truly and Sharon Teng, one of my closest friends. We came up with this idea as an advocacy to discover new, young and talented Filipino designers yearly, equip them with the necessary business skills, and present them with an opportunity to start their own collections. The main event or activity behind the brand of HYD is a fashion competition called Fashion Face Off.

HYD’s Fashion Face Off 2011 is a nine month long competition, where five selected designers with diverse fashion backgrounds and various styles will be given a budget to create ready-to-wear pieces. At the end of nine months, the designer with the most earnings wins the competition. It’s actually very simple, but the process of learning and actual experience will be beneficial for the designer. Their customers on the other hand will have access to various styles and each will be able to find the style that they love and make it their own.

All aspiring designers had to undergo a screening interview, where they had to show their past works and had to come up with RTW designs that would impress the panel of judges. The screening was done at Le Bistro Vert, one of the Major Sponsors of HYD’s Fashion Face Off 2011. The designer contestants who made the cut were:

Jackie Abueg


Jackie Abueg – Jackie is a graduate from De La Salle College of Saint Benilde and took designer fashion workshops at the Asian Institute of Fashion, under the guidance of Lulu Tan-Gan. She also worked as an intern for Patrice Ramos-Diaz. She believes a woman can bring out her beauty through simplicity. For every design that she makes, she keeps in mind the principle of timelessness while maintaining traditional aesthetics. Jackie believes that comfort plays a huge role in tropical living. Through the ingenious use of prints, she creates pieces that reflect her personality. Jackie also believes in breaking the barriers of daywear and evening wear. Fashion is more than just what to wear and when. It embodies culture, character, and commitment. It is a tool for expression, and an outlet of creativity. Without fashion, our world would be very dull, cultures would be less unique, and people would have less room for self-expression.

Marc Blanco


Marc Blanco – Marc took up fashion courses at the Fashion Institute of the Philippines. His personal style is a style that is free from the constraints of pre-conceived notions and formats. It signifies freedom — freedom that is popular among innovators and trendsetters. It will be enjoyed by everyone who loves irreverence in fashion that resonates across a multi-generational and dual-gender audience whose individuality and inner confidence shines on the outside. His style is sexy, smart and dynamic. Marc is a charismatic person, with an inner confidence and a lovely attitude. Marc’s pieces represent contemporary rock — sensual, chic, and strong. It’s exudes a balance between masculinity and femininity.

Bailey Agustin Dava


Bailey Dava – is an independent candidate. She has her own swimwear line called Baileylicious, which graced the pages of local magazines and online sites. She now wants to explore making ready-to-wear clothes. She believes that designer fashion should be available to everyone. She wants to create a collection that may be worn by any woman, may she be a housewife, college girl, young professional, a model or a socialite. She will be creating a line that is not only wearable on the runway or on print ads, but it should be something that can turn heads on the streets, as well. Her pieces will be available to various body types, from women who have boyish frames, pear-shaped bodies, or voluptuous figures. She believes that designer clothes should be accessible to women from every race, nationality or color.

Klart Lim


Klart Lim – Klart is an Atenean graduate who took fashion courses in The Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising in San Francisco. She was also an intern at Anna Sui in the US. Although, she just launched her KMBRLY brand a few weeks ago, she joined HYD Fashion Face Off to gain more knowledge and to get to create more styles and designs. For her style, she likes to give her collections a fun and sophisticated vibe. Her pieces are colorful, fun, balanced, and comfortable. Klart would want to design for those women with the goal of empowering them and enhancing their natural beauty, by creating pieces that make them feel confident, happy and secure. She believes that choosing the right fabrics and finding the right colors will help create ideal attire. A balance between weight and texture is essential in making things work. Above all, Klart believes that highlighting individuality is important. Clothes should be able to reflect a person’s individuality.

Renan Pacson


Renan Pacson – Renan’s personal style is recognized by fluidity and a natural movement. He merges comfort with versatility. When asked about his fashion philosophy, Renan drives inspiration from Mother Nature. His mission is to dress people in such a way that they fit harmoniously with nature. Renan mentions that his philosophy is not just a poetic line. It enhances a deeper belief in creativity, imagination and art, which is a gift and hence, needs to be utilized. His design influences are expressed in the complex mixture of arts, mathematics and geometry that form the anatomical construction of his clothes. Variations are endless and therefore, he aims to explore this art of defining and tailoring, continuously searching for those rare combinations that really work. He believes that everyone is entitled to some form of luxury, but luxury for him does not mean spending huge amounts of money for an item. Renan defines luxury as something sensual, and this can come from wearing a perfect-fitting cotton t-shirt to a figure-flattering denim jeans. For him, luxury is that fleeting feeling that gives you extreme comfort and confidence and it gives you empowerment and inner glow. He wants luxury to be accessible to everyone.

Screening Committee: Pia (Creative Advisor), Sharon (Managing Partner) and Ginger (General Manager); not in the picture: Kinney (Creative Advisor)


I hope that you are as excited as we are to see the designs and the finished products of these talented designers. The final output will be available for purchase on the 1st of October at the HYD Online Shop (hotyoungdesigners.com). We are still perfecting the site. We will let you know once we have launched it.

We would like to thank our co-presenters and sponsors. Co-presenter for the Fashion Face Off 2011 is Yabang Pinoy. Major Sponsors are Giordano, Ever Bilena, Le Bistro Vert, HD Make Up Studio and Academy, Suesh, DragonPay and Xend. Minor Sponsors are Evita Peroni and Glagla.

For more updates on the Fashion Face Off 2011 and the designer contestants, please visit http://hotyoungdesigners.tumblr.com/ or http://hotyoungdesigners.multiply.com/. You can also follow our facebook page and twitter account. For sponsorship inquiries, please contact hotyoungdesigners(at)gmail(dot)com.

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2 Responses

    • Anonymous

      Everyone gets business training (from established business people in their fields) and the competition also generates buzz/marketing from the designers! The winners get 100K in cash & prizes.

      Reply

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