At Bench Fashion Week Holiday 2025, Three Designers Define Filipino Fashion Now

At Bench Fashion Week, the spotlight fell on Neric Beltran, Jaggy Glarino, and Koko Gonzales, whose collections traced three different paths for Philippine fashion today.

Bench Fashion Week Holiday returned to One Ayala in Makati with a renewed sense of scale, unfolding over two nights that showcased the breadth of Filipino fashion. The program balanced retail powerhouses such as Urban Revivo, Cotton On, MLB, and Bench Workwear with the ingenuity of homegrown voices, including Kashieca, Daryl Maat, and Bree Esplanada, underscoring the event’s dual role as both commercial platform and creative stage.

Within this roster, three collections stood out for their conceptual clarity and artistic intent. Neric Beltran distilled his signature opulence into pieces that carried intimacy rather than spectacle. Jaggy Glarino transformed survival into style, weaving resilience into garments that challenged conventional notions of polish. Koko Gonzales, drawing from the rhythms of daily life, elevated movement and adaptability into a vision of contemporary dressing. Taken together, these perspectives offered not only three distinct aesthetics but also three philosophies on what it means to dress and to express in a world defined by constant change.

Neric Beltran, long trusted in the world of entertainment for his dramatic, couture-driven sensibility, used Bench Fashion Week to reveal another side of his design language. His collection, “The Other Side,” took shape from an intimate source. “The collection is inspired by the designer’s personal workspace, a home thoughtfully built and remodeled to reflect his passion for art, interior design, food, and entertaining,” says consultant and stylist Em Millan. At the heart of that workspace was a painting he created, which became the symbolic foundation for the garments. “The artwork was translated into distinctive shapes, silhouettes, and embellishments that are signatures of Neric Beltran’s DNA and define the house’s identity.”

While his work has often been celebrated for theatrical flourish, Beltran emphasized restraint this season. “This collection is, above all, an exercise in restraint. While the house is known for its signature flamboyance, this time Beltran sought to strike a deliberate balance between the brand’s DNA and true wearability.” This translated into proportion play in evening dresses and statement skirts, alongside drop-shoulder and oversized forms recast as shirts and tops. Each piece carried the mark of the house’s couture identity: embellishments and treatments meticulously developed by artisans, yet softened into silhouettes designed to flatter a wider range of body types.

Fabrication was as central to the story as silhouette. “Beltran emphasizes that no piece relied on pre-embellished fabrics, off-the-rack beadwork, or reworked appliqués. Every detail, from beadwork to embellishments, was conceptualized, patterned, and applied entirely by hand to translate the collection’s visual inspiration into reality.” Highlights included fully beaded pants and a long gown, each requiring two months to finish, with beads, rhinestones, and sequins placed one by one. Subtle hardware accents and unexpected layers of beadwork introduced intrigue, underscoring how craft elevated these garments into modern couture.

If earlier seasons were aimed at performers and stages, “The Other Side” reached outward. “With ‘The Other Side,’ Beltran expands his vision to a wider audience, offering pieces that are beautiful, relevant, and impeccably crafted yet designed to be truly wearable,” the house stated. He framed the collection as both an ode and a definition of his brand identity, sophisticated, confident, discerning, but also an invitation.

At its core, the work was about rethinking what luxury means. “True luxury begins at the source, with the finest materials and the mastery of technique that brings them to life. For Neric Beltran, it is never about excess, but about intention. We believe restraint itself is a form of opulence.” In that philosophy, embellishment became less a spectacle than a whisper of craft, and grandeur was distilled into the intimacy of a well-edited garment. “A well-edited look does more than capture the eye; it allows the wearer to feel the integrity, precision, and artistry of a garment that is truly well made.”

If Beltran whispered luxury, Jaggy Glarino delivered defiance. His collection, “IGNO,” grew from a memory that he still carries vividly. “The origin of ‘IGNO’ comes from something very personal, my own memory of arriving in Manila for the first time as a probinsyano,” he said. “It’s that raw, disorienting moment of stepping into the city: wide-eyed, a little lost, but full of hunger.” That encounter with chaos and dislocation became the blueprint for the collection, which he described as “a dialogue between the ‘urban jungle’ and the ‘provincial roots.’”

On the runway, that dialogue materialized through texture and silhouette. Gritty urban references, including rusting roofs, signage, and dangling wires, were incorporated into fabric manipulations through layering, distressing, and texturing. These were then balanced with nods to home: native fabrics, references to weaving, and silhouettes that echo traditional forms. “The process was really about balancing those two worlds without romanticizing either one,” he explained. The garments reflected that tension, with silhouettes that were “sharp and assertive, almost armor-like, but always balanced with looseness and drape.” Cuts were “deconstructed yet intentional, exposing process rather than hiding it.”

The name itself reclaimed an insult. “For me, the message is that there’s power in owning where you come from, even if it’s dismissed as ‘ignorante,’” he said. “I know that word; it’s been used to diminish, to mark someone as out of place or lacking. But through ‘IGNO,’ I wanted to flip that perception. By turning the label into something strong, the collection shows how identity and creativity don’t need to hide behind polish or privilege.” What emerged was a raw, unapologetic portrait of resilience. “Claiming your space isn’t about erasing your beginnings, it’s about letting them shape the way you stand in the world.”

For Glarino, fashion became not just clothing but experience. “What I want people to feel is that it’s more than just wearing clothes—it’s stepping into a cultural experience,” he said. “Someone told me they could literally smell Manila from the visuals, and that stayed with me.” “IGNO'” was multisensory, a reminder that survival is both harsh and hopeful, both fractured and dignified. His runway became a form of remembrance, a refusal to let lived experience be erased.

The mood shifted again with Koko Gonzales, who found inspiration in the hum of daily life. “The starting point was my daily rhythm—biking, commuting, sourcing, playing sports,” he explained. The goal was not simply to replicate sportswear but to push it into new contexts. “Along the way, the challenge became rethinking fabrics usually used in sportswear and treating them with the same care as tailoring, or really, what the workshop is capable of constructing.”

“It’s about movement and adaptability,” Gonzales continued. “City life is fast and layered, and I wanted the clothes to reflect that—versatile and easy to wear, but with quiet details rooted in Filipiniana.” The garments delivered just that: boxy jackets, layered shorts and trousers, sheer piña and organza veils softening techwear-inspired pieces. Details revealed themselves subtly. “There are also details like pairing cuff links with tech fabrics, or embroidery used subtly—small moments where craftsmanship meets discovery,” he said.

The silhouettes were deliberately relaxed. “The silhouettes are relaxed and easy—boxy, layered, and designed to move,” Gonzales said. “It’s a balance of casual ease and discipline, where the focus is on making a garment or look feel personal to the wearer, rather than designed for a mass audience.” This translated into clothes that felt both fluid and grounded, garments intended to accompany the wearer rather than dictate style. “I want the wearer to feel natural in them—comfortable, capable, and free to style the pieces in their own way,” he added. “Hopefully, they not only blend with what people already own but also open up fresh ways of expressing themselves—always depending on the individual.”