Becoming Proudrace: The Brand’s BYS Fashion Week Debut

At BYS Fashion Week 2024, Rik Rasos debuted with his third artisanal collection, “From Proudrace With Love.”

Double doors, crooked queues, and bodies, bodies, bodies pressed against one another. Were we at the entrance of a club or in line for a concert? While it felt like both, where we stood was actually the foyer of the CCP’s Blackbox Theater, minutes before Proudrace’s BYS Fashion Week debut. “I haven’t shown in a very long time, so I kind of thought that maybe I am a different person now,” creative director Rik Rasos tells Vogue. “So definitely, I am going to present something different.”

Murmurs of a standing presentation swirled around before doors opened, and sure enough, the dimly lit theater was seatless, its sections demarcated only by a slim strip of masking tape on the ground. The runway itself was made up of three disjointed white platforms in the center of the room, representing the main Philippine islands of Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao. As attendees stood shoulder to shoulder, it became clear that the arrangement was a necessity: no matter the permutation, there wasn’t a seat plan that could accommodate the sheer volume of guests.

When the lights go down completely, a model walks out to a sharp, agitating tune. A string-and-wind-heavy composition, Symphony No. 3: Passacaglia – Allegro moderato crescendoes before falling into a steady pulse, and easing into a full-fledged, reverberating techno beat. You’re swept from Shutter Island to dance floor in an instant.

All 35 looks were styled by Rik, who shares that his process started from the bottom; from the hem to the neckline. “It reminded me [of] when my mom or aunt would do that to me and put a bimpo [face towel] on my back so it [could] absorb my sweat.” Photographed by Kim Santos

In keeping with hyper-Filipino traditions, Rik’s choice of footwear took styling notes from the women and men in his family: stockings paired with sandals and socks worn with thong slippers. Photographed by Kim Santos

The all-Filipino cast sauntered through the islands garbed in a language Proudrace knows all too well: irreverence. “I feel like I’m sexier now,” Rik says with a laugh. “I’m older now, I’m more comfortable in my skin now, so I feel like I wanna translate it to what I work on. Because before, I used to make clothes na balot talaga [that are really covered], like there’s so many layers, and I feel like now, there’s still so many layers, but you can see skin. It’s so nuanced.”

Introspection lent to this depth, as the 35-piece collection probes into Rik’s experience as the child of an overseas Filipino worker and “the emotions tied to the excitement of opening a balikbayan box.” Sourcing deadstock materials like vintage wool and old leather from all over the world, the designer alludes to the act of gathering pasalubong or gifts from abroad to place inside the boxes. For certain looks, these found textiles are interspersed with personal unworn pieces from cartons Rik’s father sent home. This melange resulted in a jumpsuit reworked from the actual uniform his father wore to construction sites; a deconstructed wedding dress of vintage lace frocks sent to his aunt in the province; a little black dress fashioned from a cousin’s prom dress from the States. Memorable too were backless jeans that revealed the upper thigh, multi-stripe cotton panel accents, and brassieres and boxers worn as outer garments.

Rik Rasos backstage at BYS Fashion Week 2024. Photographed by Makie Cruz

Reflecting post-show, Rik reveals, “I feel like every look is a representation of who I was. Who I was becoming and who I am now.” Indeed, his muses were distillations of Rik at various points in time, from a goth to a skater to a party boy. Some models were even asked to grow out a mustache or put on a false one to mirror the designer’s own; proof that although the collection was dedicated to Macaria Alaras, the aunt who taught him everything he knows about garment construction, it was simultaneously a veneration of all the selves that Rik was, is, and will be.

His faces and phases were captured sonically by Earl Espiritu, who puts together the music for all of Proudrace’s shows (for BYS Fashion Week, he also walked the runway). “It’s like listening to the soundtrack of my life,” Rik describes the mix. “Towards the end it becomes euphoric, and then the last part, it becomes, like, very gospel. I feel like I’m a more enlightened person now, so I feel like that’s the perfect end for it.”

To close the show, Rik’s muses marched in unison to the harmonies of Father Stretch by the Sunday Service Choir. Across the room, one of Rik’s friends is enveloped in a two-tone blue tunic, what looks like Proudrace’s rendition of a clergy robe. Arms outstretched, he sings along, smiling, breathless.