Why Filipino Designers Should be on your Radar

Written by: Gene Alyssa @gene.alyssa

Purple is everywhere as Filipinos thrive internationally, from Alexandra Eala quaking Wimbledon with her Filipino fans to ube being the flavour of the year in 2025. It seems that Filipino pride has been altering several industries with their popularity. At this point, Filipino fashion designers are now looking for ways to utilize this influence to finally become global. But what does this mean for Filipino designers and how can they process it?

Philippines-based designer Leby Le Moria, who’s known for her multi-media clothing featured in Highsnobiety, as well as her features in multiple London cultural magazines, said “I had this thought that the world may be huge, which can be a problem. Yet we live in a time that places are [now] reachable,”

“[Being a] community is part of our culture and it is evident in how we're able to introduce ourselves through these various social media platforms. And matching it with Filipinos' online presence, I believe that made us more familiar to the international community,” she added.

She continuously mentioned that Filipinos have something deep to offer to the world, may it not be in the form of pride but rather a contribution to diversity, where she’s proved that a lot of her works have been embraced even beyond the Philippines. To her, it meant that “this isn’t just a potentiality but a reality.”

Yet, Nikki Torres, the co-designer and creative lead of Habilé, thought that the Filipino marketing traffic felt more like a series of individual breakthroughs rather than a larger, collective one, where audiences tend to mistakenly associate these trends with other countries rather than its origin - the Philippines. She felt that even though ube and Eala created visibility for Filipinos, the design culture might still be misinterpreted until Filipino culture becomes a natural part of conversations.

“Trends can come and go,” with fingers crossed as she added, “But they always have a way of coming back,” she said. Jema Gamer, a member of the Council of the ASEAN Fashion Designers, added that “visibility does not automatically lead to lasting opportunities. Many successes still depend on individual talent, personal resources, and access to the right networks.”

For Filipino creativity to move beyond a fleeting cultural moment, it needs more than attention. It needs lasting support- stronger institutions, ethical global partnerships, sustainable funding, and accessibility to international markets, as Filipino designs are inherently sustainable, and traditionally sourced. The aim should not be to simply make Filipino culture the next “trend,” but to build a future where the artisans, creatives, and communities who keep these traditions alive are seen, valued, credited, and given a fair share of the economic benefits.

For Nikki, her turning point to going international started from the MaArte Fair and Artefino. With an audience so widely international, they enjoyed Habilé’s playful and accessible take to a modern Barong, a traditional Filipino garment - later featured in L’Officiel.

Image Via Habilé

Leby felt the love of the international market in 2019 when her work blew up on Western social media. Later, she received an invite from a fellow Filipino designer to showcase her work in an exhibition in Toronto. “That made me realise that I may have a place on the other side of the world when I thought I should just give up. It gave me confidence,” she said, “A platform to showcase my works on the other side of the world.”

The doors opened gradually with Jema after winning the Grand Prix prize in the Sakura Collection Design Awards in Tokyo - long before becoming a council at the ASEAN Fashion Designers organization. She believed her work had international potential and had concrete proof that a design shaped by her Filipino perspective could resonate beyond the Philippines. She felt that people were becoming increasingly curious not only about how her pieces looked, but also where they came from and who traditionally made them.

The Hardships

The barriers aren’t always obvious or openly acknowledged. They’re often built into the system itself. Getting a foot into major fashion weeks, catching the attention of global buyers and media, or breaking into international creative networks can come with a hefty price tag. Designers need money to travel, connections to get through the door, and enough resources to produce collections long before they know whether the investment will actually pay off. In an industry where visibility often comes at a cost, talent alone doesn’t always get them on the table.

The Process

“Almost everything we do is manual, from sourcing natural fabrics like silk cocoons and dyeing them in our custom colours to sewing - and especially our embroidery. Finding skilled artisans, particularly embroiderers, who can meet our standards and keep up with demand is also a challenge. We’ve always advocated for the dying art of hand assisted embroidery in the Philippines,” Nikki said as she thought of scaling further internationally.

There’s also a lot of time and education needed to help people understand and appreciate the craftsmanship behind their pieces, alongside the care that delicate silk cocoons need after purchase with their modern Barongs.

The Filipino-ness of it all

Such slow-fashion brands have difficulty in finding the right balance between growing and maintaining individuality, from becoming too mainstream as virality comes in. Nikki thinks that Filipino and other Southeast Asian designers face challenges in distinguishing their work from one another, as design references may not always be familiar to international audiences. “There’s still a lot of room for greater exposure and understanding of the region’s design language, craftsmanship, and traditions.” Yet within the great online presence of Filipinos, the next question lies on the Filipino-ness of it all for the sake of international marketability.

The global fashion stage can come with a curious set of expectations: showcase your culture, but make sure it fits the picture. Filipino designers may find their work celebrated when its identity is unmistakable—think: bold motifs, traditional references, and visuals that immediately signal “Filipino.” Yet the same designers can be encouraged to make their collections look more “international”, sometimes at the expense of cultural details that make them stand out. Make it avant garde and contemporary for exposure, yet standard and toned down for return. It raises an uncomfortable question: how global can Filipino fashion become before it starts losing what makes it Filipino?

For Leby, she knew she found her balance by just becoming Filipino herself with her storytelling while creating contemporary fashion. “It's a matter of storytelling, rather than specific visual inspiration,” as she gets to have conversations with her international audience. Developing a sense of connection and relatability is their way of appreciating what she creates.

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Images via Leby Le Moria

When choosing between the Filipino audience or the international market, at the heart of their practice, they create for themselves. Not out of selfishness, but because creating is their way of expressing ideas, telling stories, making proposals, and engaging in social commentary. Their work serves as a way of putting thoughts into the world, with the hope of sparking conversation and leaving an impact. Leby reflected that if she had to choose, however, she would choose the space where Filipinos’ work is recognised and understood. Ultimately, it is not about choosing between a Filipino or global audience, but about finding the people and places where their work can truly resonate.

Image via Hemisphere

Jared Forster, creator of Hemisphere - a fully developed international brand that has maintained the storytelling of Filipino heritage, showcased a lot of his collections throughout Europe, from London Fashion Week’s ‘The Creatives’ to a featured in the Vanilla Issue. His work strikes recognition as he creates contemporary work from pieces that represent his streetwear brand, from his own city life to his cultural acceptance, childhood, and identity as a Filipino who grew up exposed to many different countries. His piece, “The White Shirt”, paired with the Sarong pants are both fully Filipino with a contemporary translation of a Barong. It combines the winds and pearls of the Philippine Sea and the Sarong—a gender fluid traditional wrap-around garment worn by both men and women in the Philippines during the pre-colonial times.

Truly, Filipino talent is on a whole different level. Where becoming international may be limiting, its creativity isn’t. Filipino design is creativity with a heart rooted in living heritage, shaped by many skilled hands that are ready to share stories with the world on their own terms. As Leby says: “That Filipino design, at this point in time, is a reflection of who we are.”