The first Cebu style week

CEBU, Philippines — Like all forms of art, fashion has the transformative power to represent culture and tradition, so much so that  it has become indicative of what is over what was.

This quality to fashion was very much evinced in a recent runway fashion presentation, which harped on the variability of Cebu’s ever-evolving street fashion scene.

Titled “Freedom” and staged on July 4 at the Atlantic Hall of Waterfront Cebu City Hotel & Casino, the event was one of the highlights of the inaugural “Cebu Style Week.”

Mainlining the occasion were the creations of 10 up-and-coming designers affiliated with the Fashion Institute of Design and Arts (FIDA) Cebu.

Equal parts practical and conceptual, the event’s featured pieces hitched on how sweeping the premise of thinking outside the box can be, articulated through fineries that gave a novel tone to outfits that have become standard fare.

In a time when catch up trends are trends in and by themselves, the show’s presenting designers proved how they cut against that grain – keen on tailoring styles, not trends that are molded by fickle dictates.