The Filipino Bakya-Complex

 I’m not trying to be something bordering to fashion-guruish, but I think I should have a say in these whole issue of what I christened, the Filipino Bakya-complex. You know what I mean? How many of us horde the glossies of our choice perusing each page for the hottest looks of the season. But there is one thing you should understand; the season in North America is not exactly the same with ours. You asked why? Not just because there is the obvious longitudinal distance, the location of the continents we belong in gives us different weather patterns; giving them four seasons’ autumn, winter, summer and spring while we only have the rainy and sunny seasons (sounds like pre-school). So we cannot really wear the autumno/inverno of the west. We can at the least take focal points from the fashion collections like the colors, materials, and piece it together to make it appropriate to be worn in the equatorial part of the globe. Basically it means- do not wear the faux fur coat, iolite knitted scarves that drops to your knees with button details and the chunky-clunky uggs. We also see a lot of unconventional pieces nowadays brought to us by the avant-garde masters of fashion, there is nothing wrong with this, Ivarluski Aseron was even commissioned by Folded and Hung to make prêt-a-porter pieces for their line. The two things we have to take into account is the local demographic in the place we would wear these pieces and the location and event where we would go wearing them. Simply put, do not do your groceries wearing an asymmetrical metallic top with gargantuan sleeves reminiscent of the Japanese kimono, the deconstructed denim with a plethora of gun-metal studs and sky high Gucci Oxfords (I know I sound a wee bit exaggerated, but that’s an idea for you).  

     Further on that note, we also have this thing were in we mimic what we see the local celebrities are wearing on TV. I know mimicry in psychological theories is a phase we all go trough in childhood; but to wear a hoodie in the middle of the summer heat wave, just because Sandara Park did so, is just awfully wrong. This is based on actual experience, there I was roasting alive with my friend and we saw two girls strolling along wearing blue and pink long sleeved jackets with hoods! I was thinking “damn they must be wearing eucalyptus sunblocks!”  That would explain the superhuman tolerance to the excruciating heat that would have rendered us mortals into a one-way heatstroke.  

       The moral of the story is we should wear what we feel comfortable in. It doesn’t mean you should have no qualms about whatever you slap on your back. Depending on what the magazines dictate for you to wear and imitating the garbs of the stars would only make you unimaginative and it would mean forfeiting your identity for someone else’s. We should strive for individuality and harness our creativity to its fullest extent. Never should we be the doppelgangers’ of the celebrities. We should be our own selves and be proud of it.