Farewell, Manila

BRIAN TENORIO: FAREWELL, MANILA
Filipino-American Designer Brian Tenorio 
Takes-off for New York 
in Marikina-made Designer Boots

Shoe label Tenorio Manila’s DREAMS Collection is Brian Tenorio’s parting anthology as he leaves for his sabbatical in New York this fall of 2008. The following text was written by Brian Tenorio, the Filipino designer label's Design Principal.


The foundation of all dreams is hope. Hope could then be the theme of my 2007 to 2008. It has been a while since I’ve released a statement as myself and not as the design principal of my label. You see, these two perspectives, while specially intertwined, have very different directions. Let me then write in the first person and share some learning I have from my beginnings in this industry, my short time in shoe design, and some insight on what is next. This is a “fashion show in print” in ways, as I do not attempt to showcase what is ready to wear, or what is hip. The goal of this text (and incidentally my Dreams Collection) is to inform and alert, remember, inspire, agitate, enliven, and hopefully widen the confines of what we think is real and necessary, to celebrate what is Filipino and Filipinized, and what we think is us and ours.

Creating My Mold (or Revelations as I was Beginning)

While writing this text, I am surrounded by prototypes of styles for my next set – a shoe made up of leathers from eight animal species, a shoe decked with Swarovski crystals, a pair adorned with jade, pearls, or leather straps inlaid with onyx.

What was essential when I started my work as a shoe designer was creating something from nothing. I meant to not simply produce “my version of” but to create pieces that were essentially me, footwear that spoke Filipino but sympathized with the musings and stories from the rest of the world. It was easy. Understand your environment, and produce something from it without leaving. Stay.

The result were shoe styles that could never be thought of as take-offs or “inspired from” from other foreign labels. These pieces were Filipino because a Filipino made them. A guava tree will bear guava fruits, and never apples. (And certainly not apples that look like guavas!) Hence, the molds were formed from silhouettes I dreamt of, roughened up and smoothened by challenges in production and kind words from family and friends, or people I met in the process.

The next stage in beginning things is understanding your own needs, wants, and desires. There is a difference between these three. Needs are details that will allow a designer to survive. Wants, when gotten, complete our undertakings, and allow us to do another cycle of work. Desires, when fulfilled, perfect our message and uplift the craft. Money is a need, exhibition is a want, and self-evolution is a desire. These are examples of each.

Kidskin Lining (and Other Realizations)

Work with What is Available
What is available is what can be imagined. I used to feel very sad thinking that we have very limited access to technology and materials from this country. Then I studied carefully what we have already. Since we have a limited selection of leather, I improved on my form, silhouettes, patterns, and cuts. With my mold makers, I engineered my own silhouette and contoured the slopes myself by hand. With the same kind of perforations on my shoes, I formed new shapes and figures, and created meaning and readings from them. Make what is necessary and beautiful, available. 

Do Not Embellish the Exterior, Instead, Illuminate on the Essence
Younger designers will have the tendency to add or accessorize in order to highlight the value of their subjects. But really, what does not add, only subtracts and what they mean to bring out can actually already be there, lost in the layers of interpretation in colors, textures, and fabric. What young designers must work for is to illuminate the essence of their pieces. What are they about? What about these creations will improve the world, or at least, enrich an individual? What truth does it communicate? Where is the love?

You Exhale the Same Stuff You Breathe In
One should give more credit and value to his or her surroundings, for one's environment will be the basis of his ideas, dreams, and directions. A question that took me a long time to figure out was what made my styles Filipino (specially considering that I was not even born in this country—was born in Tehran, Iran—and also was on dual citizenship, Filipino and American). The answer revealed itself to me once during a talk I gave at the Asian Institute of Management. If you breathe it in, you tend to breathe the same thing out. We should then make this environment, this society, these islands, a very beautiful experience, a wonderful happy story, and most importantly a haven of love and learning for our children. We should make staying worth it, or leaving as a chance to spread the glories of Filipiniana.

Third World Blitz
(As I write this, I am listening to Five Years by the 90's Filipino band, Sugar Hiccup.) The concept of the “rest of the world” introduced to most of our generation in Benetton's campaigns in the early 90s, is back not only because the trend pendulum's tendency is to swing back, but also because we are part of the rest of the world. Apparently, while we look at what's happening in the world's fashion capitals, the creatives from these regions are also looking at us. And although we have been used to reading endearing blogs written by Filipinos about what’s hot in New York, Paris, or Tokyo, I have this theory that we can be the best only at being ourselves. We are the authority when it comes to being Filipino. The next step is to be better at how we are, and I am sure people will notice (as they have already in the last few years and the next ones, I hope).

The Silhouettes of the Future (Conversely, what dreams are made of)
The future of Philippine shoe design, I realized, may not be found in the already set-up industries in Marikina and in other regions in the Philippines. Philippine shoe design (well at least those that will come to be) now also exists in a new sector of industry—our shoe designers. Since the earlier days of Tenorio Manila in 2004, shoe design now is a recognized career option for a lot of our younger design students. Also, there are now more “out there” shoe designers with their own labels.