A Filipiniana approach to knitwear
Being a fashion designer is not an easy job. To constantly have new ideas, be innovative and creative entail a lot of imagination and passion. In design, one can’t exist without the other. Without passion, no new ideas come into play. When one’s imagination is no longer working and the passion for design is dead, a designer might as well close shop.
Well, not Lulu Tan Gan. Known as the knit queen of Manila’s fashionista crowd, Tan Gan recently opened a new boutique at the posh Greenbelt 5.
When I met her 22 years ago, she already had a store at Greenbelt 1. She also had a section at SM Makati and expanded to SM Megamall then to other SM Malls. I never expected her to last this long with her knits. For how versatile can knitwear be, especially in a warm country like the Philippines? How much knit designs can she produce without repeating herself? Well, the answer lies in her perseverance, her passion and love for work.
She never stops researching on the different yarns that she can use for her designs and our climate. And she always comes out with the right combination of yarns — lighter ones for the Philippines and heavier ones for travel wear. She mixes and matches different kinds of threads with her yarn. What makes her fashion even more interesting is her penchant for wearing her own designs with élan.
One time I remarked to her, “The problem with your clothes is they are so clingy, only thin people like you look good in them!” She proved me wrong by designing unstructured tops and pants for all shapes and sizes.
On Aug. 26, Tan Gan showed her latest collection of knitwear at a teatime fashion show in Shangri-La Makati. It was a mostly Filipiniana collection except for a few organic silk tops that she matched with capri pants. Tan Gan mixed her knitwear with indigenous products like sinamay and abaca. She’s been experimenting along Filipiniana lines for a few years now but this time she went full blast. She mixed local materials with her knits and made the traditional look modern and elegant. She incorporated the panuelo, the tapiz, the Maria Clara, the terno, kimona and saya, on her designs using knit and piña. The result is just fabulous.
For casual wear, she reinvented the barong tagalog using her knits. She beaded them, embroidered them, embellished them and used them over mini skirts, capri pants, flowing pants and shorts.
For evening wear, she used the piña as wraps, jackets, caftans, opera coats, ponchos over her knit dresses and pants.
For her wedding collection, she mixed and matched piña with her knits and made them into modern ternos, panuelos, Maria Claras. It was a very entertaining fashion show that showed once again the ingenuity and versatility of Tan Gan’s genius. I heard one woman say, “Walang kupas si Tan Gan!”
Indeed, Lulu Tan Gan has truly endured the test of time. “I will still be around for the next generation,” she quipped with a twinkle in her eyes!
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Those interested to order from Lulu Tan Gan may e-mail tan-gan@tan-gan.com.
