Holy couture! Gang Gomez designs liturgical vestments using Filipino fabrics

MANILA, Philippines – Once a designer, always a designer. Gang Gomez may have embraced a life of piety as the Benedictine monk Dom Martin de Jesus H. Gomez, OSB, but his love for highlighting the best of Filipino indigenous fabrics still runs in his blessed veins.

As a designer, Gang Gomez was one of the country’s top designers producing couture gowns using native materials such as piña, jusi and abaca.

On Aug. 6, the feast of our Lord’s Transfiguration, the “Filipino Liturgical Vestments” exhibit was opened at the Museum of Transfiguration Monastery or MTM showcasing 50 liturgical vestments designed by Dom Martin made of hand-woven indigenous Filipino materials. Following a centuries-old tradition of Benedictine monasteries as centers of culture and the arts, MTM exhibits this collection for the first time in Mindanao.

The same collection was shown at Ayala Museum for six months during the celebration of the centennial of Philippine Independence in 1998 and was later showcased in a series of exhibits in the US and at the Textile Museum of Canada. It also became the centerpiece of the 2001 International Weaving Exposition in the US and documented in the award-winning book Worship and Weave: Towards Filipino Liturgical Vestments.

The exhibit shows the skillful blending of classical art and Filipino native fabrics in a successful attempt to incorporate the liturgical vestments of the Catholic Church. This is something that the General Instruction on the Roman Missal promotes.

The exhibit is aimed at inspiring other vestments designers to consider the use of Filipino indigenous materials for liturgical vestments.

The ribbon-cutting ceremonies were led by Eloisa Hizon Gomez, mother of Dom Martin); Fr. Anscar Chupungco, OSB, director of the Paul VI Institute of Liturgy; Fr. Savio Ma. Siccuan, OSB, Prior of Transfiguration Monastery; and Fr. Tarcisio Narciso, OSB, Abbot of the Abbey of Our Lady of Montserrat.

The event was also graced by internationally acclaimed Filipino artist Ann Pamintuan, whose “Transfiguration” artwork adorns the MTM lobby; Davao Museum director Sylvia Lorenzana, Datu Vic Saway and Bai Liza Saway of the Talaandig ethnolinguistic community; Museum of Butuan curator Fr. Joesello Amalla, fashion designer Nolie Hans, film director Mel Chionglo, interior designer James Jao and historian Dr. Ching Unabia.

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For inquiries, SMS 0917-5105585, 0927-936-6360 or email: dommartinosb@yahoo.com.