MANILA, Philippines - I spent a chunk of my life avoiding the music festival scene. The idea of spending a day under the blazing Manila heat waiting hour after hour for the bands I actually paid for: unappealing. Now, while mimicking sardines in a moshpit is still not my idea of a good time, free tickets to 7107 and a forceful friend have convinced me that there’s more to music festivals that meets the eye. The music, the fashion, and the people all culminate to create a culture of fun and camaraderie - even amongst strangers.
MAS by Style Origins has taken all this from the music festival experience, sans all the heat, discomfort, and endless amount of waiting. MAS — which is both an abbreviation for “music, art, style” and an expression of the desire for “more” — plays up how fashion has become part of the festival experience. Through their fashion shows, they have crafted an atmosphere of lightheartedness and fun with live musical performances, a fashion show with friendly faces (like a person you’ll see at Wanderland), and a set that helps keep the festival scene alive.
In the middle of a crowded mall on a late Saturday afternoon, crowds of people lined the glass railings all the way up to the third floor, their eyes transfixed by the runway below. Loud music blared as girl after girl, boy after boy sailed down the catwalk bathed in saturated colors. The words “MAS! by Style Origin” flashed behind them.
It’s become a universal fact that attendance at a music festival goes hand in hand with the flower crowns and floppy hats associated with Coachella-esque garb. Musical festival culture has taken on a life of its own, so much so that it has influenced stores to create lines dedicated solely to the trend. It’s become a form of expression — an art, even — deeply embedded in the heart of festival culture.
The fashion shows (which include brands like Aeropostale and Adidas to local brands like Plains and Prints and Folded & Hung) are sandwiched between live musical performances. Tom Taus, an international producer and DJ, kicked off the show with live mixes to hype up the crowd. Local artists Techy Romantics and Spongecola ended the show with a bang.
This year’s event is bigger and bolder than ever before. Each mall has a different set, each decorated in vivid colors after the specific musical festival that inspired it. There are 14 different shows scattered throughout June and July. MAS! kicked off last weekend at Fairview Terraces with a runway covered in vibrantly colored geometric shapes and equally vibrant lights to match. The upcoming shows include Greenbelt, which features streaks of neon colors against a black runway (kind of like the Tomorrowland music festival at night), and a sunny and brightly hued Wanderland-themed TriNoma. You can catch the other shows at Solenad, Centrio, Harbor Point, BHS, Market Market!, Marquee, Alabang Town Center, Ayala Center Cebu, UP Town Center and Abreeza.
Ayala Malls and Style Origins emphasizes making the community a part of the show, hence the kaleidoscope of faces seen sauntering down the runway, most of them everyday people you wouldn’t normally peg as models. Each person was decked out from head to toe in ensembles from the countless number of brands featured by Ayala Malls, including Adidas, Aeropostale, Giordano, Payless, American Tourister (in which models each sported luggage to match their outfits), and Big and Small (which had toddlers strutting down the catwalk with flowery hairbands and colorful outfits), to name a few.
The MAS! fashion shows will continue until the end of July, showing with each person walking down the catwalk how the festival culture has brought together a community through music, art and style.
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Style Origin is an annual fashion event of Ayala Malls with Philippine Star Lifestyle/ YStyle/Young Star as media partner. For more information and updates, check out the Ayala Malls Facebook page.