Urban legends

MANILA, Philippines - This week YStyle teamed up with design collective Thursday Room to come up with the trends to watch out for this fall season. Since it happens to be “Buwan ng Wika,” the group got a little creative by reinterpreting classic Filipino legends and reimagining them in international couture. Thursday Room is comprised of Kris Abrigo (illustrator/sculptor), Jill Adolfo (account manager/copywriter), Fold Canela (fashion videographer/SoFA instructor), Soleil Ignacio (illustrator/art director), Chi Jihan (motion graphics artist/sound designer), Eldzs Mejia (fashion stylist/art director), and (Tokwa Peñaflorida (illustrator/art director).

YSTYLE: How long has the Thursday Room been around?

THURSDAY ROOM: Talks of forming a group have been around since our college days. It’s always been a goal. However, we formally decided to come together and establish a design collective just last October 2011.

Apart from all of you hailing from UP Diliman, what brought you guys together and made you decide to create a design collective? 

TR: We realized that we’ve collaborated on a lot of works already and thought, “Why not just get together?” And also because it would help us all be better artists. Plus, having a group will get us more audience! “More fans, more fun!” (Laughs) But seriously, we want to help each other to achieve higher ground in our own careers.

For this story, who did what?

TR: Since August is “Buwan ng Wika,” we felt that we had to integrate that for this story. After brainstorming as a group, we came up with a sort of homage to Filipino literature. We wanted to present a modern take on famous characters of Filipino literature, specifically those that we studied in high school. Because the Internet makes everything accessible, it’s so easy to be caught up in things that are foreign. If you think about it, kids these days usually know stories and fairy tales that are very Western in ideology. While it is important, of course, to know what’s out there in a global setting, it’s also important that we are familiar with our own culture.

Fold took over coming up with which trends to be illustrated. Eldzs art-directed the illustrators by assigning them outfits and poses to recreate. Kris did a take on Florante at Laura, incorporating the season’s Baroque trend, as seen in Dolce & Gabbana. Soleil modernized Maria Clara and Sisa, from Noli Me Tangere, in this season’s Marc Jacobs, which plays on new shapes. Tokwa dressed up the Ibong Adarna in graphic prints by the fashion world’s current obsession, Mary Katrantzou.

Since there are so many of you, how do you go about working together? Is brainstorming and collaborating chaotic or harmonious?

TR: In the initial stages of conceptualization, we can get very chaotic, only because we feel that each of us, coming from UP, have strong points of view and we have a lot of ideas we’d like to integrate in a work. But as soon as we agree on a working concept, everything starts to become harmonious, almost as if we’re thinking the same things.

Also, one thing that really works for us is that the roles of each person in the group are clearly defined. Each also has his or her own distinct style that makes it easier for us to pinpoint who can do what.

So far, what would you consider to be the Thursday Room’s biggest accomplishment?

TR: In less than a year of being together as a design collective, we have made a couple of projects that we can truly say are fruits of our collaborative efforts. We’ve done a couple of print and motion editorials for some of the leading publications in the country. Works have been showcased in various international magazines and exhibitions. Our works have been part of locally published books. For two consecutive seasons, some of our videos were showcased in the big shows of Philippine Fashion Week. But one of our biggest accomplishments would have to be crafting a TV commercial for Keds.

Ultimately, what does the Thursday Room hope to achieve?

TR: We want to be one of the country’s most prominent design groups. We want to be known as one of the most creative and stable design groups here and abroad. Good taste all over the world! More exceptional artworks. Makapag influence ng mga if not younger, our own generation to excel in their fields. And of course gather more clients. (Laughs)