In defense of the dark arts

Fashion’s love affair with the dark and mysterious has never been more intense than it is today. With many runway shows and print campaigns baring their intent to shock and awe, it’s no surprise that most things strange and once taboo are slowly making their way to the mainstream, or at least, into the reluctant embrace of the spectator.

On Halloween week, I became one such spectator when I chanced upon a gathering of  goths at The Collective. A muggle in what felt like a Snape-run Hogwarts (pardon the metaphor, I am new at this goth thing), I felt all-too-fluffy, like a Care Bear prancing around Hedi Slimane’s atelier. “Clearly she is lost,” they must’ve thought — me in my rundown sneakers and jeans, them in their black ensembles and MAC Black Night coated lips, I certainly did not belong. 
As a band covered Black Sabbath in the background, the black-clad crowd contained their apparent restlessness over the fact that it was past midnight and the liquor ban was already in effect; instead, they chugged on P60 bottles of mineral water. Goths drink water too…interesting. I sat in the middle of the space where the chairs were — the place for spectators and goth-friends, it seemed, because the actual goths only looked on from the shadows — and found my mouth agape, watching the act that followed.

A girl with a whole lot of red hair and too little clothing stood at the center of the space while a nawashi or rope artist tied her up in ways that would make my college Orienteering professor proud. But the real jawdropper was when she was suspended by her torso and swung around as the crowd took photos — the girl seemingly in a trance. The rope, which I later learned was actually made of soft, extra-pliable and super safe synthetic polynylon, dug into her flesh. The crowd winced on her behalf. I saw one spectator wearing a steampunk-goth amalgamation — goggles on the head, Victorian corset, and thigh-high patent leather boots — post a photo to Instagram. That was my go signal. It is not forbidden on Instagram. Yay.

Shibari, they call it — the Japanese-inspired art of tying a subject up to immobilize them, but doing so in an elegant, beautiful and surprisingly photogenic manner, and said girl is Joyen Santos, an AB Film graduate, audio engineer and vocalist of rock band Black Vomits who moonlights as a rope artist and rope bondage subject. She has trained under nawashi Sensei Shinobi and has been practicing shibari for over a year. She says the art of shibari is inspired by the ancient Japanese art called kinbaku, which started out as a way of immobilizing prisoners in ancient Japan by tying them up in intricate, complicated ways. “I get a lot of bruises,” she says, “but being suspended and swung around is fun.” She also photographs shibari sessions with models, but only those trained in the delicate and rather painful art.

For this shibari-inspired shoot, Joyen is fully clothed in everyday pieces that echo the spirit of fall, a little bit of Japan, and a teeny-tiny hint of gothic fashion. During the shoot, in between being bound, unbound and bound again, she gushed over makeup and clothes, and even dished out hair advice like a normal girl: “I use a type of hair dye that doesn’t require prior bleaching and have my hair professionally retouched every six weeks. I wash my hair every two to three days with cold water only — and I stay out of the sun and away from hair products with sulfates.”

The goth-night-liquor-ban combo turned out to be a serendipitous combination — you need to be sober to appreciate the local goth scene and shibari as a sub-culture and art. When the session ended and Joyen was finally free, the goths (they do like to be called “goths,” I made sure) dispersed so that I could no longer marvel at their wonderful costumes — which they happen to wear every day. A Marilyn Manson cover of a Eurythmics song served as our exit tune — to which both goths and non-goths hummed along. Marylin Manson, the great equalizer. Who would’ve thought? We all are officially mad here.

Photos by DAIRY DARILAG, Styling by CHONX TIBAJIA, Assisted by FRANCINE GACRAMA, Makeup by HANNA PECHON of Shu Uemura, Hair by BRYAN YOKOTA of Phytodess, Modeled by JOYEN SANTOS, Rope art by LUIS MEDINA