CARY SANTIAGO: Transcending Fashion Into An Artform

Several years back, there was a wider gap amongst fashion designers that were involved behind creativity and ecomic survival in the rag trade, a trend, of simply making clothes and not indulging into anything that goes beyond art. Hence, they dressed women like anarchists, who apparently never gave any interest in looking them good. Clothes where just clothes for necessity purposes.T- shirts, jeans and the rest of the street wear garments were considered to be the fashion style dictat of the day till it became a stereotype....the fashion industry was dying.

Art has an inherent stylistic sensibility, the clothes that you choose to wear often reveal a lot about your personality.Clothes and fashion is a cultural index that declares the allegiances and affinities of the wearer in a given social context.

Fashion has never been averse to art, or vice versa. Rather, one should say that fashion has always been an integral part of the lives and works of the artists of any time. There is a tremendous but subtle complementariness between fashion and art, though it has been a norm for a long time to downplay the role of fashion in art, unlike the way we know these days.

Before anything becomes a stereotype, it would be interesting to analyze one person I know that had spent his life living, breathing and emulating fashion to a "T".

Meet Cary Santiago.

An artist who tried to move away from the ‘mainstream’ fashion, had in a way, created his own fashion statements through his clothes.Such disinclinations towards ‘fashion’ itself is a fashion, which in turn would create a paraphernalia of designs, no matter whatever philosophy guides the production of such design would become ‘fashion’ in no time. The derivative dress codes, which oscillated between East and West style culture and his unmistakably inborn gift of artistry, molded, shaped and sculpted the now, Cary Santiago.

Equipped with proper experiences in the Dubai and Lebanon, an added sense of Haute Couture , Cary Santiago's aesthetics look different. Perhaps, he had the edge, the freedom of creating fabulous silhouettes and had achieved and accomplished the artistry in his fashion.


Personally speaking, I have been always interested in Cary Santiago's career, since a decade ago when he started working in one of Dubai's truest sense of high end couture atelier. In frank and straightforward manner I speak from my heart and devil may care, I gained friends and lots of enemies.
Even now, people have a reservation about me when it comes to my appreciation of fashion and fashion designers. They want things to be kept in watertight compartments. They want art to be art and fashion to be fashion....and designers to be just designers.

There is a strong essence in a Santiago's design, it transcends mere fashion statement into an artform. His clothes are clever and highly crafted. A visual code and instillation. It is a performance.
In Philippines, art and fashion are not strange bedfellows any more. Fashion designers like Cary Santiago project themselves as artists. Cary is damn worthy of that name, as he has a strong conviction and had proven his artistic prowess. It is not just clothes he put before the public, but his artistic creations, his positive relationships with the world of art not only in his individual practice but also in his love to beautiful designs and its luxe appeal.

I think, Alexander Mcqueen and Hussein Chalayan, before calling themselves fashion designers, prefers to designate as artists! They use their designer’s abilities and materials to create works of art, complete with installations and videos. Such attempts are becoming a ‘fashion’ in a way and it is a very positive trend. Internationally, Alexander McQueen was one of the designers who indulged in the world of art like an artist, a surrealist – abstractionist!


Cary Santiago's upcoming Gala Show on September 26, 2010 at Marriott in Manila will proclaim his artistry to a higher level, having inspirations from the world he loves to withdraw from chaos."Feathers' will surely be one exciting show complete with high- end drama on the runway.
I had been privileged to see some of the pieces, and surely those muted colours of beige, grays, light sands and oysters will complement the versatility of a designer we hate to love, vis-a-vis, Cary Santiago.


He is what we need today – a fashion artist with aesthetic skills and unlimited talent.


CARY SANTIAGO'S 45 piece Couture Collection is sponsored by ABS- CBN & SAMSUNG