An urban-punk reverie in natural fiber, wood, feathers and skins

Each dress is a story to be told. A tale, lost and discovered, in unconventional couture that is both graphic and organic, young designer Garimon Roferos unfolds the story of his life and work in the language of clothes, worded in dream-like thoughts and ideas.

His designs are the artist’s handwriting of the times that we live in, a mirror of costume and society, and the many possible changes that can happen, if we only allow ourselves, like Garimon, to push forward and thread our thoughts and stories.

Garimon was born in Davao to an agriculturist father. At a very young age, he was already braiding and playing with natural fibers. During his years in grade school, the young

Garimon would gather bits and pieces of scraps and found objects, out of which he created by hand tiny bags and lampshades. He was likewise fascinated by the window display in a department store located near their house, and eagerly awaited the monthly change of display. This fascination grew and he hoped to become a window display artist someday.

He graduated from Holy Cross of Davao College and later took a fashion course at Slim’s in Manila. In 1989, Garimon was hired as fashion designer in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, where he worked hands-on, cutting and sewing evening gowns for Arab women. There he learned to balance his designs between austerity and excess. With his youthful spirit and creativity that knows no bounds, he would, in the seven years in Riyadh, realize that he had the courage to change ideas and reverse the norms in fashion.

His experimental approach sometimes ventured into over-the-top ornamentation. But, then again, one always finds something stimulating and challenging in the designs he creates, however idiosyncratic, that manages to cross over into the realm of art.

Coming home to the Philippines in 1998, Garimon opened shop in Davao, and there re-discovered his love for natural fibers. This fueled his need for newer means of expression.
Working on the bountiful banana fibers, harvested for him by former members of the Moro National Liberation Front, the designer embarked on a fluid collaboration with weavers and sewers.

Conceptual, complex and labor-intensive, his new designs took on a heightened sense of adventure and fragility, almost deviant but with a capacity to communicate and to challenge our own imagination. Garimon also incorporated cultured pearls bought from Muslim merchants, sterling silver and banana fibers to create distinctive designs that are both eccentric and classic.

A year later his terno gown entry, made of sun-dried water lilies, won a Citation Award in Paris, France, at the Concours Internationale des Jeunes Creatures de Mode, which was held at the Carousel de Louvre. In 2003, his urban punk mixed-collage of handpainted and re-embroidered denim terno made it to the top ten finalists in the Young Designers Competition of the Terno Project of the Metropolitan Museum of Manila. The voluminous bouffant gown depicted the various ethnic minorities of Mindanao.

Last year at the “Hiblang Filipina” gala fashion show at the Manila Hotel, his abstract and extravagant collection made of twisted and woven banana fibers  was an obsessive study in cut, construction, texture and embellishment.

Reflecting on how far he has traveled in his career in fashion design, Garimon says, “I am halfway there, but I feel that I should go back to the Middle East. Fashion there is so much alive and adventurous. There are no boring or safe designs. They simply don’t exist there. I want to evolve further in whatever directions and with no limits.”

Reality and dreams, fragility and rock, cultural references and personal emotions, all these come together naturally in the creative mind of Garimon Roferos. This young designer’s intuitive feel for craft, his thematic approach, his travels and personal memories all add up to inspire him to go one step further than the unexpected.

At the 2008 Philippine Fashion Week, Garimon recycled and deconstructed leather and faux tortoise handbags into hand-worked corsets and tops, matched with jersey gowns.
Perhaps, more than being the window display artist that he had wanted to be, he has now morphed into being his own window to the new world, telling his stories and dreams, dress after dress, season after season.

Reprinted, with permission, from Imagine The Groove, the third issue of the award-winning style and culture magazine, Imagine. Imagine The Groove is available at bookstores and magazine outlets.