Fashion Week Asia concluded its inaugural edition in Manila with The Gala, a celebration of Filipino fashion and the craftsmanship that continues to shape it. As the featured designer, Rajo Laurel marked the occasion with a body of work spanning 33 years, offering a fitting close to five days of runway shows, industry conversations, and creative exchange across the region.
As Co-Chair of Fashion Week Asia and Vice President of One Mega Group Inc. Lifestyle Media, Apples M. Aberin saw The Gala as an opportunity for the Philippines to showcase its design talent as the inaugural host. “The Gala is very important because it’s the culmination of the whole five days of Fashion Week Asia. It’s a celebration of our artistry, of craftsmanship, and it’s a chance for the host country to actually highlight the best of what they have to offer,” she said. “My dream is for every Fashion Week Asia host country to highlight the best of their designs.”
Apples M. Aberin at The Gala
In Manila, that celebration took shape through Laurel’s work, which reflects a longstanding commitment to Filipino craftsmanship and a design practice that continues to evolve.
Archie G. Carrasco, Founder and Chairman of Fashion Week Asia and Chairman and CEO of AGC Power Holdings Corp.
“Seeing Fashion Week Asia come to life here in Manila is very meaningful to me,” said Archie G. Carrasco, Founder and Chairman of Fashion Week Asia and Chairman and CEO of AGC Power Holdings Corp. “We started with a simple belief that Asia’s fashion communities can achieve more when we connect and support one another. I hope this first edition is just the beginning of something lasting, creating more opportunities for our designers and creatives to share their work with the world while staying true to who they are.”
Three Decades of Rajo Laurel
Laurel has built a distinctive place in Philippine fashion for more than three decades, bringing Filipino craftsmanship into conversation with contemporary design. Trained at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York and Central Saint Martins in London, he has developed a practice grounded in a deep respect for the art of making.
Across couture, demi-couture, and ready-to-wear, his work brings together embroidery, beadwork, hand-painted prints, and other artisanal techniques with modern construction and an evolving sense of form and femininity. His designs honor tradition without standing still, allowing familiar techniques to find new expression.
Rajo Laurel’s collection brought Filipino craftsmanship and his evolving design language to The Gala runway.
As founder and CEO of Rajo Laurel Enterprises, he has extended this creative vision across Rajo Laurel, House of Laurel, and RAJO, building a body of work that reflects both his artistic range and his understanding of fashion as a living practice.
Asked what it meant to be part of Fashion Week Asia’s first edition, Laurel said, “I’m humbled and grateful, and above all, I want to celebrate who we are. I am a Filipino designer, and what you saw on the runway was the Philippines.”
His words captured the spirit of the evening: a celebration of Filipino fashion through a designer’s work whose creative identity remains deeply connected to where he comes from.
A Beginning for Asian Fashion
As its inaugural edition came to a close, Fashion Week Asia looked ahead to its broader aim of connecting fashion communities across the region and creating more opportunities for designers and creatives to reach wider audiences.
Rajo Laurel stands alongside the designers featured throughout Fashion Week Asia’s runway shows, closing the inaugural edition with a gathering of the creative talent that gave the week its distinct identities and shared purpose.
The Gala ended Fashion Week Asia with a reminder of why that exchange matters. It honored the legacy of a designer while looking toward what the region’s creative communities can build together.
Manila was the beginning, and the hope is that the connections made here will carry forward, opening doors for more Asian designers to share their work on a wider stage without losing sight of the identities that make their work distinct.
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Photos courtesy of Ed Simon, Kieran Punay, and Excel Panlaque of KLIQ Inc.