In an era of fast fashion and fleeting trends where thousands of designs are produced each day, it’s surprisingly difficult to find a unique style for pieces you can wear everyday.
So it’s this fast fashion culture that Tati Miranda-Fortuna — a Kalinga native who advocates circular fashion, an approach that aims to maximize the life cycle of clothing and textile — tries to address with her projects on sustainability.
Miranda-Fortuna works to transform the fashion industry from a linear take-make-waste system into a circular economy, for the benefit of businesses, consumers, and the environment.
“Shopping for new clothes is a vicious cycle of wanting to look good and feel good — and it’s important to look and feel good,” she said. “But if you had the option to do that in a more sustainable way, I think it would be a more gratifying experience.”
Miranda-Fortuna is the founder and president of Ucycle, a company that designs and produces workwear, uniforms, and corporate wear from upcycled or repurposed materials.
She started this in 2021, but diving deeper into the sustainability space, Miranda-Fortuna is going further through her upcoming venture and clothing line: Tahi.
Tracing her indigenous roots
Miranda-Fortuna didn’t have to look far to find the roots of her advocacy in circular fashion and sustainability. Her mother, who was born and raised in Lubuagan, Kalinga, was the granddaughter of a Spanish soldier named Manuel Moldero and an Igorot woman, Diega Sales.
Prior to meeting his wife, Moldero was sent to Sagada for military tasks. But after he fell in love with the uplands, he decided to leave the army and start a coffee plantation, where also got charmed by an Igorot woman.
Miranda-Fortuna’s mother was a doctor to the barrios of Kalinga, and as a child, she would usually tag along her medical missions. One of the villages her mother served was Mabilong.
“Whenever I look out the window of her clinic in the morning, there would always be a long line of patients in colorful traditional clothing. To me, their colorful clothing, tattoos, and accessories looked fascinating,” Miranda-Fortuna narrated.
But apart from being a doctor, her mother was also considered the “mother of the province” and was one of the people who helped conceptualize the largest gong ensemble and largest banga festival in the world, Awong Chi Gangsa, Agtu’n Chi Banga (a call of a thousand gongs, the dance of a thousand pots).
“Her influence exposed me to a lot of promotion of culture, heritage, and tradition. Seeing her serve, honor, respect, protect, and celebrate our roots naturally led me to the same path,” said Miranda-Fortuna.
She learned that her sustainability journey all starts with her Igorot roots.
Modern take on Kalinga’s weaves
In her search for ways to help the community she grew up in, Miranda-Fortuna met the women of Mabilong, the weaving capital village of Kalinga.
They are known for their backstrap weaving techniques and designs that are inspired from elements of nature such as birds, mountains, and stars.
“Their weaves are very beautiful and intricate. I thought they should be showcased, but these products are very hard to make; it takes time and effort,” Miranda-Fortuna said, also explaining that because of the workmanship that goes into the weaves, people who buy them usually just wear them on major occasions.
For these reasons, Miranda-Fortuna was faced with the problem of making it more accessible to the public. If she will be promoting these crafts, she knew that the weaves had to be more familiar in an everyday setting — in basic clothing pieces that people can wear to work and casual get-togethers.
Hence, the idea of Tahi was born.
Tahi is Miranda-Fortuna’s newest venture, a clothing line made with only sustainable fabrics. It incorporates deadstock fabric and local indigenous weaves for use in everyday clothing pieces.
This clothing line will make its debut at the first-ever Biyaya Sustainable Living Festival happening from March 14 to 16 at Parqal, Aseana City in Parañaque.
One of the festival’s highlights will be “The Walk,” a fashion show that will feature the first designs of Miranda-Fortuna’s clothing line.
“All our models are people from different walks of life who also support the sustainability advocacy. We’re also bringing in 75 farmers and weavers to the festival where they can showcase their crafts and also make some profit,” she shared.
Miranda-Fortuna hopes to showcase different weaving communities every quarter, but for this fashion show, attendees can expect to see designs that feature the textiles of the Mabilong weaving community.
Some pieces will sport a full weave, but many will also have just pieces of the Mabilong textiles. Miranda-Fortuna mentions that this is also a way to make the outfits “less bongga” (less extravagant), considering that many of Philippines’ indigenous weaves and attires are too intricate for daily wear.
Forming a strong capsule wardrobe
Tahi aims to be a brand that is wearable everyday and on different occasions, and Miranda-Fortuna does this by curating pieces that can form the foundation of a strong capsule wardrobe. She says that a good foundation includes basic pieces that are not just cute but fit you well.
A few clothing items she listed include a basic sleeveless blouse, tops with sleeves, slacks, denim jeans for women, as well as polo shirts and jackets for men.
“We have items that are needed for every capsule wardrobe to make it something that is easy to mix and match, meaning you can most probably pair everything in your closet with one another. It’s basically creating multiple outfits with items you already have,” she explained.
As Tahi’s founder and someone who has been in the fashion industry for several years, Miranda-Fortuna also designs and test wears some of the pieces that the clothing line will release. She works alongside with her business partner and renowned Filipino fashion designer Jun Escario.
Miranda-Fortuna said they want to grow their design team by adding young designers with the same passion and advocacy, and invites them to reach out, so they can explore working on Tahi together.
With the quality, time, and effort that goes into the design and production of each piece, her team recognizes that some of the pieces might be expensive for the regular consumer.
“We haven’t really decided on their final price points yet, but of course, we want to compensate our weavers properly. Some weaves take a whole day just to produce one yard, so you can expect that full-woven pieces will be pricier than those that just feature a small pattern,” she explained.
Nonetheless, Miranda-Fortuna explained that despite spending a little more than what one would for fast fashion items, consumers can get their money’s worth since their designs are wearable not just for one time.
“That’s why I strongly advocate for shopping in your closet, or building a strong foundation of a capsule wardrobe, or working on basic pieces that are really good. I’d like to encourage individuals to buy better, buy less, and make it last,” she said.
Supporting the community
The birth of Tahi all goes back to the indigenous community that Miranda-Fortuna was inspired to honor.
She wanted to give their crafts a platform where they can be seen and appreciated by more people while promoting her advocacy for sustainability and circular fashion.
“On my end as an individual offering a clothing line, I want to give people more sustainable options where they can get good pieces while also supporting communities,” she said.
“What we have here is actually considered slow fashion because we work with the weavers.”
Miranda-Fortuna noted that they won’t be mass-producing their designs. They will have a few pieces ready for the market, and if they’re sold out, people can order but they will have to wait as the weavers craft them.
With Tahi, Miranda-Fortuna is confident that the items they have are going to be appreciated for its story and quality.
Beyond supporting the communities and preserving their craft, Miranda-Fortuna also hopes Filipinos appreciate local weavers more and honor them as what they truly are: artisans and entrepreneurs. – Rappler.com