Bleach house

Mannequins constructed out of old newspaper dominate the window display. Long-limbed, gangly and a touch eerie, they look like something straight out of a surrealist zombie flick.

The store, quirkily dubbed Bleach Catastrophe, is one great homage to all things gray and beige. Faded wooden planks make up the flooring, walls of unfinished concrete are dotted with mannequin hands jutting out of the wall, necklaces fashioned from yarn hanging from distended limbs, while plastic bins in a grid pattern across the store space are topped with the label’s footwear.

“The rawness of the store suggests it has just come out of a catastrophe and is in the process of rebuilding,” says owner Cristine Villamiel. Think clothes leached of color and left to age in your grandmother’s trunk.

The clothes are another thing entirely. A gossamer-fine cotton tee in gray comes with a hand-etched drawing of a creature with wire covering its teeth. “Still life with braces” reads directly underneath the sketch. Pops of yarn or woven ribbon come out of printed shirts or dresses. Jeans, in corduroy or a waxy finish, come in a range of dark washes. Interestingly, the coolest style is a light gray that’s just shy of stone washed.

The local brand proves that bleach is the new black.

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Bleach Catastrophe is located at 3/L, Trinoma; 2/L, Ayala Center Cebu, Cebu City, and 2/L, Greenbelt 5.