Grey expectations

Most people forget that before Cecile Zamora-Van Straten was a fashion blogger, restaurateur and style icon, she was a fashion designer. Trained at Parsons. Bastion of the ‘90s underground rave fashion scene, mostly for her involvement with disbanded cult boutique Defect. Proprietor of the now-defunct Grocery and Store for all Seasons. In fact, Zamora-Van Straten has done more for Filipino fashion than just posting photos of well-dressed urbanites on her blog. Her preference for unconventional, trend-ignorant sartorialism supports — and breeds — the style of alternative Manila, one that mixes avant-garde designer labels with off-the-wall local wear and flea market finds.

In a new fashion collaboration, Van Straten once again goes after an aesthetic that consciously evades catwalk trends and pretty catalog-worthy ensembles. She has partnered up with Bleach Catastrophe — that fashion-forward local brand whose surreally imaginative window displays are only surpassed by their equally cerebral wear — to come up with a limited-edition line called Heather Miss Grey, promoting your not-so-basic T-shirt.

Cecile Van Straten’s capsule collection for Bleach Catastrophe is reflective of her own fashion: a mix of deadpan Japanese quirk and the no-nonsense silhouettes made hip by Antwerp designers. Heather Miss Grey promotes that new brand of comfort wear, one that pretty much promotes a wear and walk concept: T-shirts that don’t require overt styling despite the austere color palette, slouchy collars and drooping sleeves; T-shirts that straddle the line between home loafing and fierce dressing down; T-shirts that are loose, carefree and intentionally over-sized. “I was just tired of seeing tiny shirts all over the place and I wanted to create something that was more comfy and age-appropriate,” explains Van Straten. And she wanted them to be grey, or at least in colors close to it.

Cristine Villamiel is also a big fan of the color grey. The 27-year-old creative director of Bleach Catastrophe, birthed the brand pretty much on her own about two years ago, filling up three Bleach stores with thought-provoking interiors, concept-heavy displays and fashion pieces that convey art in both print and style: T-shirts with lip pockets, cotton dresses with sketchy portraits, skinny pants in shiny bronze twill.

It took her two years before she got around to thanking Van Straten for blogging about the store. The designer/blogger, still a fan, asked to meet, and from there, things just pretty much fell into place. The name of the line was settled first: Heather Miss Grey, epitomizing the two’s favorite color. Van Straten then thought of the direction — asymmetric shapes and a hearty infusion of Victorian prints — and Villamiel took over graphic design and production. “Cecile said she wanted old photographic elements for the print motifs,” says Villamiel. The result: bold black incarnations of birds in flight, corseted women, colonial farm houses, cheeky bows and leafless trees.

There is nothing flashy about Heather Miss Grey. It’s upfront with its austerity and plainly anti-sexy. Just like Van Straten’s blog, actually: no coy comments, no poetic inclinations. Just direct, no-nonsense statements that inevitably make an impact.

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Heather Miss Grey is available at Bleach Catastrophe, Greenbelt 5 and TriNoma.

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