Return to FAME

Last week I returned to the Manila FAME trade show after skipping it for several years. These trade shows can get boring – you see the same baskets, the same lampshades, variations of a chair… This time I was challenged to find four items out of the thousands of products on display that would be called editor’s choices. I decided to look for first-time exhibitors, the not-so-well-known manufacturers rather than the sukis, the established designers from whom nothing less than exceptional is to be expected.

I’m delighted to have found some gems. With the owner of a tall rattan lamp in the Tarlac Artisans Village nowhere in sight, the adjoining exhibitor, Jovert Libunao of Say’Earth, engaged with us. A blackened table top and clocks caught my eye; they were made of charred or burnt wood. Jovert explained that the folks in Gerona, Tarlac, where he is from, made charcoal for a living. He picked up on that and hired two of those tradesmen and tweaked the process to come up with wood of a deep ebony, showing distinctive cracks and grains. The wood too became resistant to termites and other insects, making it ideal for furniture and accessories.

Over at the DTI Region 5 Bicol set-up, a grouping of what looked like lighted corals stood out in the display. They weren’t corals but blobs – for lack of a better word – made of abaca bristles on a wire frame, with a battery-powered light source within, so there was no unsightly electric cord. The Bicol region is the country’s leading abaca producer, accounting for at least a quarter of national production (almost 13,000 metric tons in 2025). The abaca is in its natural off-white color, giving off a soft golden glow. We joked that the bristles can be used as a scrub as well – multi-functional! Unfortunately the makers from Alcaldeza Nature Products of Aklan were not around to give us details.

These two products may not be samples of outstanding design, but there is potential in their simplicity and ingenuity, making use of what was at hand. With mentoring and guidance by the unerring eye of a designer, these two products can be elevated to something striking, unique and attractive. CITEM with its design labs and mentoring with experts can transform simple products into special items – which they have been doing, as evidenced by many of the products at the show.

The coconut nut is not a nut, but as the ditty goes, it is a multi-use nut… or rather, a fruit of the cocopalm family. We were about to leave and made a quick detour to the Design Center display by the exit. A booth across had two large wall lighting fixtures; the booth’s interior was all black. Catalina based in Cebu upcycles different parts of the coconut – shells, leaves, fibers – and crafts them into lamps. Shells are drilled or carved by hand into different shapes and sizes, allowing the light inside to cast unique patterns in the dark interior of the booth. A chandelier seemed to be made entirely of coconut – strings of coco beads as tassels, triangles of white-washed shell held together by rings of tiny beads… in the dark it wasn’t easy to study the details as much as I’d have liked, and the staff on site didn’t offer much information.

Contrast that with the enthusiasm of Nature’s Legacy co-founder and CEO Pete Delantar, who was more than happy to answer our questions. I was won over not just by Pete’s passion for his products and his mission, but by the beautiful drawer handles – especially the knobs – that looked like colored glass and marble. We had walked past the booth when around the corner I spotted the array of handles, and just had to go in and inquire about them. I thus ran smack into Pete, gushing over the different materials they developed, how and where they are used and, most importantly, how they are mostly made from waste materials – excess or unusable packing cartons, leaves and branches from fallen trees around their property in Compostela, Mandaue City in Cebu. The handles I admired are made from their Marmocast polymer.

Trade shows like Manila FAME celebrate human effort – design, craftsmanship. While online commerce has its benefits, visual and tactile engagement allow better appreciation of a product, enabling you to get a feel of the material, caress a smooth surface, feel how a chair embraces and cuddles you.

Doing business online is, in many ways, faster, more efficient – scroll to view the entire product catalog, talk price and delivery schedules on video calls, save on having to travel around the trade show circuit all over the world. Manila FAME is now a yearly event (it used to be held twice a year, in April and October); October 2027 will be its 75th edition. I’m glad I “rediscovered” Manila FAME – not to mention connecting with old friends in the industry (that’s another story) – reaffirming that the human mind, human hands and the human heart will not be so easily replaced by whatever technology may come up with.