Mich Dulce: Hats Off!

MANILA, Philippines -May nag-text!

The innocuous-sounding phrase, which has recently become street jargon thanks to a popular noontime program, buzzed through my head as my phone sounded off at 7:30 a.m. last Sunday. It was Jen Domingo, a former colleague at the British Council, ecstatically proclaiming that Mich Dulce had just won the award for International Young Fashion Entrepreneur of the Year. I switched on my computer and true enough – on the blog “Chuvaness.Com” which had been faithfully reporting on the young designer’s foray into the UK fashion scene, there was Mich in the thick of London Fashion Week, holding up a green bowl by the acclaimed Gillies Jones Glass, symbolic of her victory over other young creative entrepreneurs from Bangladesh, India, Libya, Lithuania, Russia, Sri Lanka, Syria and Turkey.

Michelle Dianne Lopez Dulce, whose career I closely followed after she came home from a short course at Central St. Martins College of Art and Design several years ago, gained widespread public recognition after joining and opting out of the reality show Pinoy Big Brother. She also dabbled in music, fronting for the band Death by Tampon and, more recently, Us-2 Evil-O, whose debut album “Dirty Debutante” is making waves on the indie music scene. Despite her myriad interests, it is in fashion that she definitely made her mark – first for her marvelously deconstructed pieces flamboyantly worn by local fashion denizens, and now for her perky hats that hype up even a drab t-shirt-and-jeans get-up.

Filipino design talent has already been at the forefront of global fashion, thanks to the likes of Lesley Mobo, whose catwalk success has made him a byword throughout the rest of Europe as well. Bags, jewelry, and other fashion accessories exported by local manufacturers have also found their way to boutiques all over the world. But it is as a milliner that Mich Dulce has caught London by storm.

“The Brits already use lots of sinamay and other fibers available in the Philippines,” says Mich. “But we don’t really develop it for our own because people tend to think it’s so crafty, so local. Besides, millinery is not so developed in this country – we don’t really wear hats.”

Mich knows whereof she speaks. Indeed, among Pinoys, sports caps are popular, and so are kerchiefs, but hats? Even at the annual Manila F.A.M.E. – the export fair put up by the Department of Trade and Industry – booths by hat-makers are few and far between. 

“I thought it would be interesting to work on it and make hats a fashion statement,” beams Mich. “It’s a simple accessory, easy to wear. More and more people are getting into it!”

It was her enthusiasm and dedication that set Mich apart from the other young designers who vied for the right to represent the Philippines in the search for International Young Fashion Entrepreneur. The global search was launched by the British Council to sensitize creative entrepreneurs in the United Kingdom to the opportunities that come from working with creative entrepreneurs in transitional and emerging economies. With the goal of establishing a powerful professional network for trade, collaboration, and cultural exchange, the awards program focused on young people in every part of the fashion industry, including design, production, marketing and communications.

As part of the program, ten finalists between the ages of 25 and 35 were chosen from applications submitted from around the world to take part in a tour of the London and Nottingham fashion industries. They were given an exclusive master class with Sir Paul Smith, and have had the opportunity to build contacts and see the best of the UK fashion industry during London Fashion Week. Each of the ten had to give a presentation to a panel of leading industry figures in the UK, demonstrating their keen understanding of and vision for the fashion industry in their respective countries.

London Fashion Week 2010 began under a spirit of gloom with the sudden demise of the celebrated British designer Alexander McQueen, whose incomparable sensationalism and cutting genius burned indelible images in the mind’s eye of fashion. But at the awarding ceremonies held on Feb. 20, Mich infectiously glowed in her multi-colored frock as she received her green goblet from Dolly Jones, editor-in-chief of Vogue UK, and Andrew Senior of the British Council’s Creative Economy unit. Her excitement could not be contained as her happiness literally bubbled over, winning the paparazzis who endlessly clicked away.

The London win is just one of the many accomplishments Mich has under her belt. In 2002, she was a finalist for the Paris Young Designer’s Competition and first runner-up in the MEGA Young Designers Competition. In 2004, she was nominated for Revolutionary Designer of the Year at the MTV Style Awards, and in 2007, she won the Fashion Designer of the Year Award for Streetwear at the MEGA Fashion Awards.

When I saw the alien landscape of her send-off exhibit at Greenbelt 5, I knew that the fairy tale setting which Mich Dulce and sculptor Leeroy New invoked with her hats in pods hanging on industrial-grade pipes signaled good things to come. The installation was young and edgy, but definitely clean. To me, they looked like thought bubbles, which I felt must have been going through her riotous curls. But more than anything, they symbolized a change in the way the British Council itself looked at efforts to promote creative industries hereabouts. 

When the series of awards for international young creative entrepreneurs was first launched in 2003, fashion took a backseat to publishing, music, film, and product design. When the Center for International Trade Expositions and Missions (CITEM) requested London to field a milliner under their merchandise design residency program, they sent out a jewelry specialist instead. For five years, we in the Creative Industries Task Force organized by the Department of Trade and Industries and the Cultural Center of the Philippines were hoping that the British Council would keep up efforts to help the public recognize that entrepreneurship, alongside talent, could help the Philippines switch gears from being a service economy to a creative economy.

Sir Paul Smith once said that the world doesn’t need to produce more clothes or factories – just individuals who can approach the business of fashion in highly creative ways. Mich Dulce’s triumph proves that. She faced stiff competition from young forerunners in the fashion industry, but her unique creativity and international outlook gave her a distinct edge. Since studying the art of millinery in 2005, she has unleashed a flurry of delightful headpieces for Manila’s fashion-savvy.  

They are handmade, exquisitely molded and always with a whimsical touch that make them distinctly her own, thanks to her geometric experimentation, her unusually sculpted fabric, and her unconventional use of materials. Now, with her prize of 5,000 pounds sterling to use on a collaborative project for the rest of the industry, she can work with and help countless others make hat-making a commercially viable enterprise. 

Hats off to Mich Dulce --– innovative… individual… inspirational!