Designers Abraham Guardian and Mamuro Oki of HA.MÜ look back at past collections and remind people of its glorious “unwearability.”

There are a few local Filipino designers who have truly coined an aesthetic. One that actually brings people together around a cultish style code that is unmistakably the brand’s own. But HA.MÜ has undeniably built such a community.
At their MNL Fashion Week 2026 show, fashion lovers from all walks of life — from influencers to tech CEOs — arrived in distinct HA.MÜ garb and styled in such a way that both founders of the label would be proud of. Behind the beloved whimsical brand are Abraham Guardian and Mamuro Oki, a duo formed back when they were students at the College of Saint Benilde studying fashion design. What began as a college thesis has since become one of the more recognizable local fashion labels, with its RTW pieces getting all the cool girls, guys, and gays buying in bulk just to recreate the brand’s runway vision.
But HA.MÜ wasn’t always so accessible.
You could say that its more wearable pieces have been tamed to suit audiences who might still be too scared to go over-the-top once they step out into the world. But this outing for MNL Fashion Week wanted to remind loyal customers and privy onlookers what made HA.MÜ great in the first place: its glorious unwearability.
Approaching its tenth anniversary, HA? HA.MÜ! looked inward at the label’s own history, tracing the instincts, experiments, people, and decisions that shaped it into what it is today. The 40-piece collection unfolded in three acts, moving from its weird and experimental beginnings to a meditation on commitment before arriving at its final bridal act, “I Do, Do I?” — a reinterpretation of commitment not just to another person, but to yourself, your creativity, and the community you’ve built along the way.

“I think time does a lot of change to people, and I feel like since then and now, the brand has evolved even more,” Guardian tells L’Officiel Philippines. “So, I think one big difference about doing the collection for this year's show is mas streamlined na siya and it's more intentional.”
And yet, the irony is that this newfound intentionality allowed HA.MÜ to become a little more unhinged again.
“Basically, it's more of showing how HA.MÜ has been and who we are before and who we are now,” Oki explains. “We wanted to showcase how far we've come and to honor the people na tumulong sa amin and everything, and honor ourselves also with all the hard work that we did for this brand.”
The designers looked back to their college pieces and archives, re-editing ideas that perhaps wouldn’t have made sense anywhere else. “We wanted to showcase how unwearable HA.MÜ is before. Because now, we’re super wearable na,” Oki says. “It's easier to wear. With that, we wanted to showcase something more medyo mas mahirap isuot.”

Photographed by No Name PH courtesy of MNL Fashion Week

What came down the runway was a playful and experimental parade of clothes that brought back the joy of dressing in the most whimsical way. It started with a kaftan-like dress covered in intricate shirred tulle detailing, forming flower-like shapes and giving the impression of a cozy quilt. It was followed by stranger silhouettes: one resembling those odd, rounded long-neck vases, while others pushed exaggerated, ovoid shoulders to cartoonish proportions. Balloon- and parachute-shaped pants were also front and center, emphasizing the label’s signature fascination with round, inflated silhouettes.
Of course, ruffles were a big deal as well. But here, they felt more deliberate rather than simply functioning as the iconic detail that has become synonymous with the brand’s RTW. Then came baby-doll dresses full of volume and texture. Nothing was simple, and that was the whole point.
The familiar HA.MÜ language of stitching over, cutting into, and patching things together was still visible, but the proportions were bigger and louder than before. There was a sense of excess, but never without control. Chaotic yet intentional, as the designers themselves describe it.
And this time, the experimentation wasn’t just about making things look strange.

“We're doing a new… parang new technique,” Oki says. “I did layers of different fabric. Then, I did something na kinut-cut ko siya. It's different from what we do na slash-and-rip eh or slashing. It's more of showing the different layers of fabric through cutting.”
It’s a small but telling evolution for a brand that has always been associated with texture. “HA.MÜ's really known, like before, for textures. I feel like now we're re-editioning our textures and making it more refined. Making it more now, making it more HA.MÜ.”
That refinement is perhaps the most interesting part of the collection. The label is no longer experimenting simply because it can. A decade of experience has given Guardian and Oki a more sophisticated understanding of how to manipulate fabric, volume, proportion, and construction. The weirdness remains, but there is now more intention behind it.
The biggest surprise of the night, however, was their bridal collection within the larger story.

“I believe people would be intrigued by the bridal version of HA.MÜ. What is a ‘HA.MÜ Bride’ in our language?” Guardian asks.&nbsp;For Oki, the answer begins with challenging what a bride is expected to look like.
“Kasi a bridal collection or a bridal piece sometimes is boxed eh. Usually, it’s a ball gown. It’s always fitted on the top, then it will flare out,” he says. “But now, we're challenging how brides would think and how brides would want their pieces.”
It’s a fitting proposition for a brand that has always been interested in opening up the box rather than simply decorating it.&nbsp;“Kasi sometimes as a designer, we tend to also forget na dapat we are also tastemakers—that we are also trendsetters as well,” Guardian adds. “How do we translate something traditional in our own brand's language?”

The answer was a bridal wardrobe that felt less like a one-off wedding costume and more like an extension of the HA.MÜ universe. Guardian’s maximalism and Oki’s restraint painted an interesting picture of a bride — and groom — who might actually want to rewear what they wore on their wedding day. Pieces could be mixed and matched, reworked, or imagined in another color. There were ruffles, sculptural volumes, and more structured fabrics, but everything remained decidedly fun.
And perhaps that is what makes the bridal act work so well. Instead of treating marriage as the ultimate endpoint, HA.MÜ turns the idea of “I do” inward. It becomes a commitment to yourself, your creativity, and the people and experiences that helped you become who you are.
Mimiyuuuh closed the show in a voluminous tent dress that was as shapeless as it was grand. Paired with big, sculptural hair and playful makeup, the HA.MÜ bride was complete. She was one who didn’t want to be confined to the idea of one thing — someone who could shift between grandeur, ease, and a little bit of craziness without ever losing herself.
And that’s the beauty of HA.MÜ: it’s anything goes. Be who you are, or who you want to be. But do it with a keen,&nbsp; playful eye and a lot of intention.

After 10 Years, HA.MÜ Brings It Back to the Beginning at MNL Fashion Week 2026

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