In his latest collection, Paris-based Filipino designer Jude Macasinag celebrates being queer&mdash;and all the trappings (and contradictions) that go with it.

PHOTOGRAPHY Chuck Reyes
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 To be queer in the Philippines is to be a walking contradiction. In pop culture, media, and fashion, for example, queer people are celebrated for their talents but in the eyes of the law, on the streets, and sometimes even in our own homes, we are second-class citizens. &ldquo;Being queer in the Philippines is merely to be tolerated, and always comes with conditions,&rdquo; says designer Jude Macasinag. There is an expectation to conform, and letting your freak flag fly means having to do it hidden away in rooms.
 But in the face of all this, there is still beauty and joy&nbsp;to be found in being a queer Filipino. In his Master of Arts graduation collection for the Institut Fran&ccedil;ais de la Mode in Paris, Jude celebrates just that. Titled Haute Queer-ture, the collection puts Filipino queer identity centerstage and marries it with couture, exploring themes of heritage, machismo, club culture, pageantry, drag, and craft&mdash;all in six looks.
 It&rsquo;s a lot to put together for a graduation collection, but this level of complexity is exactly what being a queer person is like: there is an endless list of things to negotiate and aim for.
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 True enough, Jude&rsquo;s collection is filled with juxtapositions: trash is intertwined with fine fabrics, and uniquely Filipino notions are brought to life using the highest French dressmaking techniques. In one look, shards of beer bottles are polished to look like emeralds. In another, human hair&nbsp;is woven into pi&ntilde;a, contrasting the stereotype of hairy men being rugged with the soft and delicate materiality of a barong Tagalog. A rave-tattered skirt is paired with an equally refined bar jacket topped with a trompe l&rsquo;&oelig;il sash, recalling a pageant queen (another popular Pinoy fascination) with just enough of a wild side.
 The humor in all this is not lost in the collection, too. A wink, a smirk, and a giggle are needed to survive the madness we have to go through. To name a few looks: Miss Understood, The Frock Destroyers, and Marie Cuntoinette, add a splash of zest and camp to an otherwise rich, luscious collection.
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 How did you decide on the concept of your collection? Would you say that the collection is autobiographical, and was that something you set out to do from the beginning? 
 Haute Queer-ture takes its roots from my upbringing as a queer child in the Philippines, where I struggled to understand my place in a society with such machismo and is, at most, only tolerant to queerness. The collection sought to look into the queer identity from a personal point of view, celebrating it through couture, which involves as much passion, dedication, and skill as queer art forms like drag.
 It was crucial from the start to work on a collection that was personal and, in a way, contemplative and reflective of my own current being. But I would not claim it as solely autobiographical, since the collection also takes on codes and references that are shared within the queer community and extends beyond myself. It was also more reactionary, especially with constant recent news of queer creativity and identities coming under persecution, despite supposed progress toward LGBTQIA+ rights.
 What was it like studying in France? Has your time in Paris made any profound impressions on you?
 I&rsquo;ve been here for over five years. I&rsquo;ve had my fair share of struggles, mostly financially, just trying to stay afloat. When&nbsp;I newly moved, I never romanticized the city, and I took it for all its flaws. There&rsquo;s just something so inspiring about being in a city that&rsquo;s built by such a strong variety of characters and by a culture that&rsquo;s incredibly distinct. I fortunately developed a strong circle of friends who share the same ambitions as I do; at the end of the day, we&rsquo;re all just kids trying to make it work.
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Walk us through your creative process. Does it always follow the same steps?
My creative processes are never set in stone. I learned to value spontaneity as a large part of it, while still maintaining a sense of structure. I almost never sketch nowadays, but I do enjoy&nbsp;creating quick collages or visual notes. I jump between 2-D and 3-D development, which is a method that I find crucial to design development. There always has to be a sense of play.
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 I make it a habit to produce as many maquettes as I can. These do not have to be full garments; sometimes they&rsquo;re just a quarter of a bodice, or a sleeve, or a detail chopped off from a jacket. It allows me to have a better sense of proportion and shape, without immediately finalizing the design.
 Tell us about your fashion origin story. When did you decide to pursue being a fashion designer?
 My fashion origin story is as clich&eacute; as it can be. I was a restless three or four-year-old who could only be pacified once given a pencil and some paper. My scribbles and doodles evolved into crude sketches of dresses, and that was it.
 I started my brand in 2016, focusing on making made-to-order clothing. I moved to Paris in 2018 for my higher academic studies and received a scholarship from my dream school the year after, temporarily leaving behind the small network of clients and industry people I was fortunate to meet at such an early stage in my career.
 I understand that perhaps I have been at the right places at the right times. But I also don&rsquo;t diminish the hard work&nbsp;I have put out, especially as someone who comes from a middle-class family and who started without any pre-existing connections in the industry. I&rsquo;m just fortunate enough to have parents that have been supportive from the start, and are the true backbone of the brand and creative universe that I continue to build.
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To me, growing up obsessed with capital F Fashion was such a core part of being a gay or queer kid. Was it the same for you?
Capital F Fashion wasn&rsquo;t really a thing around my house. [The obsession] grew more when I was in boarding school for high school; every weekend, I would download Chanel savoir-faire&nbsp;videos and Dior documentaries and I would watch them every night before going to bed. This was before moving to Paris was even fathomable, so you can only imagine the sheer joy
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 I had when I got to experience and learn the real savoir-faire processes first-hand, sometimes from the exact same people I&rsquo;d used to watch on the screen.
 Alternatively, has growing up and being immersed in the industry changed the way you view fashion?
 Some experience is definitely there now, especially coming from a self-grown brand and as someone who has peeked into the industry at its core. But, funnily enough, I still try to see it from a naive point of view whenever I can. I can choose to be either romantic or realistic about it, and sometimes those overlap: the dream becomes a reality, and the reality becomes a dream. Trends and styles come and go, but the soul of fashion for me&mdash;the people that truly work in it, and the upholding of creativity, heritage, and craftsmanship&mdash;will always remain the same. Once you see fashion for that, it never really changes.
 What does being queer mean to you?
 
 It means to just be.
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MODELS Gael Calderon Merat, Theo Senesane
ASSISTANTS Nicolas Pham, Quentin Guiomard

Jude Macasinag's Love Letter to Queerness

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