Inspired by the 1927 Fritz Lang film Metropolis, Renan Pacson's new Panasonic Manila Fashion Festival collection pays homage to the past and the future.

Renan Pacson invites us all to the FIRST BALL, a post-apocalyptic Glastonbury-esque wonderland set in a fantastical landscape of brutalist concrete and industrialized gleam. His latest Panasonic Manila Fashion Festival show was a gesture towards the past&rsquo;s interpretation of the uncertain future, an outlier in the time of stagnation. The collection, a wearable homage to the 1927 Fritz Lang film Metropolis, satisfies the era&rsquo;s desire for the future, albeit maintaining a semblance of consciousness rooted in the current.

The collection is an amalgamation of feeling. Not only is it nostalgic, it's also hopeful &mdash; combining sleek structured bodices with almost erotic cutouts in playful yet classical arrangements. There is an element of surprise in each piece, allowing the audience to look forward to completion.

L&rsquo;Officiel Philippines spoke with Pacson to uncover the narrative and philosophy behind the world he forged.

On creating new worlds
&ldquo;Fritz Lang&rsquo;s Metropolis was the starting point for the world I was imagining, which was the setting for my collection. I was also looking at a lot of brutalist architecture &mdash; Moshe Safdie&rsquo;s Habitat 67, Wortruba Church, and Le Corbusier&rsquo;s Palace of Assembly. I asked a friend to write a script for me to really set the mood for the world I was envisioning, which also kind of shifted the mood of the collection from very dark and gloomy to optimistic and hopeful.&rdquo;

On the philosophy of creation
&ldquo;The approach was very organic. I had to unlearn the basic rules of constructing a garment to be able to put my head in the world I created. What would a T-shirt look like after surviving &ldquo;the glitch&rdquo;? How would I sew a party dress outfit if I do not know how to sew? So there [was] a lot of draping, knotting, hand-stitching, and non-traditional ways of constructing a garment. Also, listening to Sexbomb Girls [while working] definitely urged me to create some subversive basics.&rdquo;

On the process behind the collection
&ldquo;Everything in the collection was either repurposed, recycled, re-engineered, or made from scraps of fabrics in the workshop. I did not purchase any new material. I had to let go of that traditional way of creating a collection that always aims for cohesiveness. The collection was dictated by what was available. As for the silhouettes, instead of having a singular muse in mind, I had several characters with different personalities who were supposed to be attending the FIRST BALL, a post-apocalyptic but campy music festival&agrave; la Glastonbury in the year 2835.&rdquo;

On playing into the current times
&ldquo;Somehow, it reflects that shift towards more mindful consumption. With a lot of time on our hands during the lockdown, we learned to DIY a lot, and that was also the approach to building my collection.&nbsp;
With so many clothes and nowhere to go, once we get the chance to dress up, we'd want each piece that we put on ourselves to tell a story. Case in point: all the bling on the sleeves of Look 9 are travel souvenirs and knickknacks from friends. I could tell you 101 stories just from those sleeves.&nbsp;
Life is short, choose what makes you smile. I was talking to childhood friends and they reminded me of how I loved Daisy Siete and the Sexbomb Girls; that reawakening led me to dismiss my initial pseudo-intellectual concept [in favor of] something that makes me smile.&rdquo;

Renan Pacson Imagines Fashion in the Year 2835

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