If, as tourists caused by our birth, we buy shirts that say “I Heart NY†or “I Got This Shirt In San Francisco,†then as tourists caused by our colonial mentality, we can wear shirts that bear maps of Metro Manila or apparels that help us educate our peers on just how many “blank-silogs†there are. This is where Team Manila Graphic Design Studio shirts, bags, purses, stickers and laptop cases come in, donning fatigue-embedded glimpses of our own Jose Rizal’s face, shaming the Che Guevara’s and Bob Marley’s so often plastered on the population’s chests. Through their urban-street-culture-reflecting designs, a message of nationalism and identity preservation comes across; the prophets of which range from the everyday balot vendors to the national heroes themselves. TM reminds us of how much our past has survived, or died, through the experience of living in this place called Manila.
Even more, their designs allow us to realize that instead of trees, our Philippine eagles might one day have to perch on traffic light posts. Through their messages, we are compelled to wonder whether we are really just like our favorite dessert, Halo-Halo – a mixture, as it literally means, of all the foreign tastes in our system? Or, in the urge to support our local laborers, we are taught to appreciate our artists as well. The manunulats, musikeros, mananayaws and pintors are all in the same jeepney as our tuberos, barberos, kutseros and draybers.
An offering of social activism through fashion is presented. We are walking indications that we are owning up to the good and bad sides of our race. The statement made here is, “All it takes is perspective. We have everything we need. As Filipino artists, we can utilize our resources.†In Team Manila, we find a replacement, an alternative, a voice of empowerment, an underground scene, a social issue, a private joke – or, really, just a way back home.
