Everything That Happened at Manila Fashion Week 2025 Day 4

The year 2025 marks a decade of Viña Romero, and to celebrate, the designer unveiled Mga Bakas: Noon, Ngayon, at Bukas—a 35-piece collection that encapsulated and elevated the codes she’s honed through the years.

The show opened with model Brea Umali gliding down the runway in a weightless sky-blue ensemble, immediately setting the tone of calm and quiet introspection. Shades of blue carried through the next few looks, evoking stillness and serenity before transitioning into earthier hues.

Throughout the presentation, Viña revisited her signature pleating, pintucking, and tactile fabric manipulations. Familiar silhouettes returned with a renewed ease and softness, complemented by textured layers and a subtle play of materials. Despite the intricate detailing—fringes, pleats, and fabric folds—there was a sense of restraint, with each element balanced by clean, measured cuts.

Despite the collection’s lightness, Viña’s meticulous craftsmanship was evident in every stitch. Each piece demonstrated technical precision—from the sharp taper of a trouser leg to the effortless drape of a blouse.

“You can really see the quality and the craftsmanship in every piece. Even up close wala kang makikitang flaws, it was all so clean,” shared designer Nicolo Perez.

Her design sensibility extended seamlessly to a full menswear lineup, a first for the brand and one that drew strong praise from attendees. “I usually see womenswear from Viña, and it’s my first time to see a full menswear line from her,” observed fashion designer Rik Rasos of Proudrace.

Randolf closed Manila Fashion Week 2025 with a spectacle that pulsed with color, irony, and emotion—an electrifying finale that captured the brand’s irreverent yet deeply human spirit. The collection unfolded much like a confessional, an exploration of heartbreak in all its complex, melodramatic, and strangely humorous forms.

In the style lexicon, romance has long been synonymous with gentleness—garments marked by diaphanous fabrics and muted colors, a language that speaks in whispers. But BFFD 2023 honoree RJ Santos’ interpretation is anything but quiet. His kind of romance doesn’t tiptoe; it crashes through the room in bold colors and louder feelings.

It’s camp, candid, and unafraid to confront the chaos of human experience.

From scenography to soundtrack, every detail mirrored the emotional spiral of heartbreak. Models emerged through a monumental broken heart, stepping onto a runway soundtracked by songs steeped in longing and loss. Each look, in turn, unfolded like a chapter in a story of love gone awry—part satire, part sincerity.

RJ revisited his signature symbols and gave them new weight.

The “good boy” shirt reappeared, now strapped with the word “void,” a look that captured the angst and rage that follow heartbreak.

Then came a cobalt-blue gown, its train trailing a sash embroidered with “miss u :(” —a winking, melancholic nod to Pia Wurtzbach’s winning Miss Universe 2015 gown. A cheeky detail that felt like a message left unsent, wistful and yearning all at once.

Together, the pieces painted a picture of heartbreak not as fragility but as catharsis—loud, absurd, and achingly real.

Randolf’s storytelling has always balanced storytelling with a sense of "unseriousness," and Heaurt was no exception. The flippant irony only sharpened the poignancy beneath it, revealing the designer’s rare ability to find beauty in the emotional mess of being human.

As Joel Martin Andrade, the creative force behind Issy and Blanc Nue, noted,