Proudrace's "Kukur" Turns the Runway Into a Study in Belonging

The first look, worn by Michelle Dee, sets the mood with a black coat over white, its long scarf trailing as she walks. Cameras placed along the runway follow her movement, with the footage projected live onto the wall. The models soon begin playing with the lenses themselves, turning toward the cameras as they walk and catching their own images on screen.

It’s a playful device, but it also changes the way the clothes are seen, as the audience catches another angle while watching it unfold in front of them. The clothes themselves, meanwhile, do something similar. Rik works with garments that already feel familiar, then alters their proportions through draping, twisting, and reconstruction. His starting point is particularly personal: the first dress he ever draped was made from curtain fabric, something he recently recalled alongside a photograph of himself with his cousins. Curtain folds became one of the collection’s references, showing up in the way fabric falls away from the body and gathers into loose, sculptural shapes.

The more familiar pieces are where Proudrace’s humor comes through most clearly. Striped shirts, usually associated with easy casual dressing, are stretched into unfamiliar shapes. Nylon bags recall the ones commonly carried through Philippine markets, bringing an everyday object into the middle of the runway. Pieces printed with “Submissive” add another wink, while sequins appear on collars and other unexpected details. 

A balance between the familiar and the unexpected is part of what makes the collection feel distinctly Proudrace. “Rik is such a master at draping and bold silhouettes. There’s always this playfulness in his clothes, but what I love is how distinctly Pinoy they feel,” says Preview Associate Creative Director Jana Jodloman. “He takes pieces and shapes we already know from everyday wear and gives them this unexpected, more expressive twist without losing that sense of familiarity.”

Rik has been looking more closely at Filipino cultural references as Proudrace moves forward, bringing heritage techniques into a practice already defined by reconstruction. For Kukur, the studio also experimented with couture-inspired construction and draping techniques that were new to the team.

“Experimentation is central to our process, and this season pushed us into unfamiliar territory,” Rik tells Preview. “The process involved constant trial and refinement, but those challenges led to some of the collection’s most meaningful breakthroughs.”

Kukur is dedicated to the people who have shaped his life, from his blood family to the chosen family he has found along the way. He writes about friendships, love, intimacy, and the memories that remain with us after a relationship has changed or ended.

“Each relationship has given me something—a feeling, a memory, a lesson, a piece of them that I carry forward,” he writes.

Perhaps the curtain fabric makes more sense in that context. It’s an old memory brought into something new, much like the clothes in Kukur, which take familiar forms and allow them to become something else.

After the models leave the runway, the karaoke projection remains a particularly memorable detail. Everyone in the room had already been singing together before the clothes appeared, making the show’s final message feel like something that had been there from the beginning.

“My core has always been love,” Rik writes.

For Kukur, that may be the simplest explanation for why the room felt so full in the first place.