Yong Studio Goes Back to Nature for Its Runway Debut

A commitment to eco-conscious practices has long been at the heart of Yong Davalos’ design philosophy. Through her namesake ready-to-wear label, Yong Studio, the designer consistently works with deadstock fabric, transforming surplus materials into pieces that enliven a woman’s everyday wardrobe through striking prints, playful lettuce trims, and flouncing hems.

For five years, Yong has found inventive ways to breathe new life into these textiles. Now, with the brand’s fifth-anniversary showcase, she presents an expansive wardrobe built around the enduring—and highly wearable—potential of deadstock.

Titled “Perpetua,” the collection explores various earth-inspired elements across several chapters. At 69 looks, the presentation is ambitious in scale, but its strongest throughline lies in Yong’s instinct for contrast. Lightweight, breathable fabrics carry visually weighty prints, while generous volumes are tempered by silhouettes that closely follow the body. These opposing elements recur throughout, giving the collection’s varied references a sense of continuity.

The progression between chapters is driven largely by shifts in palette and surface.

The opening sequence moves through earth tones, beginning with shades of brown before expanding into olive greens and deep navy, punctuated by flashes of bright neon. Textured blacks and bursts of tangerine soon follow.

Botanical prints, ruffles, and ruching establish the series’ connection to nature, though the references are less literal than they first appear. Patterns collide and coexist, while gathered details create texture and movement across the body.

The shift into animal print is perhaps the collection’s most direct exercise in restraint. Given the abundance of pattern, Yong wisely pares back the silhouettes, relying on clean lines and airy fabrics to keep the looks from becoming overly busy. The restrained construction gives the prints room to register, demonstrating an awareness that maximal surface treatment does not necessarily require equally elaborate forms.

By the third chapter, “Perpetua” settles into the modern wardrobe through an exploration of proportions. Slate gray, crisp white, and skin-tone hues strip away much of the visual noise, placing greater emphasis on cut, volume, and fabrication.

The monochromatic palette reveals another dimension of Yong’s design language: beneath the prints and decorative details lies an interest in how materials behave against—and around—the body.

Diaphanous fabrics appear alongside the more defined structure of jackets and a reinterpreted sailor shirt, creating a deliberate push and pull between softness and form. Parachute pants introduce movement through loose, shifting panels, while tiers of bubble hems expand and dance around the wearer’s frame.

For a designer whose practice begins with the limitations—and possibilities—of available surplus textiles, “Perpetua” makes a compelling argument for deadstock as more than an environmentally conscious choice.

Yong does not appear interested in disguising the unpredictability of working with existing materials. Instead, she allows that variety to inform the collection’s visual vocabulary, moving between print, texture, and silhouette without forcing it all into a single aesthetic register.

Backstage photos and videos by Kurt Villagracia.