Cover The famed wrap fashion artist Ditta Sandico who recently won Gawad Yamang Isip award for industrial design

Art truly is without borders. This rings true with Ditta Sandico, the award-winning fashion designer, entrepreneur, and rights advocate of women and indigenous peoples, as she finally explores the visual artist within her

Fashion is a world that Ditta Sandico was born into and raised in. She would sit beside her mother, Corazon Rosario-Sandico, the then-vice president-merchandising manager for Manila Christmas on Display (COD), one of the most popular department stores at the time. "I was drawn to the world of fashion through my mother's prodding, and eventually, my passion for indigenous fabrics came to the forefront of my career," Sandico says.

She would be lost in the wonder of the works of Japanese designers like Issey Miyake for his sculptural organic pieces, the elegance of Hanae Mori, and Rei Kawakubo's incomparable originality. "Them being Asian had a strong influence on my psyche since they helped me develop my sense of style," Sandico explains. "The lines and silhouettes their pieces produced were strong and appealed to my aesthetic sensibilities," she adds.

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Above Ditta Sandico

Sandico soon rose to prominence for her courage in promoting eco-friendly and sustainable fashion more than 30 years ago. She pioneered the use of banaca, a unique fabric made of banana and abaca, in her couture dresses, wraps, shawls, cover-alls, and what-not. This has made her a staunch advocate of the conservation of indigenous fabrics, empowerment of weaving communities, particularly that of the Mangyan tribe, and zealous promotion of alternative fashion through innovative weaving production and practices.

The Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines (IPOPHL) recently awarded Sandico the Gawad Yamang Isip award for industrial design. "It reminds me of my personal mission, which is to elevate the humble abaca to modern pieces to be recognised and celebrated both locally and internationally and to provide a sustainable livelihood for local weavers with the production of the banaca fabric while preserving our heritage amid the rapid modernisation of our cultures," she says.

Read also: Turning Trash to Treasures: Mars Bugaoan's Art Speaks of Life's Pains and Growth

But fashion and indigeneity are not the only interests of Sandico. Generally, her heart is set on the arts, and she has come full circle by mounting an exhibition last year. "My love for the visual arts started during my formative years as a college student," she recalls. "Fast forward to three decades and more later, and right down through the COVID-19 pandemic, I realised I had so much time on my hands, and those moments ushered me to explore my consciousness on a deeper level," she says.

Through the "METTA•MORPHE" exhibition, the famed wrap artiste honoured the strength of women and their ability to rise from the ashes and transform into something new and whole. "I soon got carried away to revisit my love for the visual arts, which imbued this longing to use my own fabric as the signature medium to my paintings," she says.

Read also: Ditta Sandico's Metta•Morphe Exhibition: How the Designer Celebrates Women Empowerment

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Above "Makiling—Goddess of Mount Makiling and Protector if its Environment and Wildlife", Ditta Sandico, 2021, Banaca fabric and acrylic on canvas, 121.9 x 121.9 cm
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Above "Mayari—Goddess of Beauty, Strength, Moon, and Night", Ditta Sandico, 2021, Banaca fabric, cementitious grout, and acrylic on canvas, 121.9 x 121.9 cm

The paintings from her first solo exhibition were inspired by pre-colonial Philippines' gods and goddesses, depicting humans' divine metamorphosis into deities. "I consider my paintings as an extension of my career as a fashion designer, using my signature fabric, banaca. I soon found that I could express myself through creative art forms by incorporating textile to interpret beautiful fabric manipulations," the artist shares.

"I see my work as not just a visual representation of what goes on in my mind, but to pass on a message that I could share with the viewer," Sandico says. "One that creates a lasting impression of not just an image, but of how I am able to interpret figures and scenarios that could add meaning and a deeper appreciation of what is truly essential. Taking a quote from Antoine de Saint Exupery, author of The Little Prince: 'And now here is my secret, a very simple secret: it is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye'."

Read also: Kaayo's Founder Marga Nograles Shares About Promoting Mindanao's Weaving Traditions

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The exhibition summarises Sandico's passion for the arts. It wraps both her creative eye and her work as a social entrepreneur. For the past 37 years in the industry, she has been working tirelessly with local indigenous communities and, most especially, helping uplift the lives of the female weavers. 

"One of my biggest learnings was the value of honesty when dealing with the ethnic tribes," shares Sandico. "Transparency is key when dealing with the weavers since these people have hardly any academic background to accompany their homegrown craftsmanship. One of the reasons I have made my strong connections with them was largely due to the altruistic attitude I developed while working with them while upholding integrity in all of our dealings. Another value I learned was the virtue of resiliency—it's the strong adherence to the mission and vision for creating sustainable livelihood for the marginalized communities despite life's circumstances and business ups and downs," she continues.

Read also: Weaving Patterns in the Philippines: Heritage, Design, and Their Meanings

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Today, many fashion brands have followed in the footsteps of Sandico and other renowned designers who have put our local indigenous fabrics on the map. "We have come a long way. . .however, there are still so many avenues to be explored in terms of design and technology," she believes. "New methods of creating fabric like block printing, different dyeing techniques, as well as blending indigenous with synthetic fibres could still be delved into further to broaden the use of manufactured textiles bearing the local patterns and designs of the indigenous tribal communities," she adds.

Her work as a social entrepreneur has led her to reach far-flung areas like the Mangyan communities in Mindoro. And in such immersion, she has experienced firsthand the plight of the weavers. "At one time during my trips to the community, I was horrified to have heard from one of the tribal women how she recanted stories on the women folk who would bury their newborn babies alive for fear of not being able to take care and provide for their children due to poverty and malnutrition," Sandico recalls. "These very women who choose to extinguish the life of their offsprings due to unwanted pregnancies have no choice but to heed the proddings of their chosen partners and elders for a better life of their own. Such indignities are still prevalent in the ethnic minorities. We may not hear of this in the news and on public platforms, but these scenarios are very much alive with the people living on the periphery of society. These are the realities they live in."

Read also: Sustainable Fashion: This Is What You Forget

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Above Ditta Sandico

Now that she has opened herself to visual arts, Sandico is determined to push herself further and explore the artistic possibilities in front of her. "Not just to reach out and touch other people's lives, but also to raise consciousness towards how we can use art to create the 'medium as the message'," Sandico concludes.

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Credits

Images  

courtesy of Ditta Sandico

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