Youth climate activists brought the fright, the creativity, and the advocacy to the runway at THE HORROR: Fashion Against Fascism & Fossil Fuels 2024.
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On a spooky Friday the 13th, models, activists, and artists took the runway not only to show off a range of fashions, but also to send an impactful message. Youth Advocates for Climate Action Philippines (YACAP) held their third iteration of Fashion Against Fascism & Fossil Fuels at the Ignacio B. Gimenez-KAL Theater on September 13, showcasing acts of resistance through art and fashion.
A loud, intense, but captivating exhibit that focused on message just as well as clothing (if not more so), THE HORROR: Fashion Against Fascism & Fossil Fuels 2024 highlighted the youth taking it upon themselves to raise awareness and call for accountability through art, design, style, and performance. It was a protest first and foremost, done through artistic, unconventional means.
A full-house show, FAFFF 2024 not only amplified calls for climate justice and immediate climate action, they also made sure to emphasize the intersection of climate change and human rights, in which both planet and people are suffering under the neglect and profit-driven actions of government systems and institutions.
THE HORRORS
Walking the runway were artists, models, and activists alike dressed in designs from local designers such as Santi Obceña, Alia Bathan, and Kevin Raymundo, and artists such as Tarantadong Kalbo and Albert Raqueño.
Models included senatorial aspirant and fisherfolk leader Ronnel Arambulo of PAMALAKAYA, environmental defender and abduction survivor Eco Dangla, rising actress Cristina Ponce, and other volunteers and and representatives from different sectors determined to shed light on their struggles and did so with every step on the runway.
For instance, they utilized sea-themed fashion, face and body paint, netting, garbage bags, and more to represent the damage climate change and pollution have done to our environment and biodiversity. Painted and printed on clothing were artworks from local artists with calls to action referencing climate action and upholding of human rights.
PURPOSEFULLY DESIGNED
The show was divided into six categories: tree planting as greenwashing, an insufficient response to climate vulnerability, persistent political and economic interest in fossil fuels, lack of a just transition framework and promotion of False Solutions, defense of national patrimony and biodiversity, and the struggles of environmental defenders.
From casual clothing featuring traditional and indigenous cuts and patterns and shirt prints referencing quick, proper action to address climate change and an end to unjust detainment of climate activists to avant-garde Filipiniana-style garments with oil tanker headdresses and pieces made of retaso, each ensemble was crafted meticulously and deliberately, aligned with the messages the entire show intended to send.
One of the most unexpected yet impactful segments of the show highlighted the plight of the Palestinians. As red, white, and green lights lit up the theater, keffiyehs and fashions that call for a ceasefire and freedom of the Palestinian people taking the runway set to music and chants of the same calls.
“The garments strutted tonight on the runway reflects and echoes the plight of today’s generation of the youth and marginalized sectors most affected by the climate crisis,” show director Karl Castro said. “We hope that through this fashion show, more people realize that we are actually living in a reality more terrifying than a horror movie.”
The audience made up of people of all ages, occupations, and affiliations formed a community that was made aware of the negligence that has marked climate action for decades. Proper responses to climate change are dismissed in favor of greenwashing or unsustainable. This negligence “has ended in not only the loss of livelihood, but the lives themselves of the Filipino people,” producer and national coordinator of YACAP Alab Mirasol Ayroso says.
The changing climate and the lack of its mitigation has led to extreme weather events, “changes in rainfall patterns and distribution, droughts, threats to biodiversity and food security, sea level rise, public health risks, and endangerment of vulnerable groups such as women and indigenous people,” according to the National Integrated Climate Change Database Information and Exchange System.
Even at global conferences like the United Nations Climate Change Conference, the most vulnerable and those advocating to protect them are not listened to. Global leaders can’t even be decisive and swift on the phasing out of fossil fuels while ecosystems suffer. Instead, they focus on false solutions that many doubt will lead to meaningful, tangible change.
The same goes for our own local systems. Despite being a country with rich ecosystems and biodiversity that are negatively impacted by climate change and its man-driven aggravation, and people that are bearing the brunt of this, our response to the climate crisis is way less than ideal.
“We should unite to pressure the government to prioritize genuine climate solutions that address the root causes of the crisis and prioritize the needs of the people, especially the most vulnerable sectors of society,” YACAP says in a statement.
The entire one-and-a-half-hour show wasn’t just a mishmash of protests and calls to action—FAFFF 2024 as an artistic collaboration between communities was able to show the intersections between climate, politics, social justice, and human rights as well as how the youth is using their voices, their creativity, and their platforms to call for action before it’s too late for all of us.
A RESPONSE
YACAP’s THE HORROR was a show that conveyed decades’ worth of rage built up at all the environmental atrocities and the inaction and neglect that affects not just the planet, but also people. Environmental and climate concerns are not disjoint from human rights and social justice concerns.
At the root of this rage is a frustration at the destruction of not only the youth’s present, but also their future. The finale of the show employed the typical final walk with all of the models, but they were holding placards with their calls to action, such as Save Sierra Madre, Climate Justice Now, No Reclamation, Defend the Defenders, and more. They also included timely calls for proper aid for victims of the recent typhoons.
“Calamities happen on the daily and the youth are watching it all crash and burn live, yet we are expected to let things proceed business as usual,” Alab says. “This fashion show was our rejection of that: listen to our fears and feel our rage. This is our resistance.”
Continue Reading: These Filipino Youth Activists Used A Fashion Show To Highlight Climate and Social Justice
